It was argued that funding for these parties is conditional on respect for EU values. Therefore, MEPs encouraged the reinforcement of monitoring provisions and the procedure for infringements.

This would further include sanctions and the recovery of funds.

Another strong point of this report is donation transparency.

MEPs are calling for stronger authority scrutiny on reported aggregate donations (made of several small ones) over €3,000, especially where there are sudden increases.

Parliament also repeated the call to ban all donations from non-EU entities, while suggesting that the Authority publish donations made by the same donor to an EU political party and its national member parties.

Their final point was to develop a “truly European public sphere”.

And they called for this to be done through harmonisation between European and national rules, lifting the ban on financing referendum campaigns on issues related to EU treaties, making it easier for existing transnational political parties to register as European political parties – among other proposals.

“Our report is a timely one, just as European citizens engage in the largest democratic reflection this continent has ever known, the Conference on the Future of Europe,” said the co-rapporteur Charles Goerens.

“It will be up to these European political parties, which our report seeks to strengthen, to make real the democratic aspirations that our citizens will express during the Conference.”

The report was adopted with 428 votes in favour, 092 against, and 49 abstentions.

This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. This article reflects only the author’s view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

What do you think about this?