Danes criticise EU political party funding
Four Danish parties represented in the European Parliament have protested against the Commission's plans to distribute 8.4m euros of taxpayers' money among "European parties", as they will not be entitled to a share of the money. It is "undemocratic to support some parties and not others," says an MEP.
Parties represented in at least three EU member countries will be entitled to subsidies from the taxpayers, according to the proposal. For Danish EU parliamentarians this means that all pro-EU parties will get a share of the money, while the People's Movement Against EU, the Left Socialists, The June Movement and the People's Party representatives, who are all critical to the EU, will be left out, according to Jyllands-Posten.
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"This is about creating a European state and abolishing democracy," says Mogens Camre, MEP for the Danish People's Party. He is seconded by Jens-Peter Bonde from the June Movement: "It is undemocratic to support some parties and not others," he says, according to Jyllands-Posten.
Conservative foreign minister Per Stig Møller declines commenting on the proposal, but Conservative MEP Christian Rovsing is against it.
The decision to support European parties was taken at the Nice Summit in 1999, and the Commission expects its proposal to be passed in 2003.
"European parties have an important political part to play in the EU, and it is fair that they are supported", says Commission spokesman Michael Mann, quoted by Jyllands-Posten.
