13. Is there a ban on donations from any other source?

Art. 16bis .-' Les entreprises, les associations de fait et les personnes morales peuvent, en guise de sponsoring, c'est-?-dire en ?change d'une publicit?, mettre des fonds ou des produits ? la disposition de partis politiques et de leurs composantes, listes, candidats et mandataires politiques, ? condition de respecter les prix du march?'. (Source: Loi 4 Juillet 1989, 'relative ? la limitation et au contr?le des d?penses ?lectorales, ainsi qu'au financement et ? la comptabilit? ouverte des partis politiques', as modified in 2014)

'Donations are governed by sections16bis and 16ter of the Act of 4 July 1989. These rules appear in Part III on the financing of political parties but they apply equally in large measure to candidates or lists and also appear in the Acts of 19 May 1994 and 7 July 1994 on regional and sub-regional elections. Following certain affairs in the 1980s, parliament decided to limit donations to parties and candidates from legal persons and to put a final ban in 1993. The information supplied before and during the visit clearly stated that all donations from legal persons ? companies, associations or other bodies ? were prohibited. This applies to directdonations from legal persons but also to free services or ones provided at below cost price, which are treated as donations and are therefore prohibited. But the implementation of thisprinciple remains a source of problems since certain forms of indirect support are accepted in practice in the absence of a clear legal prohibition, in particular those which are considered as a form of sponsorship by companies10. Subject to this exception, sections 16 bis and ter authorise:a) donations from private individuals to parties and their components, lists, candidates and political office holders (persons already elected and standing for election or re-election); b) political party donations to candidates and political office holders; c) party donations to theircomponents and vice versa. These various forms of support must be registered. It is also claimed that the legislation covers loans, but although they are not explicitly mentioned in the Act of 4 July 1989, the model financial report established by virtue of article 23 explicitly takes these intoaccount. Finally, the law states that gifts by office holders to their political parties do not constitute donations. It emerged from on-site discussions that this could sometimes be asignificant source of income for parties. It varies according to the number of offices held and the responsibilities of the elected members.' (p. 9f) (Source: GRECO (2009), Evaluation Report on Belgium, Transparency of Political Party Funding (Theme II))

All legal persons are banned from making contributions, which will include all types of organizations such as NGOs and religious organizations. However, these organizations can contribute to party finance as 'sponsor' for their activities