The European Commission has adopted a proposal aiming at strengthening the capacity of political parties to represent European citizens. This proposal will address the limitations due to the current legal status of European political parties increasing their capacity to truly represent EU citizens and strengthening democracy.

The proposed rules aim to tackle the difficulties currently faced by European political parties when operating in and across EU countries. European political parties and their foundations are now faced to the need to be registered as Belgian non-profit making associations, or asbl. These new rules will strengthen their capacity, while increasing their visibility, recognition, efficiency, transparency and accountability.

The Commission's proposal provides European political parties and their affiliated foundations with a European legal status. This status will be awarded to those parties and foundations which meet a set of strict rules of internal democracy, governance, accountability, transparency and respect for the EU values. It also establishes a set of rules regarding parties' financing in order to allow strict control and reporting requirements as well as providing for penalties for non-compliance.

In budgetary terms this proposal will not affect the overall amounts available for funding European foundations and political parties through the EU budget. However, the rules governing European political parties financing will be streamlined and tailored to their specific situation and needs. In the interest of transparency, the names of donors making contributions to parties for an amount higher than 1,000 euro per year will be published, and the limits for total allowed contributions will rise from 12,000 to 25,000 euros.