EU Wants More Oversight on Donations to Political Parties and Politicians

Donors who pay more than three thousand euros to political parties will soon be required to provide their identity details. These data will be stored in an online database managed by the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations. This EU body will publish the data and amounts so that everyone can see who donates what to political parties and their foundations. 

In turn, political parties must confirm that the parties or organizations they cooperate with from non-EU countries endorse European values. The ban on payments to national parties and politicians by European political parties and their foundations remains in force.

The new rules provide greater clarity on how parties can publicly support their affiliated parties and organizations and continue to collaborate with them through joint projects. This ends years of legal uncertainty for cross-border cooperation.

The so-called 'co-financing percentage' will be set at 95 percent. Also, own revenues – for example from conferences and sales of publications – have been added as a new income category. From now on, there will be a maximum of three percent for parties and five percent for foundations. This allows them room to diversify their income without compromising oversight.

Dutch Member of the European Parliament Reinier van Landschot (Volt) was shadow rapporteur for the new rules. 'For years it has been said: Brussels must get closer to the people, but every attempt to give European political parties a greater role in public debate was deliberately blocked by the EU countries,' he explains.

'We deserve a real European democracy: one in which Europeans are actively involved in European political parties, so that citizens can actively influence Europe's direction.'