EU Funding for political parties - Recovered
Dear European Parliament,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
According to rules for funding of EU political Parties
The appropriations made available from Item 400 are intended to cover: expenditure on political and information activities conducted by the political groups/nonattached Members in connection with the European Union's political activities.
Please can you tell me if any funds have been returned/recovered in the 8th Legislature due to not being used for EU political activities ? and details of Party and funding.
Are there or has there been any investigations into mis-use of EU funds with regards to not being used for EU political activities ? And details of Party and funding.
Thanks
Yours faithfully,
John
Our ref.: A(2017)3639
Dear John,
European Parliament acknowledges receipt of your request for information.
Your request has been submitted to the responsible service. You will
receive a reply in due time.
Best regards
TRANSPARENCY UNIT
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Accesdocs(at)ep.europa.eu
A(2017)03639
RF/mla
Dear John,
The Citizens’ Enquiries Unit of the European Parliament has been asked to
reply to your request for information concerning funding of European
Political Parties of 21 March 2017.
We assume that your request refers to the expenditure accounted for in the
European Parliament budget line 400. In [1]the Rules guiding the
appropriation of funds from budget item 400 (as adopted by Parliament's
Bureau on 30 June 2003 and modified on 27 April 2015 and accessible in
Parliament's Public Register of Documents), this expenditure only refers
to political groups and “non-attached members” (i.e.: MEPs that do not
belong to any political group). The expenditure covers:
a) the administrative and operational expenditure of groups and
non-attached secretariat and
b) their political and information activities.
These rules do not concern political parties. On the contrary, they
prohibit using the funds for financing political parties at national or
European level, as well as for electoral campaigns.
Concerning the amounts unused by the political groups and reimbursed to
the European Parliament, the figures per year and per group appear in the
[2]political groups’ annual accounts also published on the Parliament’s
website. The corresponding figures for non-attached Members, however, do
not give rise to recoveries, as the funds are not advanced to the
non-attached MEPs. The unused funds are simply cancelled from availability
to pay or reimbursements.
You will find more information about the role and responsibilities as well
as the funding of political groups on Parliament's [3]website under the
heading "Political Groups". Furthermore Parliament published a [4]briefing
on the role of political groups.
We are not aware of “investigations into mis-use of EU funds with regards
to not being used for EU political activities”.
In regard of grants to political parties and foundations, the
[5]applicable regulation is published on the European Union’s legislative
server (EurLex). Political parties at European level are organisations
following a political programme, which are composed of national parties
and individuals as members and which are represented in several Member
States. Further information can be found on Parliament’s [6]website.
We thank you for contacting the European Parliament.
Yours sincerely,
Citizens' Enquiries Unit
[7]www.europarl.europa.eu/askEP/en
Disclaimer: Please note that the information given by the Citizens'
Enquiries Unit of the European Parliament is not legally binding.
Please also note that this email box is used for sending emails only.
Incoming emails are not treated. If you wish to contact the Citizens'
Enquiries Unit, please use our [8]webform.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/pu...
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/groups/acc...
3. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparli...
4. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/et...
5. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/E...
6. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/contracts-...
7. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/askEP/en
8. https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/at...