The 2012 Annual Growth Survey, part of a package adopted by the European Commission on 23 November 2011, sets out what the Commission believes must be the EU’s priorities for the next 12 months in terms of budgetary policies and structural reforms.  

The Survey calls for the EU and Member States to focus on five priorities: pursuing differentiated, growth-friendly fiscal consolidation; restoring normal lending to the economy; promoting growth and competitiveness; tackling unemployment and the social consequences of the crisis; and modernising public administration. The Annual Growth Survey includes a list of pending or future proposals aimed at boosting growth, which the Commission wants to be fast-tracked through the EU legislative process. For more information, please see the press release.

This year’s Annual Growth Survey contain a new annex on growth-friendly tax policies in Member States and better tax coordination in the EU. The annex highlights the importance of tax coordination in tackling cross-border obstacles on the Internal Market, given that some of the most important obstacles remaining in the internal market currently stem from uncoordinated tax policies of Member States: taxation influences economic agents' cross-border decisions  and mismatches between national tax provisions may act as barriers and prevent citizens and businesses from fully reaping the benefits of the integrated market.

As the EU continues to pursue increased compliance by Member States’ national tax legislations with European level requirements, foundations and their donors stand to benefit from the enforcement of the principle of non-discriminatory tax treatment of public-benefit organisations and individuals/corporates making donations to these organisations, as established by  the Stauffer and Persche decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Several Member States have yet to implement these decisions of the ECJ. Tax co-ordination among Member States in the field of charity law, an initiative started by the EU institutions some years ago, but which has slowed down in recent years, could be further explored as a way of improving the enabling environment for public-benefit organisations in Europe. So far, Member States have found very different ways to implement the ECJ decisions and some legislative amendments are yet to be proved effective in practice. For information about individual countries’ responses to the Persche and Stauffer ECJ cases, please see the EFC Legal and Fiscal Country Profiles. Recognising the importance if this issue, the EFC with partners has decided to map the different national approaches to implementing the non-discriminatory approach to tax treatment of foundations and their donors, and to provide more practical information to foundation practitioners, funders and donors to enable them to be better guided through the jungle of laws and procedures affecting cross-border philanthropic situations. The project will run in 2012. For more information about the initiative, please contact legal@efc.be