How much money has the European Parliament allocated to its political groups?

The vast majority of these funds are distributed in proportion to the number of MEPs in each group.

Transcript

00:00This year, an election year, the funds allocated by the European Parliament to the political

00:11groups represented in it were paid out on a half-yearly basis rather than annually.

00:17The June election was a game-changer, with some, mostly right-wing groups, winning seats

00:21in the chamber and others losing, such as the Greens and the Liberals of the Renew group.

00:27The bulk of these funds is distributed in proportion to the number of EVPs in the group.

00:35During the six-month period, the European Parliament has paid out 31 million euros to

00:40the seven political groups and to non-attached members.

00:44The European People's Party, as the biggest group, received more than 8 million euros,

00:48the Social Democrats received almost 6 million and the far-right Patriots for Europe received

00:533.7 million.

00:57At the bottom of the scale, the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, which has 25 EVPs,

01:02received 1.17 million euros.

01:08The European Parliament allocates around 65 million euros a year for the support of the

01:12political groups.

01:13Most of it is distributed proportionally, so 97.5%.

01:172.5% is distributed in equal shares, but the bulk is distributed in proportion to the number

01:23of members of the European Parliament that the political group has.

01:26So bigger groups get more funding, smaller groups get less funding.

01:31The European Parliament's budget is the only source of funding for political groups and

01:35non-attached members.

01:36The funds are used to cover administrative and operational costs.

01:40They explicitly cannot be used to support national political parties or to finance election

01:46campaigns.

01:48However, the funds have been misused in the past and Parliament was forced to implement

01:54stricter controls.

01:59In Denmark, the Danish People's Party has used this group funding to support the Facebook

02:04campaigns in the run-up to the Danish election, the Danish national election.

02:07There have also been similar cases in France, for example, with the Front National back

02:12then, so it's quite some time ago, where group funding was also misused for the purpose of

02:17the national party and national candidates.

02:21The funds from the European Parliament are paid directly to MEPs in order to pay their

02:26assistance salaries.