PPEU - Finance Regulation Act
v. 1.2

June 2021

NOTE: this is a draft for the current Finance Working Group.
It is NOT officially approved by the Council of European Pirate Party and yet adopted

FINANCE REGULATION ACT

1. Introduction
2. Membership fees
3. Donations
4. Short term budget
5. Long term budget
6. Privacy and transparency
7. Revisions
8. Validity and publicity

1. Introduction

The Financial Regulation Act aims to establish rules for the budgetary and financial management of the PPEU.
The budgetary rules defined in this act aim to allow for a better definition of the budget and budgetary trajectory of the party by establishing non-mandatory guidelines.
The financial rules must regulate the donations received by the party, while respecting the imperative of transparency.
These rules are mandatory.

2. Membership fees
As provided by PPEU current Statute, membership fees are due each year from all Ordinary Members, and it's up to the Council to decide the actual membership fee.
The treasurer should be responsible to:

  1. have an updated list of all treasurers (or acting as Treasurer) from members
  2. sent invoices to all of them starting in the month of November prior to the due period (i.e. November 2021 for 2022 membership fees)
  3. members should pay invoices within December prior to the due period (i.e. December 2021 for 2022 membership fees)
  4. Treasurer should provide an updated list of membership fees and publish them in PPEU wiki within Jan. 15th each year.

3. Donations
Donations to PPEU cannot be made by cash nor from anonymous donors: accepted method should be electronic only (for now, wire transfer to PPEU bank account), decided by PPEU board.
All donations have to respect current laws in terms of donations to political parties, under the law of the Country where PPEU is a registered Association (currently Luxembourg).
All single donations that not exceeds 500 euros will be automatically accepted without any notice.
Single donations from 500 to 5000 euros will be accepted, but they have to be reported monthly by Treasurer to PPEU board. Single donations from 5000 to 50000 euro have to be reported monthly by Treasurer to PPEU Members.
Donations that exceeds 50000 euro cannot be automatically accepted and donors have to explicitly send a donation request to the PPEU board, that will inform the whole PPEU Council.
Each donation that exceeds 5000 euro can be rejected by PPEU Council and refunded to the donor.
Donations can be made both from individuals and companies.

4. Short term budget
Accordingly to PPEU Statutes, a one year-based budget has to be proposed by Treasurer and approved by PPEU Council. It should be approved within February, each year.
The budget has to have a dedicated section to the previous year final balance and the current year budget.
Budget criteria should be that total spending cannot exceed 90% of savings.
Midterm budgets can be provided and approved within July, in order to better adjust current budget.
The short term budget has to be published on PPEU website.

5. Long term budget
A five year-based budget should be issued each European Elections, in order to set up PPEU goals for each current European Parliament mandate.
Budget criteria is to establish general goals that have to be taken into account during all one year-based budgets during the entire period.
The long term budget has to be published on PPEU website.

6. Privacy and transparency
Donors and contractors have to be public, for the sake of full transparency\\. In order to respect the privacy of individuals, no personal information (such as emails, phone numbers, residence addresses or date and place of birth) will be disclosed without a specific consent.
All transactions will be available on PPEU transparent bank account.

7. Revisions
Revisions of this Regulation Act are held on an annual basis, before first PPEU Council Meeting, in order to keep track of all improvements from year to year.

8. Validity and publicity
Finance Regulation Act is valid from its approval, and it has no end of validity. It can be changed anytime from PPEU Council Meeting with a simple majority. It has to be published into the PPEU wiki or similar source of knowledge.