CoR Plenary (April 2022)

European political parties are transnational political alliances made up of national parties from the same political family. Since July 2004, they have been able to receive funding from the EU general budget. The current Regulation 1141/2014, applicable since 2017, tightened the requirements for parties' recognition, funding and spending. Yet, some parties (and their affiliated foundations) found loopholes in the legal framework. Targeted amendments to the regulation adopted in 2018 and 2019 sought, inter alia, to prevent misuse of public funds, enhance the role of European parties in the European public space, and safeguard the integrity of the European elections by sanctioning breaches of the rules on the protection of personal data. This study examines the operation of the legal framework, ahead of the legislative revision announced by the European Commission in its 2021 work programme, and in support of the evaluation report currently undertaken by the AFCO committee.

During the November I plenary session, Parliament is due to vote on an implementation report concerning the Regulation on the statute and funding of European political parties and foundations. Parliament has to report on the application of the Regulation, and propose modifications where appropriate, by 31 December 2021, and every five years thereafter. The Commission is also required to present a parallel implementation report and a legislative proposal to amend the current regulation, if appropriate, and is expected to do so in November 2021.

The proposal on political advertising aims to require online platforms to also provide information about the political affiliation and on the funding of the ads. Binding EU harmonised rules on political advertising will help companies, especially the SMEs, to enter the internal market of cross-border advertising services, as well as promote transparency of political ads.

Under the arrangements set out in Council Directives 93/109/EC and 94/80/EC, EU nationals who live in a Member State other than their own are entitled to participate in European and municipal elections, respectively, in their country of residence. This concerns an estimated 11 million EU citizens of voting age (post-Brexit data). Even if Member States have successfully transposed both directives, voter turnout among mobile citizens remains low compared to nationals. Similarly, only a fraction of candidates standing for European elections is made up of non-nationals (slightly over 1 % in the 2019 elections). The European Commission has announced its intention to update both directives; according to its 2021 work programme (Annex II), amending proposals are envisaged for the fourth quarter of 2021, forming part of the 'transparency and democracy package'. This briefing looks into the operation of Council Directive 93/109/EC on the right to vote and stand as candidate in European elections. It discusses obstacles that hinder mobile EU citizens from effectively exercising their electoral rights, such as registration and communication issues, and looks into the problem of double voting. The implementation of Directive 94/80/EC regarding municipal elections is examined in a separate briefing.

Whereas social media provide individuals with new opportunities to access information, express opinions, and participate in democratic processes, they can also undermine democracy by distorting information, promoting false stories and facilitating political manipulation. This EPRS paper provides an overview of the key risks social media pose to democracy related to surveillance, personalisation, disinformation, moderation and microtargeting. It also discusses key approaches to tackling social media risks to democracy in the context of EU policy.

The Democracy and Digitalisation Handbook provides an overview of opportunities, challenges and threats related to digital technologies. This handbook looks at the impact of digital technology on democratic institutions while implementing international cooperation and development projects. It seeks to inform European Union (EU) staff, in particular staff based in EU Delegations, by providing them with: a short review of existing EU policies and an international framework of digitalisation for development; a presentation of key digitalisation and democracy projects; an analysis that will inform future EU projects supporting democratic governance with digital technology components; examples of good practices; a discussion of practices to avoid; a list of relevant implementation partners.

Electoral disinformation has become one of the most challenging problems for democratic states. All of them are facing the phenomenon of - both online and offline - dissemination of false information during pre-electoral period, which is harmful for individual and collective rights. As a consequence, some European countries adopted special measures, including summary judicial proceedings in order to declare that information or materials used in electioneering are false and to prohibit its further dissemination.