Far-right, anti-EU & anti-immigrant parties form group in EU parliament, will they loose their funding?

Far-right, anti-EU and anti-immigrant parties form group in EU parliament, will they loose their funding? (Politico.eu).

Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party said Monday it had enough support to form a group in the European Parliament, a long-awaited move that will boost the group’s influence in the assembly.

The anti-European Union, anti-immigration party said in a statement it was to formally announce the creation of its group, named “Europe of Nations and Freedoms,” in a press conference Tuesday hosted by party chief Le Pen in Brussels.

By forming a group, the National Front (FN) will get more speaking time during the plenary sessions and more staff. The party will also be better positioned to get its members on parliamentary committees, where groups exert control over access.

The FN has 23 deputies in Parliament, just short of the 25 needed to form a group, but the real challenge has been the recruitment of deputies from a minimum of seven nations needed to form a group. The statement did not specify the names or nationalities of the deputies the party had recruited to meet that requirement. Le Pen’s parliamentary adviser declined to name the additional MEPs.

But parliamentary sources said the group will include 36 MEPs from several parties, including one from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and one from Hungarian far-right party Jobbik, as well as deputies from the Netherlands’ PVV, Austria’s FPÖ, Italy’s Lega Nord and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang.

The co-chairs, according to sources, will be Le Pen and Marcel De Graaff of the Netherlands. The vice chairs will be Harald Vilimsky of Austria, Matteo Salvini of Italy, Michal Marusik of Poland and Janice Atkinson of Britain, who was previously sidelined by UKIP following an alleged expenses scandal. The treasurer will be Gerolf Annemans of Belgium. The secretary general will be Ludovic de Danne, a Le Pen parliamentary adviser.

About to loose their subsidy?

Two years ago the European Commission proposed a law that would authorize an “independent authority” within the European Parliament [EP] to decide whether EP parties would receive an official legal status as EP parties.

This legal status is needed for a party to obtain EP party subsidy, which is designed to cover 85% of party expenditures.

Despite a British and Dutch lobby against the law, it was passed by the EP on September 29, 2014.

Among the demands parties have to meet are that of “internal party democracy” and that they must “respect the values on which the European Union is based.” Among these values are: “pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men.” Also, the parties must be active in at least seven out of 28 EU member state countries.

The law states that: “decisions regarding a party’s respect for values on which the EU is based, may only be taken following a special procedure and in cooperation with a committee of independent prominent individuals.” Hmmmm.......Seems they are about to loose their EU funding, so WHO Will fund them now? Follow the money.Read the full story here.