Transparent funding of European political parties

KEY POINTS

• The regulation creates the independent Authority for European Political Parties (APPF) that registers, verifies and may impose penalties on European political parties and foundations. Information concerning the parties and foundations is contained in a publicly accessible online register.
• To register with the APPF as a European political party, a political alliance³ has to satisfy certain conditions. These include:
  • having a seat in a European Union (EU) Member State as indicated in its statutes;
  • having member parties represented, in at least one quarter of the Member States, by members of the European Parliament (MEPs), of national parliaments, of regional parliaments or of regional assemblies (a stipulation in Regulation (EU) 2018/673); or
  • it or its member parties having received, in at least one quarter of the Member States, at least 3% of the votes cast in each of those countries at the most recent EP elections;
  • its member parties cannot be members of another European political party (to avoid individual members of a national party forming more than one European party in order to maximise access to public funds).
• If a European party and its affiliated foundation fail to meet the conditions, or provide false information when registering, the APPF can de-register it; parties may also be fined or removed from the register for certain breaches of the rules.
• Parties may use EU funding to finance EP election campaigns; spending linked to campaigns must be clearly identified as such by the parties in their annual financial statements.
• A registered European political party that has at least one MEP may apply for EU funding.
• National parties must display the logo and political manifesto of their affiliated European party on their websites as a condition to access funds. This must be done by member parties at least 12 months before the funding applications are submitted.
• Amending Regulation (EU) 2018/673 ensures that 10% of the annual EU funding is allocated equally between the eligible parties. The remaining 90% is distributed according to their number of MEPs. The same distribution rule applies to political foundations, which may have 90% of their annual costs reimbursed.
• Strict rules apply to individual annual donations that parties and foundations may accept. These must not exceed €18,000. Any donations above €12,000 have to be immediately reported to the APPF. The names of donors of individual donations not exceeding €1,500 do not need to be published. Anonymous donations may not be accepted.
• Amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2019/493 introduced a system of fines on European political parties and foundations that infringe data protection rules to deliberately influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of EP elections. When a national supervisory authority decides that this has occurred, it informs the APPF, which in turn refers the matter to the committee of independent eminent persons. Based on the committee’s opinion, the APPF may decide to impose a financial penalty, which can be as high as 5% of the annual budget of the European party or foundation concerned. The sanctioned party or foundation is not permitted to receive funding from the EU budget the following year.
• The EP can recover amounts unduly paid, and individuals guilty of fraud must pay back misspent funds. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will be called on to investigate alleged abuses in the future (see summary).
• Rules on contributions from the EU’s budget to European political parties are included in Regulation (EU) 2018/1046, the EU’s financial regulation.