European Democracy Consulting is proud to present its new Policy Brief on the reform of the funding system for European parties, published by the Austrian Society for European Politics (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik, ÖGfE).
It’s main policy recommendations are:
- Introduce fixed amounts of party funding to increase financial predictability, and raise parties’ lump sum to improve fairness.
- Move to vote-based funding to reward electoral results and individual-member-based funding to increase citizen participation.
- Use a matching fund to strengthen private funding.
This Policy Brief covers:
 | The role of European parties The Policy Brief starts by reviewing the traditional roles and functions of political parties and assesses the level to which European political parties currently live up to these roles and fill these functions. |
 | Current funding rules and figures The Policy Brief starts by reviewing the traditional roles and functions of political parties and assesses the level to which European political parties currently live up to these roles and fill these functions. |
 | Concrete reform proposals Finally, the Policy Brief draws from best practices in multi-level political systems to propose concrete reform proposals for the funding of European parties. These proposals aim at enhancing parties’ role, increasing their visibility, and encouraging citizen participation in the EU’s political life. |
This year’s review of Regulation 1141/2014 by the European Parliament, and in particular its AFCO Committee, is an important opportunity to improve their functioning. By address the funding system of European parties, this Policy Brief aims at opening up the debate on this essential topic and at proposing concrete reform proposals inspired by best practices.
For more on this topic, make sure to read our articles on the Improved Bundestag system for European elections, and on the importance of transnational parties.
～
Do you want information and proposals to address this issue? European Democracy Consulting can help. Contact us for more.
