Article 2 — Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) political party means an association of citizens which fulfils the following conditions: (a) it pursues political objectives; (b) it is either recognised by, or established in accordance with, the legal order of at least one Member State; (2) associated member party means a party that has its seat in an EFTA country, in a former Member State, in a candidate country, in a country entitled to use the euro as its official currency on the basis of a monetary agreement with the Union, in a partner country that has a stabilisation and association agreement with the Union or in a European country with which the Union has concluded an Association Agreement establishing a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area; (3) political alliance means structured cooperation, irrespective of its form, between members, whether political parties (member parties from the Union), citizens of the Union, and, where applicable, associated member parties; member parties from the Union and associated member parties together shall be referred to as member parties; (4) European political party means a political alliance which pursues political objectives, aims to pursue those objectives across the Union and is registered with the Authority for European political parties and foundations referred to in Article 8, in accordance with this Regulation; (5) associated member organisation means an organisation that has its seat in an EFTA country, in a former Member State, in a candidate country, in a country entitled to use the euro as its official currency on the basis of a monetary agreement with the Union, in a partner country that has a stabilisation and association agreement with the Union or in a European country with which the Union has concluded an Association Agreement establishing a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area; member organisations having their seat in the Union (member organisations from the Union) and associated member organisations together shall be referred to as member organisations; (6) European political foundation means an entity which is formally affiliated with a European political party, is registered with the Authority for European political parties and foundations referred to in Article 8 in accordance with this Regulation, and which, through its activities and within the aims and fundamental values pursued by the Union, underpins and complements the objectives of that European political party by performing one or more of the following tasks: (a) observing, analysing and contributing to the debate on European public policy issues and on the process of European integration; (b) developing activities linked to European public policy issues, such as organising and supporting seminars, training, conferences and studies on such issues between relevant stakeholders, including youth organisations and other representatives of civil society, and cooperation partners, and capacity building to support the formation of future political leaders in the Union; (c) developing cooperation in order to promote democracy, including in third countries; (d) serving as a framework for national political foundations, academics and other relevant actors to work together at European level; (7) regional parliament or regional assembly means a body whose members either hold a regional electoral mandate or are politically accountable to an elected assembly; (8) funding from the general budget of the Union means a grant awarded in accordance with Title VIII or a contribution awarded in accordance with Title XI of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council; (9) donation means any financial transfer, any offering in kind, the provision below market value of any goods, services, including loans, or works, or any other transaction which constitutes an economic advantage for the European political party or the European political foundation concerned, with the exception of contributions, self-generated resources and usual political activities carried out on a voluntary basis by individuals; (10) contribution means any payment in cash, including membership fees, or any contribution in kind, the provision below market value of any goods, services, including loans, or works, or any other transaction which constitutes an economic advantage for the European political party or the European political foundation concerned, when provided to that European political party or to that European political foundation by one of its members, whether member parties from the Union, member organisations from the Union or citizens of the Union, with the exception of usual political activities carried out on a voluntary basis by individual members; (11) self-generated resources means income generated by non-profit-oriented own economic activities in the framework of the political activities exercised by a European political party or its affiliated European political foundation, carried out either individually or jointly with its members, such as participation fees for conferences and workshops, or sales of publications; (12) indirect funding means funding from which the member party or member organisation derives a financial advantage, even where no funds are directly transferred; these are cases which allow the member party or member organisation to avoid expenditure which it would otherwise have had to incur for activities that are organised for its own and sole benefit but exclude joint European political activities; (13) joint European political activities means activities organised by the European political party or European political foundation jointly with one or more member parties or member organisations where they concern activities in one or more Member States that contribute to forming European political awareness and expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union, as long as the involvement of the European political party or European political foundation is clearly visible, the level of ownership of the activity by the European political party or European political foundation is clear and the financial contribution of the European political party or European political foundation corresponds to the overall level of involvement of the European political party or European political foundation compared to the involvement of the member parties or member organisations concerned; (14) annual budget for the purposes of Articles 25 and 32 means the total amount of expenditure in a given year as reported in the annual financial statements of the European political party or of the European political foundation concerned; (15) National Contact Point means any person specifically designated by the relevant authorities in the Member States for the purpose of exchanging information pursuant to this Regulation; (16) seat means, unless otherwise specified in this Regulation, the location where the European political party or the European political foundation has its central administration; (17) concurrent infringements means two or more infringements committed as part of the same unlawful act; (18) repeated infringement means an infringement committed within five years of a sanction having been imposed on its perpetrator for the same type of infringement.