Little explainer (how to read the buget)
Understanding the sections
Chapter 0 is basically what was on the banking account at the end of the previous exercice, literally bringing the balance forward into the next exercise.
Part 1 lists all the expected income of the exercise. We chose to only list what is quasi-certain (membership fees) or certain (donations already received).
Part 2 lists the expenses we anticipate as of date. We tried to estimate how much money each line would require, or even provisionned money in anticipation of future actions and decisions which are still to be taken.
Part 3 is the expected result of the exercise if all income are received and all expenses are paid.
To then get an estimate of the organization situation, this result is added to the balance forward to form the expected final balance at the end of the exercise (with all income in, and all expenses out, once again).
Detailing of Part 1 : income
Chapter 1 : fixed income
Nothing special
Chapter 2 : variable income
Donation already received from YPE (they are not required to pay a membership fee but decided to donate an equivalent amount).
Detailing of Part 2 : expenses
Chapter 1 : fixed expenses
Treasury
To anticipate our talks and potential decision with respects to the PPEU domiciliation, we provisionned fees to cover the costs of such a decision (monthly banking fees basically)
Board
Submitting Business Registry (where the PPEU is registered) updates costs money. Getting certified extract (in order to open a banking account for example) costs money as well. Provisionned consequently.
Event though no money is budgeted on the insurance and external audit lines, we thought it might be worth to explore these items in further exercises and would like to have your input on these. Insurance might be needed to cover our activites (such as people helping organize a physical event). External audit might be needed to review and certify the PPEU accounts, as no one here is a certified accountant. It would also be a way to foster confidence in the organization, encouraging members to get more involved and supportive (in a financial and non-financial way). Account certification will be a requirement when we will be in a position to apply for the european political party status recognition.
IT Services
We budgeted our IT services costs to the best of our abilities. We are certain that we would need at least this amount of money, as of our knowledge at the moment. Additional costs due to PPEU contracts we are not aware of might be added to this budget.
Chapter 2 : variable expenses
Board
An emergency fund to tackle any situation which might suddenly occur.
Events
We budgeted the money the PPEU owes the PPFR for the organization of the 12th Council Meeting. Nothing else is planned.
Campaining
Nothing is planned at the moment for PPEU with respect to the 2024 European elections
Side Note
The board feels as if the PPEU is currently underfunded for its operations. We are currently reviewing our costs, and looking into funding options. Such options include a reassesment of the fee levels, as well as setting up an improved donation tool, to encourage individuals and others (MEPs, national parties…) to contribute. Our reasoning is that fees should cover the functionning cost, while donations, ideally recurring donations, would allow the organization to develop further through regular events (exchanges, council meetings, pirate work meetups…). We would like to have your input on these issues as well.
–
Emerodh, for the board
