The European Movement International (EMI) welcomes the decision taken by the European Commission for a Council regulation on the Statute for European Foundations.
The Commission approved a proposal for a Regulation aiming at creating a new European legal form intended to facilitate the establishment and operation of foundations in the Single Market. This new legal form will allow foundations to channel private funds more effectively for public benefit purposes on a cross-border basis in the European Union.
As Member of the European Alliance for the Statute of the European Association (EASEA) the EMI had already been campaigning for European Statutes for Associations, Foundations and Mutual Societies in 2011. The alliance succeeded to collect a majority of MEP signatures for the Written Declaration 84/2010. The European Parliament officially pledged its support for the cause in March 2011 and forwarded the text to the European Commission, the Council and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.
The recent decision of the European Commission takes on board some of the EASEA recommendations but has one shortcoming to only focus on European Foundations. In order to ensure that the European dimension of Civil Society Organisations is truly taken seriously, Associations and Mutual Societies should be awarded the same legal form. Millions of European Citizens join together every day in associations across Europe and their engagement and activism needs to be recognised on an institutional and European level.