The European Commission has introduced a directive (the European Political Parties Directive) which calls for state-funded political parties. To qualify for funding, parties would have to: 1) contest elections on the same manifesto throughout Europe 2) have a minimum level of support in at least 7 countries 3) \"accept the values of the EU, as set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms\" These criteria are self-evidently designed to bar Eurosceptic parties from receiving this funding. Believing that government should take place at the level of national democracies, Eurosceptic parties are unwilling to merge into pan-European movements. Neither could they agree to accept EU \"values\" (ie laws) being imposed on member states regardless of the views of national parliaments. This directive would therefore skew European democracy by giving federalist parties a huge financial advantage over Eurosceptic parties. This is, of course, in addition to the huge amount of taxpayers\' money that the European Commission (and other EU bodies) routinely spend on federalist propaganda. This petition calls for all parties to be allowed to contest European elections on an equal footing. \"This is exactly how the communists maintained themselves in power in my country.