The EU's three main institutions have demanded Facebook make changes to its advertising policy ahead of the European Parliament election, citing "huge political and institutional consequences," according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

Under new rules, which came into force this week, the social media giant requires all advertisers to register in the country where they wish to purchase political advertising, as part of an effort to limit foreign influence in national campaigns.

But the rules as currently established are not suited to the European election system, as they prevent parties and institutions from running legitimate cross-border campaigns within the EU, according to the letter, addressed to Facebook's head of global policy Nick Clegg and signed by the secretary-general of the European Commission, Martin Selmayr, as well as his counterparts from the European Parliament and Council of the European Union.

"Facebook's policy would prevent European political actors from using Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram for their EU-wide paid communication campaigns," reads the letter, dated April 16. "This policy would put EU political actors at the same level as foreign entities attempting to interfere in the EU elections. This is not the case with other social media platforms."

“We’ve always had excellent contact with Facebook but unfortunately they did one irritating thing, which is basically ignoring the single market” — Didrik de Schaetzen, campaign manager for ALDE

Facebook's new rules impose much stricter requirements on the geographic limits of a given campaign. An ad buyer must provide a physical address as well as a telephone number and credit card, among other requirements, to the social media giant before buying political or issue-based advertising.

The problem, as the EU sees it, is that the system would stop buyers from advertising between EU countries, when next month's European Parliament election involves campaigning by pan-EU political groups.

The letter goes on: "Facebook transposes the U.S. single jurisdiction system to the European level, identifying the individual member states as sole jurisdiction for the European elections. It therefore ignores the system of shared competences between the Union level and the national level."

A further problem raised by the EU institutions — the rules are getting in the way of information campaigns run by the Commission and Parliament to raise awareness about the vote and inform citizens on how to participate.

While the authors state that Facebook has discretion "not to recognize this situation" [and pan-EU advertising] as its "commercial choice," they urge the firm to reconsider its approach, citing "huge political and institutional consequences."

Party frustration

Representatives from European parties echoed frustration about the rules, which are being rolled out in Europe after having been used in the United States during midterm elections.

“We’ve always had excellent contact with Facebook but unfortunately they did one irritating thing, which is basically ignoring the single market,” said Didrik de Schaetzen, the campaign manager for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). “It’s a shame they don’t consider there is such a thing as a European sphere.”

Digital giants are under pressure from the European Commission to fend off foreign attempts to manipulate or meddle in the European election, with Facebook, Google, Twitter and Mozilla all signing the EU "code of practice" on disinformation and pledging transparency around the way they run political ads.

But parties say the current rules — which essentially bar cross-border ad campaigns within the bloc — pose compliance challenges and are too burdensome.

“I understand [Facebook is] striving to fulfill the EU code of practice on disinformation,” said Markéta Gregorová, the president of the European Pirate Party and No. 2 on the Czech faction’s European election list. “However the chosen way creates unnecessary barriers and doesn't protect the European election from an external influence.”

Organizations such as the European People’s Party and ALDE are European umbrella organizations. They are registered and based in Belgium but their member parties are based in countries across the EU.

According to Facebook’s ad rules, such organizations can only buy ads in Belgium, Parliament insiders said.

The social media giant defended its decision.

“Facebook is throwing legislation aside and making up its own legislation on what is possible and what is not” — Sybren Kooistra, campaign manager for the European Greens party

"We weighed the different risks and concluded that the right solution to help best guard against foreign interference is to only allow people to run advertisements in an EU country if they have passed an authorization process confirming they are a resident in that same country,” a spokeswoman for Facebook said in a statement.

Campaign complaints

The European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which gathers the leaders of political groups and other senior figures, decided last week to take action on Facebook’s new policy on cross-border political advertising. It reached out to the European Commission and the Council of the EU to decide on a common line.

If Facebook sticks to its stance, European political parties will have to reassess their online campaigning plans.

“I won’t be able to spend what I had planned to,” ALDE’s de Schaetzen said.

Two Parliament insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity said their organization’s plans are currently under review to assess how to proceed.

"Facebook is blocking a pan-European conversation and hindering dialogue between European parties and citizens," said Dara Murphy, the European People's Party's vice president and campaign director.

The same Parliament insiders also noted that European political parties need to be “very careful” if they decide to authorize their national member parties to pay for ads on their behalf because of limits imposed by EU funding rules. (The 2014 legislation on the funding of European political parties sets a threshold for contributions from national members.)

Asked by POLITICO about Facebook's policies, the Commission said in a statement that the rules go beyond the EU code of practice against disinformation.

“We would like to underline that the code of practice on disinformation does not limit political advertising to advertisers residing only in a given member state,” a spokesman said. “Any such decision by social media platforms is a commercial choice at the discretion of the company.”

Political groups also argue that Facebook’s policy is more restrictive than some national laws as only a few countries, including France and Germany, have rules on political ads online.

“Facebook is throwing legislation aside and making up its own legislation on what is possible and what is not,” said Sybren Kooistra, the campaign manager for the European Greens party.

News publishers are exempt from the ad authorization process, according to Facebook's business page. Several European parties, including the European People's Party and the European Greens, are calling for the same kinds of exceptions for EU-registered parties.

“They’ve made exceptions for media so why shouldn’t they make exceptions for political parties?” Kooistra said.

Nicholas Vinocur contributed reporting.