Party financing law will need agreement, says PM

The government will not consider state financing for political parties in fresh proposals to regulate party donations drawn up by Nationalist MP Franco Debono.

The proposals are currently being examined by legal experts, who would be evaluating their implications for already existing laws, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

Dr Gonzi last year tasked Dr Debono, parliamentary assistant at his office, to prepare a draft Bill to regulate political party financing.

When asked about the matter yesterday, Dr Gonzi gave no details of the proposals but said they were modelled on the conclusions of the Galdes Commission report in 1995.

Dr Gonzi was addressing a press conference on his office’s work last year.

While ruling out state financing, he said the proposals tackled private donations to political parties.

However, the government had no intention of implementing a law on party financing without agreement between the political parties.

“We do not want this to be a unilateral decision,” he said, pointing out that political parties would get to discuss the proposals after the experts concluded their work. He gave no target date for the conclusion of the exercise.

The government-appointed commission chaired by Anthony Galdes and composed, among others, of members from the three main parties, had proposed that donations above €11,647 be made public while those exceeding €23,294 would be illegal. All parties at the time agreed with some form of state funding linked to the percentage of votes obtained in a general election.

The commission had proposed capping state financing for political parties linked to electoral success at 0.02 per cent of GDP. However, 16 years later the country still has no legislation regulating what type of donations can be made and by whom.