Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-273"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071113.31.2-273"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
". −
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, on 27 June this year the Commission presented a proposal, based on Article 191 of the EC Treaty, which aims to improve and adapt Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 on the status and funding of political parties at European level.
The two compromise texts resulting from the split were assessed by the General Affairs Group on 9 November 2007, therefore very recently. As a result, I am very pleased to announce that the General Affairs Group, which met last Friday, has confirmed the existence of broad agreement among the national delegations on the issues covered by the two regulations resulting from the split.
In essence, I would repeat that there is no significant disagreement between the three institutions. The Commission, Parliament and the Council all agree on the essentials with regard to European political foundations and the amendment of the provisions governing the functioning of European political parties. The legal basis issue was, and is, strictly a legal issue and it was not, and is not, the Council’s intention to prevent agreement between the three institutions.
I can confirm, on behalf of the Council, that we want the two regulations resulting from the split to be adopted by the end of this year so that they can enter into force on 1 January 2008. To this end, I propose that Parliament postpones the vote on your opinion planned for this week so that, by means of the appropriate contacts, we can reach agreement at first reading on the regulation based on Article 191 of the EC Treaty, under the codecision procedure.
In that event, a Parliament opinion on the amendment of the Financial Regulation should be adopted as soon as possible. We have also asked the Court of Auditors to act promptly. We have little time but, in our opinion, there is enough time to adopt the two regulations under the conditions required by Parliament, the Commission and the Council.
This proposal was followed by a report which evaluated the application of the Regulation. The corresponding resolution was adopted by the European Parliament on 23 March 2006. The Commission’s proposal introduces a new element: the possibility of funding European political foundations bearing in mind that these have an important role to play in underpinning and promoting the activities and objectives of the political parties at European level.
Since the political foundations are closely affiliated with the European political parties, it is proposed that they must submit their application for funding through the political party at European level with which they are linked, under the same legal basis as applies to the latter’s funding, in other words under Article 191 of the EC Treaty.
I know that the political parties represented in this House are forming or have already formed foundations at European level. The Council looks favourably on the possibility of providing Community financial support for the activities of these foundations under very clear rules which will allow, among other aspects, a clear distinction to be made between the areas of intervention of the parties which must be complementary and not overlapping.
The second main aim of the Commission’s proposal is to revise the financial provisions which govern the funding of political parties at European level in light of the experience acquired in the meantime. To this end, the Commission proposes, among other measures, two derogations from the no-profit rule laid down in Article 109 of the Financial Regulation. The first measure involves the possibility of carrying over up to 25% of annual total income from one year to the first quarter of the following year to enable the parties to better respond to changing political circumstances and priorities. The second measure aims to allow political parties at European level to build financial reserves by saving income generated by the parties themselves in excess of a new reduced minimum co-funding level of 15%.
I must also highlight that it is proposed to establish clearly that appropriations received from the EU budget may also be used for the financing of campaigns conducted by the political parties at European level in the context of European Parliament elections, provided that this does not constitute a direct or indirect financing of national political parties or their candidates.
In the Council, the proposal was initially assessed three times by the General Affairs Group, in September and October of this year, and was generally favourably received by the delegations. However, some delegations expressed concerns about the proposed legal basis and the derogations from budgetary discipline.
An opinion was requested on these issues from the Legal Service of the Council. The latter considered that the derogations from the no-profit rule laid down in Article 109(2) of Council Regulation No 1605/2002 could only be enshrined in a separate regulation based on Article 279 of the EC Treaty and intended to introduce these derogations into the Financial Regulation itself by amending it. This opinion led to the proposal being split into two legal acts and the consultation of the European Parliament and the Court of Auditors.
On 17 October 2007, therefore recently, Coreper II debated for the first time a compromise text presented by the Portuguese Presidency and the opinion of the Legal Service of the Council. A week later, on 24 October 2007, Coreper II reached agreement on two points: firstly, the splitting of the proposal into two legal acts, one regulation based on Article 279 of the EC Treaty containing the provisions amending the Financial Regulation and one regulation containing the other provisions of the proposal based on Article 191 of the EC Treaty, and secondly, consultation of the European Parliament and the Court of Auditors on the amendment of Article 109 of Regulation No 1605/2002 in accordance with Article 279 of the EC Treaty. This consultation occurred immediately."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples