EDC responds to Ombudsman decision on Authority for European Parties

Since March 2020, European Democracy Consulting has been working on an assessment of the implementation of transparency provisions under Article 32 of Regulation 1141/2014 on European political parties. This work has led to several reports and to an inquiry by the European Ombudsman. On 4 February, we concluded this process with recommendations for the reform of Regulation 1141/2014.

On 26 March 2020, European Democracy Consulting shared with the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (APPF) a report highlighting perceived failures by the APPF to abide by its transparency requirements.

In the absence of corrective action by the APPF in the following three months, European Democracy Consulting used this report to file a complaint with the European Ombudsman on 26 June.

On 28 July, the Ombudsman decided to open an inquiry and invited the APPF to provide its comments, which it did on 5 October; European Democracy Consulting responded to these comments on 15 October.

Finally, on 25 January 2021, the European Ombudsman rendered her decision.

Read our full response and recommendations on European Democracy Consulting’s website, at https://eudemocracy.eu/edc-responds-ombudsman-european-parties (click here for the PDF report).