A draft bill limiting the State funding that Greek parliamentary political parties receive, as well as abolishing anonymous donations they collect via coupons, was posted on Thursday in the electronic system of internal distribution of the Greece ‘s Parliament.
The draft bill, tabled under the title “Auditing of political parties and of the elected representatives of the [Greek] Parliament and the European Parliament”, has been signed by the Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis, the Greek Interior Minister Argyris Dinopoulos and the Justice Minister Charalambos Athanassiou. The bill is based on the suggestions made by the “Greco Committee” in 2009, following extensive inquiries.
In the bill’s preamble, it is mentioned that “In Greece the high State funding resulted in the dependence of most [political] parties by the State”.
The draft bill reduces the parties’ state funding to 0.05 pct of the realized net revenue of the annual State budget report of the previous year – on the grounds of fiscal adjustment – down from 0.102 pct of the regular revenue of the current year’s State budget. The State funding the parties will be receiving, will now be calculated against realized – not suspected – economic figures.
State funding to political parties and coalitions for electoral purposes will be reduced to 0.008 pct of the realized net revenue of the annual State budget report of the previous year, down from 0.022 pct of the regular revenue of the current year’s State budget.
In view of safeguarding the transparency and legality of transactions between private individuals and political parties or coalitions, all such transactions will hereby only take place through one to three bank accounts to be held at banks chosen by the parties and coalitions themselves. No anonymous donations will be allowed anymore.
(source: ana-mpa)
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