Q&As on Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445

Q:
Does the standard declaration in Annex I of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 need to be signed solely by the European political parties or do they also have to be signed by the member parties?

A:
European political parties and European political foundations are required

• to sign themselves, and submit to the Authority, the standard declaration in Annex I of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445, and
• to ensure also in substance effective values observance by its member parties or organisations. For that purpose, European political parties and European political foundations may wish to ask their members for a corresponding declaration as well, but such internal documentation by member parties or organisations is neither required to be submitted to the Authority, nor sufficient to guarantee that member parties or organisations actually observe the values upon which the Union is founded - it is the deeds that matter (programme, activities...). The European political party or European political foundation is liable for the reality of values compliance of member parties and member organisations, not just paperwork.

In case a member party or member organisation does not comply with the values upon which the Union is founded, the European political party or European political foundation must have a mechanism to expel such member as a matter of corrective measure, otherwise the European political party or European political foundation itself risks being de-registered subject to the conditions of the specific verification procedure laid down in Article 13 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445.

Q:
Is the standard declaration in Annex I of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 required every time a new member party or organisation joins, or only once per year if there are changes before the year ends?

A:
Since the required content of the standard declaration in Annex I of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 has changed compared to the standard declaration of the old Regulation, previously submitted standard declarations are no longer valid. As a one off-measure, European political parties and European political foundations will therefore be asked to sign, and submit to the Authority, the new standard declaration in the course of the regular registration conditions verification in February 2026.

Thereafter, a new standard declaration is to be submitted proactively only if there are membership changes, in accordance with the following timeline

• European political parties are required to submit a new standard declaration by the following 30 September together with the updated consolidated list of member parties (Article 11(6) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445). However, the fact that a new member party has joined must already be notified to the Authority within 2 months after this has happened (Article 11(5) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445);
• European political foundations are required to submit a new standard declaration together with their notification of any new member organisation within 2 months (Article 11(5) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445).

Q:
Does Article 11(6) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 apply to European political parties that are already registered?

A:
Yes.

Q:
May a European political party or European political foundation create an observer or cooperating partner category without any membership or voting rights and offer it to organisations not eligible for membership with the goal of maintaining close ties and communication with key partners in third countries?

A:
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 provides a geographically limited possibility to have non-EU associated member parties or associated member organisations, subject to certain specific governance restrictions (see public guidance of the Authority on structural matters). While this does not prohibit political cooperation relations beyond the scope of such associated members, notably to promote Union values (see recital 45), any non-EU entity or person without EU citizenship that does not fall within the scope of the associated membership privilege cannot have any role in the governance or decision-making of a European political party or foundation.

Q:
The Regulation foresees that non-EU associated member parties or associated member organisations may not be decisive in forming a majority in the statutory bodies. Are we required to keep a detailed voting record for every vote in our statutory bodies to confirm that non-EU members are not decisive for a majority? Or is it only necessary to do this when a vote is close?

A:
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 requires that each European political party or European political foundation that wishes to avail itself of having non-EU associated members has in its statutes rules which guarantee that in no situation could such associated member parties or member organisations have decisive influence on the decision-making in the governing bodies or representation of that European political party or European political foundation. The Authority is mandated to control compliance with these restrictions. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, the Authority will, in case of checks,

• firstly, refer to the statutes of the European political party or European political foundation concerned: if those statutes exclude voting rights for associated members altogether rather than only restricting them, the question does not arise (subject to checks that this is actually implemented in that way in practice as well);
• secondly, if voting rights for associated members are not excluded altogether but only restricted, the Authority might need to be able to access documentary evidence consisting of either (i) a record of presences which, in light of quorum and voting rules, demonstrates that associated members were materially unable to sway the vote one way or another at that concrete occasion, or (ii), if this is not the case, minutes or records of vote which show how the non-EU votes were separated out and, where necessary, discounted. It therefore, in any event, appears as a good practice for European political parties and foundations to keep available minutes or records of vote that render non-EU associated members' votes separately visible in case of later checks.

Q:
Can a European political party's or a European political foundation's statutes provide for a small quota on members from non-EU countries among its full members?

A:
No.

Q:
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 appears to place responsibility on the European political party to ensure that its member parties present gender-balanced lists in European Parliament elections. Could you provide clarification on the extent of EUPP's responsibility in this area, as well as how an EUPP is expected to encourage or enforce compliance by its member parties. What nature of "corrective measures" the Authority expects, and what types of sanctions may apply where a member party does not comply despite the efforts of the EUPP?

A:
Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 requires European political parties to ensure that their member parties provide on their websites information on their candidates' gender balance in relation to future elections to the European Parliament.

As for all requirements relating to member parties, the European political party is responsible to ensure that its member parties meet the standard that is imposed by the Union legislator as a counterpart for being in the European political party.

