MEP Giannakou celebrates a new agreement on Europe's political parties which remodels their legal personality and funding, paving the way for a stronger democracy.

More transparency for European political parties?

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Marietta Giannakou, hello and welcome  to this interview.

You have been working  for a long time on the statute

You reached an agreement today,  what was that agreement?

We found a way, after the trilogue,  for there to be a statute

for the European political parties,  and a funding system.

So what is the clear difference  between today and the past

because in the past it seems that  a President of a European political party

let's take for example the EPP, your party,  they weren't more nor less

than a President of a tennis  or a golf club in Brussels.

This is true, the status  of the European political parties

is now that of the status  of international NGOs.

They are all in Belgium, now with the legal  status they can move everywhere in the EU.

Secondly, they have a legal personality,  that's the status.

And naturally, if something  is not regulated by this regulation

it can be regulated by national laws  under which the party is established.

To have a legal status is very important  but this of course means having access

to a certain amount of money, as every  party in the world has if it is elected.

What changes exactly?  -First of all, we don't ask for more money

than they receive now,  because for 10 years already

they have been taking money  from the EU, from the Parliament.

I don't know exactly,  but the system stays as it was -

85% of funds have to come from the Union  and 15% from their own resources.

For these parties  in order to have a European political party,

you must have people  from 7 countries elected

in their national parliament  or in the European Parliament.

Precisely, who will really have access,  if I'm a real eurosceptic

representing a eurosceptic party, does this  mean I have the same rights as everybody?

Let me tell you, when a party is registered -

and the registration will be  autonomous, independent

and without political interference -  the registration will be automatic.

It means that they will  bring their necessary papers.

They have to have elected one member  in the EP in order to be financed,

and they sign a paper stating  that they accept the values and principles

of the European Union  as they are set out in the Treaty.

Now a very important question  is who will control who?

As it was before, it means  that the auditors

and the report of the Secretary General  of the Parliament.

You've already been working  on this report for a long time,

if you now think back  over the last years of this report,

which was the most  complicated part of it

where you'd say,  'this was very difficult to get through'?

The Council.  The problem was in the Council

during the Irish presidency, and afterwards  during the Lithuanian presidency.

In the Irish presidency,  nothing moved forward, nothing.

Why didn't they want this?  -Different countries had different ideas.

They were probably afraid,  some of the countries thought

probably that this would  affect national parties.

In many countries, there is no regulation,  there are no laws on the parties.

Will this increase the budget  in one way or another?

Even for the agency, we said from the  beginning that we didn't want an agency

because, it probably requires money  and we don't want more money.

There's always this question on the  how a foundation and a party differ

and of course, many different foundations  could be funded and ask for more money.

What will be the precise difference,  very briefly?

No, only one foundation will be financed.

The foundations will be able to carry-over  for three months, just like the parties.

So, We have one political group in the EP,  one party outside, one foundation, that's all.

Marietta Giannakou,  thanks a lot for this interview.

More transparency for European political parties?

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