The European Parliament has voted to ask an EU authority to check whether the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) political party meets the conditions for registration and EU funding.
MEPs backed the request by 414 votes to 224, with 18 abstentions, and asked the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (APPF) to carry out the verification, the parliamentary press service announced on Tueday.
The move follows a letter from the APPF setting out doubts about ESN’s compliance with EU values, including democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
The APPF is an independent EU body responsible for registering, monitoring and sanctioning European political parties and foundations, and it must inform the Parliament, Council and Commission when it identifies facts that cast doubt on a party’s compliance with EU values.
The three institutions then have two months to decide whether to lodge a verification request.
Parliament said the vote was a procedural step and did not represent a position on the substance of the allegations.
What happens next
The APPF will now check whether ESN complies with the registration and funding conditions set out in the EU rules governing European political parties and foundations, Parliament said.
Any decision to deregister a European political party can only take effect if neither the European Parliament nor the Council objects, it added.
A political group using the same name exists in the European Parliament, but the parliamentary group is legally and functionally separate from the ESN political party and is subject to different rules.
This is the first time the procedure has been launched, Parliament said, adding that revised EU rules approved in October 2025 tightened requirements on transparency, foreign interference and the protection of European values.
