The European Union has gone ahead and decisively fought against the foreign interference in its democratic processes by carrying out thorough reforms on the control and regulation of political party funding. Such groundbreaking amendments were sealed after negotiations by the European Parliament and Council and are the most extensive reform of EU political funding ever.
The political parties in Europe have now been required to expressly declare information about their international affiliations as the new framework the European political parties have agreed upon obliges the entities that are involved in pursuit of official support and public funding to be now required to declare themselves. The party leaders will have to present declarations that whichever organisation they associate themselves with and whichever is the member party to non-EU countries, will fully recognise the core European principles.
These fundamental principles include human dignity, democratic governance, freedom of expression, equality before the law, and full protection of human rights. The necessity is directly linked to the increasing awareness that third party tries to interfere in the European political language with the means of money.
Donor Identification System
An innovative system of due diligence will radically change the way political donations are checked throughout the bloc. The system requires every political party to keep a close record of the contributors offering any funding to the organization above 3,000 euros. This limit ensures that high-value sources of finance can be followed and that the lower donations are not subjected to bureaucracy.
The identification requirement does not just involve the collection of names; it also involves such thorough checks as are likely to prevent the use of shell companies and proxy donors to mask the real source of the funds. To deal with such increased reporting requirements, political organizations will be required to develop strong compliance departments.
Increased EU Budget Allocation
The EU budget will fund European political parties further, giving them 95% of their operating expenses as opposed to 90%. This upgrade will help to make the parties less subject to the funding authority, where the organisational independence may be undermined or there may be some conflict of interest.
More than 50 million euros were spent last year on all of the known European political parties within the year, and the new framework may see this amount increase by a far greater margin. This increment in terms of funding by the people also acts as motivation to be on watch, as well as to guard against the urge to accept donations that are less than ideal.
