Article 1

The following paragraph shall be added to Article 109 of Regulation (EC) No 1605/2002:

‘4.

If a political party at European level realises a surplus of income over expenditure at the end of a financial year for which it received an operating grant, part of that surplus up to 25 % of the total income for that year may, by derogation from the no-profit rule laid down in paragraph 2, be carried over to the following year provided that it is used before the end of the first quarter of this following year.

For the purpose of verifying compliance with the no-profit rule, the own resources, in particular donations and membership fees, aggregated in the annual operations of a political party at European level, which exceed 15 % of the eligible costs to be borne by the beneficiary, shall not be taken into account.

The second subparagraph shall not apply if the financial reserves of a political party at European level exceed 100 % of its average annual income.’