Once again, Member States talked about the Conference on the #FutureofEurope. And it appears that, for many, the future of Europe should not include treaty reform — which remains an absolutely necessary condition for a true #EuropeanDemocracy. via @POLITICOEurope
Likewise, there is opposition to @guyverhofstadt, long-time MEP and Belgian PM for 10 years, as Conf President. Member States want a former Head of State/Gov.... but not so "former". Somehow, recent experience in the @EUCouncil is more important than in the @Europarl_EN?!
Member States have always acted to be the custodians of treaty change in #Europe and to limit citizen or parliamentary involvement. It is time to walk the talk and actually give Europeans a say. Not just on policy, but on what the EU should look like. #Schuman20@federalists
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The @APPF_EU unveiled the latest official MEP membership figures for #europeanparties, which will be used to calculate their entitlements to EU public funding. Here is what's what 👇
❌ Worthy of note: sharp nose-dive for virtually all pro-EU forces: @EPP, @PES_PSE, @ALDEParty, @europeangreens, @PDE_EDP, and EFA (even @europeanleft).
Only net winner: the @LeftAlliance_EU, but mostly because it starts from zero.
❌ Conversely, the winners (except ELA) are all on the hard/far-right: @PatriotsEU, @ECRparty, and ESN.
Today, @POLITICOEurope's Playbook reports on two EU political alliances missing out on EU funds "because the paperwork is too complicated". A great opportunity to discuss the funding of #europeanparties! 🥳🇪🇺
A quick 🧵... 1/23
@euleftalliance @APPF_EU @EDC_eudemocracy
First of all, what are we talking about? This is about a special stream of European public funding set aside for #europeanparties and distributed every year. Out of that envelope, 10% is distributed equally to all parties and 90% proportionally to their number of MEPs. 2/23
But, actually, this turns out to be more about registration than funding. In the meantime, if you want to really understand the funding of European parties, hear this way 👇 3/23 epfo.eu/understanding-…
Over the past several years, @EDC_eudemocracy has made many, many requests to the European Parliament to access decisions by its Bureau on the funding of #europeanparties. These included decisions for funding (for the coming year) and final accounts (which wrap up the process).
Invariably, these documents were provided with heavy redactions over the parts covering the EP's reasoning for its decisions: we could see the outcome (amounts), but not how decisions were made. Until yesterday, the latest full document related to funding for 2015 -- 8 years ago.
To be clear, the point of this thread is *not* to argue that TNLs will make our common election less European, simply that they will not remedy the election's core deficiency (that national parties are in control) and that, therefore, they are not the right way forward. 3/25