The European Parliament´s Constitutional Affairs Committee endorsed the informal deal reached by the EP´s and Council´s negotiators on the regulation on the statute and funding of European political parties and foundations. If the regulation is endorsed by the EP on plenary and then by the Council, the EU will have a new legal basis for the political groups at its level from 2017. The new rules aim to increase transparency and accountability. Several political parties on EU level function today. They are, however, registered under various legal forms in different Member States. A European political party will be registered on EU level if it groups political parties from at least 7 Member States and has at least 1 elected MEP. Such registrations will be governed by an independent authority. Upon registration, the European political party will become legal entity under EU law. Respect of basic EU values, as stated in Art. 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, will be prerequisite for the registration. Registered European political parties will be eligible for EU funding and will be responsible for breaches of the funding rules. In order to get EU funding, the European political parties will need to collect 15% of their revenues, individual donations being capped at €18 000 per donor per year. In addition, all donations higher than €3000 will need to be made public. It is important to point out that an EU legal status will not automatically entitle the European political parties to stand candidate in national or European elections. This area remains the competence of the Member States.

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