Spain and France are among the most opaque when it comes to declaring who party funders are, analysis shows
Only seven out of 27 EU countries require political parties to reveal the identity of all their private donors, with Spain and France among the most opaque when it comes to the influence of money over politics.
As the European parliament prepares for crucial elections next week, with polls predicting a surge in the number of hard-right MEPs, the Guardian and another 25 European media partners, coordinated by the investigative platform Follow the Money, are publishing Transparency Gap, the most extensive analysis yet of party financing in bloc.
The annual reports of more than 200 parties, most of which are fielding candidates in next week’s elections, have been gathered and analysed for the project.
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The research shows only Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Poland and Croatia – a quarter of member states – require the source of all donations to be identified.
Well of course - publishing the identity of all private donors would be madness.
Small donors should be allowed to donate freely without their name appearing on the internet for all their friends, neighbours, employers, journalists, rabble-rousers, etc to see. Someone donating a few tens or hundred of euros to their local candidate doesn’t create a risk of influencing (or appearing to influence) the candidate’s political platform; and we should be positively encouraging small donors, as I’d much prefer a political system where politicians relied on many small donations to one where they relied on a handful of millionaire donors.
It’s big money donors - the ones stumping up enough money to potentially influence the candidate - that parties should be required to disclose.
