On Wednesday 16 of February 2022, the European Parliament (EP) approved a legislative initiative Report on a Statute for European cross-border associations and NPOs. This initiative has been led by MEP Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, DE), who during the plenary debate, underlined the relevance embedded in this report, that “is not a formality, but it is rather a necessity”, for civil society to rely on a legal basis, minimum standards and ensured legal form, and added that the underlying objective of this document is to “give our citizens the possibility to join together and create European associations”.
Social Economy Europe (SEE) welcomes this ambitious report and its willingness to strengthen Europe’s civil society, as an expression of active participation of EU citizens and as a pillar of our democracy. SEE highlights in that regard the instrumental role played by the civil society coalition and some of SEE members in providing supporting expertise to the EP and the Commission.
SEE reminds that alongside with cooperatives, mutuals, social enterprises, and other legal forms, associations (including charities), foundations and other NPOs are an essential component of the European social economy, sharing the same values of primacy of people and the social objective over capital, democratic and/or participative governance, autonomous management and independence from public authorities and the reinvestment of most profits or surpluses to carry out activities in the interest of members/users and of society at large.
SEE recalls that SEAP includes key actions for associations and foundation, such as the launch of a European Commission study providing a comparative analysis of the legal regimes and landscapes of associations in the EU and publishing guidance clarifying the existing rules on the tax treatment of cross-border public benefit donations. Furthermore, SEE believes that other key actions as the proposal of a Council Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions to be adopted in 2023, should push to overcome many of the obstacles faced by all social economy actors, including cooperatives, mutuals, associations (including charities), foundations, and social enterprises, within the Single Market, by accompanying and inviting Member States to set-up modern social economy policy and regulatory frameworks, while respecting the wealth of social economy diversity in the EU.
Social Economy Europe (SEE) is the voice of 2.8 million social economy enterprises and organisations in Europe, representing the general interest of all social economy actors. Since its foundation, Social Economy Europe is the secretariat of the European Parliaments Social Economy Intergroup.
Contact person: Víctor Meseguer, Director of SEE
Email: director@socialeconomy.eu.org, Tel. +32 471768227.
