There is no such thing as a free meal, and everything has a price. And indeed, because money is at the centre of everything, it also plays a crucial part in politics – even though it might sound provocative, democracy also has a dollar—or, in this case, a euro—figure attached to it. To put it simply, democracy needs money to function. And because the money is always elsewhere than in politics, politicians need to make an effort to reach out to gain access to it.

However, in democracies this needs to be done transparently (and efficiently) so that the flows of money towards parties and politicians do not interfere with the will of the people.

This publication explores the many ways in which money and politics interact, and provides a roadmap for political parties to act for a more transparent and effective financing of European politics: from state subsidies to private fundraising, from regulation to oversight institutions, from protecting European politics from the influence of foreign authoritarian actors to funding European political parties, the authors provide an in-depth analysis of the tools that politicians have to better fund politics in Europe.