Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-17-Speech-4-063"
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are firmly convinced that Article 191 of the Treaty establishes an important principle. I quote: “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.”
On the issue of representativeness, that is the question of the number of Member States in which parties need to be represented in parliaments or have achieved a certain degree of success in elections, we believe that our proposed requirements are balanced and we stand by them. Allow me to add that the Commission made a conscious decision to have an absolute figure rather than a relative figure – so not one third or one quarter – after a lengthy discussion, because precisely because of the enlargement process this would obviously raise the question of what happens if you have different figures in one parliamentary term during the enlargement process. Would an adjustment have to be made each time? What does a quarter mean in respect of a figure of 21 or 23 Member States? This would mean that extra rules would constantly have to be dreamt up. For this reason we explicitly propose the figure five.
We thought that a procedure which was independent of Parliament for settling disputes concerning compliance with the conditions in Article 1, that is compliance with the criteria for European parties, was the most expedient. However, this is an issue for political judgment where we can defer to Parliament's position, and we could therefore accept Amendment No 13.
We cannot accept Amendment No 22 on the period of validity of the Regulation. We have particular legal or constitutional difficulties with two amendments: firstly with Amendment No 16, which would prohibit donations from publicly owned enterprises. Quite apart from the difficulties of identifying these, in the light of Article 295 we think it is difficult to justify a ban of this kind at European level from a legal point of view.
Secondly, the Commission has considerable difficulties with Amendment No 21 on penalties. We can accept the second sentence, “Monies wrongly received must be refunded.” I would point out, however, that this is simply reiterating normal budget rules.
Obviously we have no objections to the principles mentioned in the first sentence, but the procedure is out of all proportion. Funds are granted by the Commission in accordance with the usual rules. Article 274 offers neither the Council nor Parliament the opportunity to intervene in the budget's penal system. The expression, “appropriate financial penalties”, which is contained in the amendment, is too imprecise and would raise legal problems.
Regarding the amendments adopted in the committee, the Commission can accept the following amendments: Amendments Nos 1, 2, 3, 5 (first sentence), 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 (in part), 18, 19, 20 and 21 (in part). As far as the amendments tabled directly in Parliament are concerned, the Commission could also accept Amendments Nos 23, 31, 32, 34, 37, 56, 58 and 62. Amendments Nos 33, 46 and 57, which concern the same issue, do – as I have said – merit discussion. However, I would refer once again to the associated risks.
Perhaps I could make one brief comment on the period of validity. The Commission has proposed that the Regulation should expire at the end of the second financial year following its entry into force. Why this temporary status? I would once again point out that this is of course also about taking advantage of the experience which we gain over the two years in the next regulation.
Party financing is a politically sensitive issue. It is precisely for this reason that it is important for us to discuss it and legislate on it with transparency and openness. The Commission hopes that we will very soon have transparent legislation of this kind. It is in the democratic interest. It is in the interests of democracy and in the interests of democracy in the Community.
If this is the case and if the European parties are also to play the role assigned to them, then they need, in an open and transparent way, to be put on a sound and legitimate footing and to receive the necessary resources to do their work. This, in essence, is the reasoning behind the proposal for a regulation on the financing of European political parties which we are debating today.
Firstly, warm thanks go to Mrs Schleicher for her excellent work. In addition, on behalf of the Commission I should also like to thank those involved from the other committees for their proposed amendments, in particular Mr Marinho from the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market and Mr Costa Neves from the Committee on Budgets.
At this stage I should also like briefly once again to address the issue of the legal base for the proposal and, particularly with regard to yesterday's debate, emphasise once more that the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, has obviously checked very carefully what the legal base is and can be. Article 191, as it stands in the Treaty of Maastricht, is merely declarative in nature and does not contain a specific provision which would make it possible to adopt the requisite legislation.
We understood the urgent appeal which was made to us last year in the wake of the Court of Auditors' report which criticised current practices, namely to find ways and means to establish a sound legal base. As you know, we opted for a twin-track approach. The first track, which led to success in Nice, was to incorporate a specific provision in Article 191 to make it possible in the future for a legal act on the financing of European political parties to be adopted by a qualified majority under the codecision procedure.
At the same time, we proposed interim rules on the basis of Article 308. This is a sound legal base for this proposal. We received a boost here from the political signal sent out in Nice at the highest political level. We are pleased that this Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee also supports the concept of interim rules on the basis of Article 308.
In its proposal the Commission tried to adhere to two principles. Firstly, when defining European parties we wanted to leave room for manoeuvre and make it possible for the concept to evolve. At the same time, however, we wanted to put in place minimum democratic standards and minimum requirements for European representativeness and guarantee a maximum degree of transparency in respect of financing. On the definition of European parties, allow me to say quite clearly that European parties in no way have to toe a particular European political line, but the values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights must be respected.
As the amendments originally submitted to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs showed, people's views on how precisely the funding principles should be implemented can diverge widely. The Commission has tried to reach a consensus and find a happy medium. I wish to comment on the most important amendments before the House. We share the view that there should be a reference to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We also share the view that European political parties ought to have legal personality. Furthermore, we welcome the idea of greater transparency and having a high degree of transparency where private donations to parties are concerned, which means disclosure of these donations. We also think that the amendments which would allow Parliament to make facilities available to parties in return for a fee merit discussion.
Nevertheless, we do need to guarantee of course that this does not once again lead to covert party financing. The right rules need to be found for this."@en1
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