In case of non-compliance, the Authority will assess any proposed corrective measure in light of the specific circumstances of the infringement at hand, and against the benchmark provided by Article 35 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445. Such corrective measures would have to include at least compliance with the requirement as such, but additionally also verifiable structural measures to prevent reoccurrence of an infringement. In case a member party persistently refuses to comply with the requirements imposed by the Union legislator, the European political party must have a mechanism to enforce or expel.

The system of applicable sanctions in case of infringement of Article 5(2) is contained in Article 32(1)(a)(iv) and 32(3)(a) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445.

Q:
Could the Authority provide further detail on Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445? Specifically, how should the required information be presented, and in which language(s)? Would it be sufficient for member parties to list their MEPs with names and photographs? Additionally, how should this requirement be applied to member parties represented by only one MEP or by very small MEP delegations?

A:
Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 concerns any member party of the respective European political party, irrespective of its size. However, the legislator does not impose any specific way of publishing information on gender balance on the websites of the member parties. It would suffice that the information on gender balance is transparently available in the language of the respective website, provided that this is one of the official languages of the Union.

Q:
In the past years, it has occurred that donors failed to deliver on their payment commitments within the same year as an agreement was signed between the parties and an invoice issued for payment (year N).
As per Authority guidance, donations received by a European political parties or European political foundations in year N+1, may only in very specific circumstances be attributed by the latter to year N. In order for such attribution to year N to be accepted by the Authority, European political parties or European political foundations must provide documentation demonstrating that the commitment for the payment of the donation in question had already been entered into by the donor before year N+1, and that there was an enforceable agreement that the donation would be paid in year N. Under the new regulation, are the described late payments for donations received in year N+1 still attributed to year N under the same circumstances?

Q:
Considering the fact that the regulation now specifies that European political foundations "shall not be prevented from providing capacity building to support the formation of future political leaders in the Union or training to persons up to the date on which they become a candidate", are there any compliance risks, namely indirect funding, aside from not being able to train persons holding a candidate status at the time of the training? In particular, may a European political foundation provide any type of training or best practice exchange on any topic, including skill trainings that could potentially equip persons to perform better in elections or other political activity (for example within a party)? Aside from official candidates (as per applicable national rules), are European political foundations able to train persons nominated by a political foundation or party without charging participation fees to the person or their nominating organisation?

A:
Apart from the restrictions already mentioned in the question itself (i.e., no training of candidates as defined in Article 27(2), second sub-paragraph), the training activities still need to

• comply with the values on which the Union is founded, and
• remain within the scope of the purposes of European political foundations, as laid down in Article 2(6) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445.

Q:
With the change of the status of non-EU members from full to associate, can we still implement joint activities and enter in implementation contracts with our non-EU members? If yes, can a European political party or European political foundation still invoice and directly receive project share contributions (project cost refunds) from associate non-EU members?

A:
Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 does not prohibit joint activities as such with non-EU entities, provided the conditions of Articles 25(6)(d) and 27(1) or (2) thereof are respected. This means that a double compliance risk exists in such circumstances: Payments or services received from non-EU individuals or entities may not present an economic advantage (by exceeding the appropriate cost share of the cooperating entity for the concrete activity), as this would constitute a breach of Article 25(6)(d) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445, while at the same time the cost share must be sufficient to prevent that the European political party or European political foundation would be considered as indirectly funding the cooperating entity. It is therefore particularly relevant to use the preventive Regulatory Compliance Action Plan ('R-CAP') tool provided by the Authority before implementing such projects, and to retain full financial documentation thereafter.

Q:
Can you clarify the newly introduced concept of "self-generated resources", which is defined as "income generated by non-profit-oriented economic activities carried out in the framework of political activities, either individually or jointly with members, such as participation fees for conferences"?

A:
The labelling of the revenue categories used by European political parties and European political foundations is not discretionary but is a matter of the definitions of Article 2, points 9, 10 and 11, of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445. In order to be categorised as self-generated resources, revenue items of European political parties or European political foundations must correspond to the definition laid down in Article 2, point 11, of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445, and in particular be generated in the framework of political activities. Revenue items of a European political party or European political foundation instead qualify as contributions or donations, depending on membership status of the payer, and are subject to the corresponding restrictions, if (i) they do not fulfil one or more of the conditions of self-generated resources and (ii) present an economic advantage.

Q:
Can self-generated resources come from a non-EU citizen or entity?

A:
Given the fact that the legislator explicitly excluded non-EU payments from the definition of contributions, removed in the course of the legislative procedure initially proposed association fees as a possible source of revenue, and further limited non-EU influence on governance of European political parties and European political foundations, Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 must be read very restrictively concerning any non-EU financial inflows. Hence, the Authority will scrutinise with great care any non-EU revenue items, which in any event constitute a high compliance risk, to prevent circumvention. If an economic advantage is generated by such revenue items, whichever way they are labelled, the prohibition of Article 25(6)(d) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 applies and the corresponding sanction will have to be decided by the Authority.