REUTERS/AFP The EU has announced a clampdown on funding for eurosceptic parties

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Officials at the European Union parliament passed a draconian new measure restricting funding of right-wing movements, while socialist groups will continue to rake in cash unchecked. The controversial move comes after human rights groups blasted the euro elite over plans to introduce a new rule which outlaws “political dissent” and anti-Brussels protest. Under the plot eurosceptic groups including Ukip and Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) will have their access to EU funding restricted to prevent them “acting against European values”.

They will be required to provide bank guarantees before being given their tranche of Brussels cash and will only be handed a third of funding up front, compared to left-wing parties which get 80 per cent. All EU money is ultimately provided by taxpayers, meaning the contributions of workers across the continent are being used to skew the EU parliament in favour of socialist groups. Members of the parliament's bureau - a governing body made up of its unelected president and vice-presidents as well as a handful of MEPs - said the move was to stop eurosceptic parties misspending funds.

PA The new measure will target parties including Ukip

GETTY It will bolster the already left-wing EU parliament

But suspicions will be heightened that the move is actually a ruse to try and put a lid on the populist uprising gripping the continent, which is threatening to destroy the whole EU project. Asked why the parliament's decision has targeted eurosceptic parties, Austrian Green MEP Ulrike Lunacek said that right-wingers "seem to be more inclined to use and abuse the EU". Explaining the move, she told the EU Observer: “We haven't seen other parties breaking the rules on EU party funding, at least not at that scale. "We cannot have cases where, intentionally or not, parties are abusing European taxpayers' money.”

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We cannot have cases where, intentionally or not, parties are abusing European taxpayers' money Austrian Green MEP Ulrike Lunace

The bureau decided that the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE) grouping, which counts MEPs from Ukip and the AfD among its ranks, should be subjected to the draconian new measures. Last month the EU accused ADDE of misspending Brussels’ cash on the Brexit campaign, prompting a furious response from Nigel Farage who said it was “pure victimisation” and invited bureaucrats to “look at what the pro-EU groups were spending”. Other groups to be hit by the new rule include the extreme Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) grouping, which includes the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party from Greece and the National Democratic Party of Germany in its ranks. Europeans United for Democracy (EUD), which is pushing against more federalism, and the anti-abortion Coalition for Life and Family (CVF), as well as various eurosceptic think tanks, will also be affected.