Organization, financing and integration of the European Political Foundations.
Andrea Mignone (University of Genova)
(andrea.mignone@unige.it)
Fabio Sozzi (University of Genova)
(fabio.sozzi@unige.it)
Abstract.
European Political Foundations (EPFs) have the main goal to assist Political Parties at European Level (PPEL) in their process of empowerment and political development. In particular, EPFs have been seen as an opportunity for the Europarties to become much more policy-oriented (Gagatek and Van Hecke 2011) and to improve the linkage between PPEL and European citizens (Dakowska 2009). Moreover, the EPFs need to be formally affiliated with a PPEL in order to be officially recognized by the European Union as political foundation and to obtain grants from the European Parliament. As a consequence of these juridical and political requirements PPEL and EPFs need to develop a special relationship, the two euro-structures have to be integrated from an organizational point of view and to become a «partisan tandem».
In this paper we will try to investigate how the EPFs are organized, how they decide within their political and administrative bodies, under which rules and how much the EP finances them. In particular, related to the last point, it shall be analyzed the EPFs’ budgets in order to understand not only how much they receive from the EP but also how they spend their money. Furthermore the paper will try to answer a second set of questions: how the EPFs and PPEL are integrated? Are there representatives of the EPFs in the political and administrative bodies of the PPEL (and conversely)? If yes, how much are they? Which powers they have within them? Answers to these questions will shed light on the integration between the two partisan structures at European level and they can help us to better understand the party politics within the EU
