Code of good practice in the field of political parties
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting
on behalf of the Assembly on 21 May 2010 (see Doc. 12246, report of the Political
Affairs Committee, rapporteur: Mr Agramunt Font de Mora).
- Thesaurus
1. The quality of today’s representative
democracy largely depends on the functioning of political parties, in
particular their internal organisation, transparency, funding and
quality of their political programmes. A large part of the challenges
that current democratic systems face coincide with those faced nowadays
by political parties.
2. This is why in its
Resolution
1546 (2007) on the code of good practice for political
parties, after recalling its own previous work in this field, as
well as relevant work carried out by the European Commission for Democracy
through Law (Venice Commission) and the Council of Europe Forum
for the Future of Democracy, the Parliamentary Assembly invited
the Venice Commission to elaborate a code of good practice in the
field of political parties which would take into account the elements
and principles enumerated in its resolution.
3. The Assembly, therefore, welcomes the adoption of the Code
of Good Practice in the field of Political Parties by the Venice
Commission and endorses it. The new code, as requested by the Assembly,
aims at reinforcing political parties’ internal democracy and increasing
their credibility in the eyes of citizens, thus contributing to
the legitimacy of the democratic process and institutions as a whole
and the development of democracy in Council of Europe member states.
4. Based on the experience of political parties in Council of
Europe member states and taking into account both national legislation
and practice in the field of regulation of activities of political
parties and party statutes, the new Code of Good Practice in the
field of Political Parties offers political parties a systematic
repertoire of best practices in Europe. Additionally, it offers
public authorities and courts a yardstick to assess the practice of
parties. It also promotes democratic principles such as equality,
dialogue, co-operation, transparency and the fight against corruption.
5. In the light of the above considerations and in accordance
with the procedure followed for the Code of Good Practice in Electoral
Matters and for the Code of Good Practice on Referendums, the Assembly
decides to forward the Code of Good Practice in the field of Political
Parties to national delegations and parliaments and asks them to
disseminate it among their political parties so that it can be applied
in all Council of Europe member states.
