The Council of the European Union has introduced new regulations empowering member states to improve political party funding regulations and improve the protection of EU democracies from foreign influences. On November 17, the decision was announced. It is certainly a move in the right direction to strengthen the protection of EU democracies against threats of foreign influences and disinformation campaigns.
New requirements under the revised regulations
The new rules made European parties and political foundations more susceptible to the legal requirements to disclose their funding on a more frequent basis.
There will be new regulations mandating the submission of detailed accounts of donations and sponsorships, along with any financial support from outside the European Union.
These measures will assist in ensuring that the electorate is able to determine the sponsors of particular political activities, along with the sponsors being foreign covert actors, to influence European politics.
The press release from the council states that without transparency, democracies cannot be legitimate. Without transparency, foreign actors would continue to influence in the shadows but with new policies.
The European Union hopes to prevent this from happening. To some extent, new rules empower the Authority for European Political Parties and Foundations (APPF) with the ability to conduct audits and impose sanctions for non-compliance, thus ensuring accountability in politics (Council of the EU, 2025).
The looming threat of foreign interference
Most recently, the measures are being adopted due to the increasing presence of foreign actors trying to disrupt the election and influence the policy decision in Europe to utilize the party funding digital campaign gaps. Strategies include funding election campaigns and social media campaigns directed at fostering distrust in democracy.
Defending democracy has been one of the EU’s priorities. Recently, the focus has shifted to the interstate and non-state coordinated campaigns aimed at influencing the elections and the disinformation campaigns targeting social polarization in the EU community.
As a response to the most critical gaps of financial transparency, the EU has established new restrictions on the transparency of financial flows.
How will regulations be implemented and enforced?
The regulation will apply to all registered European political parties and political foundations under European Union law. Monitoring compliance with the regulation will fall under the new APPF, which will have more extensive powers to investigate and apply measures to enforce compliance with the regulations.
Suggested measures of those non-compliant with the regulation include, but are not limited to, financial penalties, funding being withheld, and, in more extreme cases, deregistrations.
EU officials intend to create a central digital space to facilitate the interactivity and public availability of financial reports in order to enable a more robust monitoring and transparency of the political funding system.
The political funding system of the EU will also be more transparent
The regulation also promotes the cross-border intercooperation of the national systems with the EU systems to facilitate the detection and response to borderless threats.
Although the new rules are a big step forward, experts note that with foreign interference, the transparency vacuum will still be an issue. Foreign interference will also continue to require and will be mitigated by a series of measures that are outside transparency, including media disinformation responses, digital security, and measures to promote the literacy of the public in media.
The decision with the council is a strong indicator that they are opting to defend the democratic values and the protection of the politics of Europe from being influenced by outside actors. As democratic elections of the EU are around the corner, democratic reforms are expected to restore public trust and strengthen systems of democratic resilience. The EU is prioritizing transparency and accountability by effectively tackling one of the major challenges of our time.