Parti écologiste “Les Verts” v European Parliament (1986) Case 294/83 is an EU law case, concerning the constitutional framework, and party political funding, in the European Union. The case is significant for being the first to suggest that the European Union is based on the "rule of law", and has been described as "legendary".A Alemanno, 'What Has Been, and What Could Be Thirty Years after Les Verts/European Parliament: Individual Access to EU Justice' in M Poiares Maduro and L Azoulai, The Past and Future of EU law - The Classics of EU law revisited on the 50th Anniversary of the Rome Treaty (2010) 324
Facts The Green Party challenged political party funding from the Parliament. They claimed the system was unfair in distribution against newer parties. They sought a declaration that the European Community was not entitled to give funding for political parties.
Judgment The Court of Justice held the matter of party political funding should be regarded as one which is entirely for the member states to decide under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union article 7(2) of the Act of 20 September 1976 Concerning the Election of the Representatives of the Assembly Direct Universal Suffrage.
With the ruling, the system by which the European political parties were financed with economic resources directly from the budgets of the individual parliamentary groups, which were funded through resources from the general budget of the European Communities, was declared unlawful. This system gave undue advantages to political entities belonging to an elective institution: for the Court, public resources should be allocated without distinction between parties present in Parliament and those willing to enter it for the first time.
See also
European Union law
Notes
References Joliet and Keeling, ‘The Reimbursement of Election Expenses: A Forgotten Dispute’ (1994) 19 ELR 243