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A European political party, formally a political party at European level, informally (especially in academic circles) a Europarty, is a type of political party organization operating transnationally in Europe and in the institutions of the European Union. They are regulated and funded by the European Union and are usually made up of national parties, not individuals. Europarties have the exclusive right to campaign during the European elections and express themselves within the European Parliament by their affiliated political groups and their MEPs. Europarties, through coordination meetings with their affiliated heads of state and government, influence the decision-making process of the European Council. Europarties also work closely and coordinate with their affiliated members of the European Commission and, according to the Lisbon Treaty the Europarty that wins the European elections has the right to nominate to the Council its candidate for President of the European Commission.

[edit] Timeline

[edit] 1992

Section 41 of the Treaty of Maastricht^[1] added Article 138a to the Treaty of Rome. Article 138a (later renumbered to Article 191) stated that "Political parties at European level are important as a factor for integration within the Union. They contribute to forming a European awareness and to expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union." So the concept of a "political party at European level" was born.

[edit] 1997

Article J.18 and Article K.13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam^[2] established who should pay for expenditure authorised by Article 138/191 within certain areas. This provided a mechanism whereby Europarties could be paid for out of the European budget, and the Europarties started to spend the money. Such expenditure included funding national parties, an outcome not originally intended.

[edit] 2001

Article 2, section 19 of the Treaty of Nice^[3] added a second paragraph to Article 191 of the Treaty of Rome. That paragraph stated that "The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251, shall lay down the regulations governing political parties at European level and in particular the rules regarding their funding." The reference to "Article 251" refers to co-decision, which meant the European Parliament had to be involved. So Europarty funding had to be regulated by the Council and the European Parliament, acting together.

[edit] 2003

Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003^[4] defined what a "political party at European level" actually was and specified that that funding should not go to national parties, either directly or indirectly. This meant that European money should stay at the Europarty level and, as a result, the nascent Europarties started to organise themselves on a more European basis instead of acting as a mechanism for funding national parties.

[edit] 2007

That regulation was later heavily amended by the Decision of the Bureau of the European Parliament of 29 March 2004^[5] and by other amendments, the latest of which is Regulation (EC) No 1524/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2007^[6] These amendments tightened up the procedures and funding and provided for the earlier-floated^[7] concept of a "political foundation at European level". This meant that the Europarties can set up and fund legally separate affiliated think-tanks (the Eurofoundations) to aid them, although funding national parties remains forbidden. The revised regulation also gives Europarties the exclusive responsibility to campaign for the European elections and can use their funds for this purpose (their corresponding political groups of the European Parliament are strictly forbidden to campaign).

[edit] Regulations

As of 1 November 2008, the regulation governing Europarties is Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003,^[8] as later amended^[9] under codecision (see above). According to that regulation's European Commission factsheet,^[10] for a party to become a Europarty it must meet the following criteria:

• it must have legal personality in the Member State in which its seat is located.
• it must observe the founding principles of the European Union, namely the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
• it must have participated, or intend to participate, in elections to the European Parliament.
• it must have in at least one quarter of the Member States, one or both of the following:

• either it must have received at least 3% of the votes cast in each of those Member States at the most recent European Parliament elections.
• or it must already be represented by Members, whether Members of the European Parliament for those states, or Members of the national Parliaments of those states, or Members of the regional Parliaments of those states, or Members of the regional Assemblies of those states.

• it must publish its revenue and expenditure annually.
• it must publish a statement of its assets and liabilities annually.
• it must provide a list of its donors and their donations exceeding €500.
• it must not accept anonymous donations.
• it must not accept donations exceeding €12000 per year and per donor.
• it must not accept donations from the budgets of political groups of the European Parliament.
• it must not accept more than 40% of a national political party's annual budget.
• it must not accept donations from any company over which the public authorities may exercise a dominant influence, either by virtue of their ownership of it, or by their financial participation therein.
• it must get at least 25% of its budget from sources other than its European Union funding.
• it must submit its application by the 15 November before the financial year that it wants funding for.

[edit] Funding

Their total funding for 2008 is €10.6 million, with a further €5 million for the foundations.^[11]

[edit] The Europarties

There were ten Europarties in 2008 as follows:^[12][13]

[edit] Proposed Europarties

In January 2008, leaders of far-right parties from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and France announced plans to launch a far-right Europarty by 15 November, provisionally called the European Patriotic Party, Patriotic European Party or European Freedom Party.^[14][15]

It was reported on 1 November 2008 that Declan Ganley had registered a company in Dublin called the Libertas Party Ltd^[16] and that it was intended to "carry on the business of a European political party".^[16] Libertas applied for Europarty recognition which was briefly granted but then suspended following the disavowal of two of its candidates.

[edit] Europarty structure

All current Europarties are mostly made up of national parties: people who are members of member parties automatically become members of the Europarty unless they choose otherwise. Additionally, people can become individual members of the Europarty without having to join a national party first (e.g. Marian Harkin, who is an individual member of the European Democratic Party).

[edit] Pan-European political organisations that are not Europarties

• Nordic Green Left Alliance: Scandinavian socialist greens
• Euronat: Right-wing nationalist parties, including the British National Party of the United Kingdom and the Front National of France.
• European Christian Political Movement: Christian-social parties.
• European Anticapitalist Left: Network of anticapitalist, mostly broad left-wing parties in Europe.
• European National Front: Network of far-right parties and organizations in Europe.
• Movement for European Reform: conservative and Atlanticist eurosceptics; springboard for the formation of European Conservatives and Reformists
• Platform for Transparency: loose confederation of three independent MEPs; somewhat eurosceptic.
• Europe – Democracy – Esperanto: Party advocating the introduction of Esperanto as an official language in the European Union.
• Newropeans: political movement of citizens with democratisation of the EU as the main focus.

[edit] Membership of Europarties by national party

[edit] Controversy

Europarty funding goes to Europarties and stays with Europarties: the funding cannot be used for the funding of other political parties and in particular national political parties.^[8] National political parties disinclined from joining Europarties are thereby disadvantaged.^[17] 25 Members of the European Parliament petitioned the European Court of Justice, arguing that this contravened the EU's stated values of pluralism and democracy. The case was rejected after eighteen months.^[18][19] A closely related case fought by the French Front National, the Italian Lega Nord, and the Belgian Vlaams Blok (now Vlaams Belang) was appealed.^[20]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Parties in the European Council
• Index of political parties to browse parties by name
• List of political parties to browse parties by country
• List of political parties by ideology to browse parties by ideology
• Membership of internationals to browse parties by membership of internationals
• Category:European Parliament party groups

[edit] External links

• Video : Relations between parliamentary groups and political parties European NAvigator
• Parties' contact details
• The European Parliament and Supranational Party System Cambridge University Press 2002
• Results of the 2004 European Parliament elections by political party at European level