The European Parliament annually donates nearly 3.7 million Euros to 10 foundations that are affiliated with the European political parties. In addition to this the ten European political parties receive 9.9 Million Euros. One of these foundations is the European Liberal Forum, the best-known Austrian member of which is the Liberal Institute. The Liberal Institute appeared in the focus of media attention under the management of the former politician of the Liberal Forum Alexander Zach and due to the involvement of the institute in the scandal of the Strabag contributions. These foundations are rarely a subject of discussion. On January 17, 2009 the Parliament Praesidium gave its blessing to most of the statements of account and final reports of the foundations “without a discussion”
Only two days before this the General Secretariat stated in its note to the members of the Praesidium that shortly before the deadline for applying for financial assistance expired, most of the foundations notified that “they cannot propose a concrete work programme, e.g with the place, date and the subject of a conference or a precise subject of research. That is why it was impossible to examine whether the past activities corresponded the work program, contained in the application for the financial assistance. As if this were not enough the memorandum states the applications that had been precise enough underwent thorough changes. Many events were cancelled; the subjects of the research were changed.
The discharge report of the European Parliament for the financial year 2008, the author of which is the Belgian Green politician Bart Staes, states that the information provided by the NGOs could not prove that the management of the funds and the internal control mechanisms are efficient. Besides documents provided do not meet the expectations of the citizens and tax payers with regard to transparency.” This is so true. When the EU civil servants affiliated to the political parties have to follow the rules set by their fellow party members, intransparency is inevitable. This is another proof that an independent control mechanism is necessary.
2 Comments
dieser bereich von parteifinanzierung und stiftungen ist meist etwas dubios. trotzdem muss man sagen, dass auf eu-ebene im vergleich zu österreich vieles besser ist.
@Hausmeister
dafür schlagen in Brüssel aber die Lobbyisten gnadenlos zu. DAS wäre auch ein Thema, um das sich mal jemand intensiv kümmern sollte. Würde mich schon brennend interessieren was diese Lobbyisten so alles mit den Politikern anstellen und wie weit da die Einflussnahme geht!