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The European
Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drawn up
by Jo LEINEN (PES, DE). (Please see the summary of 22/02/2006.)The report was adopted by 498 votes in favour and
95 against, with 7 abstentions. The political background: Parliament noted that there is a gulf between many members of the public and the
European institutions. One of the reasons for this is that to date there has
been inadequate political communication about European policy. It stated its
conviction that political parties at European level must take on a further
role than solely that of umbrella organisations. They must become active
proponents of European policy options, firmly rooted in all levels of society
and working for genuine citizen involvement not only through European
elections, but also in all other aspects of European political life. Parliament
stressed the need for a genuine European party statute that goes further than
Regulation 2004/2003/EC,
establishing their rights and obligations and enabling them to attain a legal
personality. The statute should include provisions on individual membership
of parties at European level, on their management, on the nomination of
candidates and elections and on arrangements and support for party congresses
and assemblies. Experiences and proposals for improvement: Parliament asked the Commission to examine the possibility of introducing,
rules on the financing of political parties at European level from the
Community budget, which are not based on the concept of grants within the
meaning of Title VI of Part I of the Financial Regulation, bearing in mind
that this concept does not accommodate the specific features of political
parties. Parliament
pointed out that the budget for 2005 included EUR 8 400 000 for party
funding, which the Bureau has distributed to the eight parties that submitted
applications. On the basis of practical experience to date, it felt that
certain changes should be made to the system of funding, inter alia: - to avoid an unnecessary burden on the
applicants, the application procedure should be a two-stage procedure,
firstly to decide whether a party in principle satisfies the conditions for
support and secondly to determine the amount of funding; - the timing
of the payment of funds should be changed so that 80% of the funding is paid
out on signature of the financial agreement and the remainder at the end of
the budget year on the basis of an account submitted by the recipient; - there should
be a funding plan over several years, both with regard to the basic amount
per party (15% of the total budget) and as to the additional amount per MEP
from the party (85% of the total budget), and thus with sufficient
flexibility to allow for any new parties; - the European
political parties must be able to use any of their own funds, particularly
those derived from donations and membership subscriptions, in excess of the
prescribed 25% of their expenditure to be financed from their own funds, to
build up reserves; - to achieve
the aim of reinforcing European political parties as factors in European
democracy, and against the background of increasing demands on their
political work as a result of enlargements, an appropriate increase in the
financial support for political parties seems desirable. During the
present phase of reflection on the future of the EU certain matters should
also be discussed: support for European political
foundations in order to assist in European political parties' work of
political information and education; establishment of European lists of
European parties for the European elections, to further the formation of a
European political public sphere; the role of European political parties in
referendums on European topics, in European Parliament elections and in the
election of the Commission President; and the promotion of the role of
European political youth organisations and movements, which are a vital means
of nurturing European awareness.
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