OpenLobby.EU
Explore

Coppieters Foundation

Coppieters

The Coppieters Foundation promotes policy research at the European and international level, focusing primarily on management of cultural and linguistic diversity in complex societies, multilevel governance, decentralization, state and constitutional reform, self-determination, political and economic governance of sub-central governments, conflict resolution, human rights and peace promotion.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with François Alfonsi (Member of the European Parliament) and Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity and European Language Equality Network

14 Jun 2022 · Intergroupe minorités

Meeting with François Alfonsi (Member of the European Parliament) and Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity and European Language Equality Network

11 Nov 2021 · NGOs langues minoritaires

Response to Revision of the Regulation on the statute and funding of European political parties

12 Apr 2021

Coppieters Foundation is a Political Foundation at European level (EUPF 6 BE 0892.342.491) registered in the transparency register with reference 57231475311-15. • Coppieters Foundation would argue in favor of a different distribution key for the budget line for political foundations. Currently the overall budget for foundation is distributed using 2 different criteria. 10% of the budget is allocated in equal parts for among all political foundations. The remaining 90% of the Budget is distributed on the grounds of political representation (using affiliated Members of the European Parliament for the calculation). Coppieters foundation would favor going from 10% to 15% of resources distributed equally among all the foundations (the remaining 90% would continue to be distributed based on representation). This change would guarantee the functioning and a secure working ground and running of the operations for the smaller foundations and would have a marginal impact on the bigger foundations. This is positive for Democracy and pluralism since it guarantees all political ideas have an opportunity to operate and develop. This is especially important for those actors that represent structural minorities in Europe. The existence of the Authority on Political Parties and Foundations guarantees that all political foundations and parties are actually legitimate entities, and not created to abuse the system. • Coppieters Foundation would argue against the duplicity of the audit exercise carried out according to both Belgian standards (Belgian Generally Accepted Accounting principles since it is based in Belgium) and the second audit with IFRS standards. The double audit does not fulfill the purpose it was created for and it represents a very substantial increase on admin costs with very little to no use by the European Parliament. • Coppieters Foundation would argue in favor of allowing income from outside the EU (or to limit the restrictions exclusively to Donations and not to membership fees). As far as we know, the “foreign interference / meddling” argument is more of a theoretical argument than a reality – there have been no reported cases of that in the 2019 elections when it concerns the implementation of the work program of political foundations, if at all it is mostly a phenomena happening in social Media, not at an institutional level. Loosening this provision would allow parties to build external relations with Balkans, UK and other traditional partners outside the EU. • We would argue the current interpretation of the regulation 1141 concerning Donations and Contributions is very limiting and it is not useful for financial reporting. We have more sources of income than just what the law defines as donations and contributions: o Book sales, o Participations fees (for events and trainings) o Membership fees (from members and associated members), o Project contributions (as per IFRS definition of a joint project), o Consulting services and drafting reports on demand, o Bank interest, and o Room rentals. Considering all the income has to fall in either Contributions or Donations (as per the definitions of the regulation 1141) and the current interpretation of what is a donation and a contribution (i.e. membership fees from associated members ) is very disrupting of the management and does not help to reflect the reality of the financial structure of the foundations. • Coppieters Foundation would argue in favor of simplification of procedures as much as possible: i.e. going back to grant award decisions instead of grant agreements for the initiation of the Grant for a certain year. • Coppieters Foundation would argue in favor of advancing the status of European Political Foundation. Beyond the certification and the change in legal status it currently operates as a Belgian non-profit and not as a pan-European organization.
Read full response

Meeting with François Alfonsi (Member of the European Parliament) and Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity

5 Oct 2020 · Webinaire : La réforme du Lycée et de l'enseignement des langues territoriales en France

Meeting with Anthony Agotha (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

18 Oct 2017 · New Commission Regulation on Political Parties