Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier unveiled a draft EU regulation on Wednesday 8 February to set up a European charitable foundation statute to encourage the Europeanising of charitable foundations through a new “EU label”, he explained. He said the new European Foundation statute (FE) would be of benefit to foundations active in areas with a high social and/or human dimension such as research, healthcare and humanitarian law.
The FE will introduce uniform rules throughout the EU for the creation and operation of charitable foundations. In order to be granted the FE label, foundations will have to have start-up capital of at least €25,000 and be allowed legally to work overseas (in at least two member states). There will also be standardised rules governing the legal status and internal organisation of an FE.
Some provisions will remain in the hands of national legislation due to lack of harmonisation at EU level, tax rules for example. In this domain, the Commission has opted for non-discrimination for foundations and donors alike, which will both be covered by the country in which they are officially registered/resident, but Barnier has not given up hope of introducing a single European tax system in the future for donations to charitable foundations. Foundations, including the FE, will be supervised by national governments.
Based on EU Directive 2009/38/EC on European works councils, the new regulation lays down rules on paid staff working for European foundations, a highly controversial issue that is largely responsible for the deadlock at the Council of Ministers over the idea of introducing a European private company statute. An FE will be able to work in areas other than its main area of activity as long as the other areas do not generate any more than 10% of annual turnover. To ensure transparency, the income raised by complementary activities of this nature must appear in the annual accounts. This draft regulation is one of a dozen flagship measures designed to boost the internal market, all of which require unanimous approval from the Council of Ministers. (MB/transl.fl)