António Fernando Correia De Campos, Portuguese MEP of the Socialists and Democrats group, tabled a written question to the European Commission on the future of the European Foundation Statute on 10 November 2009.
Mr Correia De Campos asked: “will the European Commission complete its impact assessment on the European statute for foundations and present a proposal before the end of its new five-year term for review and approval by the Council and the European Parliament?”
On 19 February 2009, the European Parliament adopted by a large majority (580 votes in favour) a resolution on social economy stressing the need for a European statute for foundations to ensure that they benefit from equal treatment in internal market law. The resolution called on the Commission to follow up the feasibility report on the statute for a European foundation and launch an impact assessment of the statutes for a European association and a European mutual society.
The European Commission DG for Internal Market and Services published the results of the feasibility study on the statute for a European foundation in February 2009 and carried out a public consultation to seek stakeholders' views from February to May 2009, whose outcomes were published on 10 November. The key conclusions of the feasibility study is that a statute for a European foundation is the most cost-effective policy option for addressing the administrative and legal barriers that foundations face in their cross-border activities.
In his answer on 11 December Mr McCreevy Commissioner for the Internal Market stated that “political decisions on the possible actions (.. on the Statute.. ) will … only be taken by the next Commission”.
He also recalled that “ in order to assess the need for a statute for a European Foundation, the Directorate-General Internal Market and Services carried out a public consultation between February 2009 and May 2009. The objective of the consultation was to get feedback on the feasibility study itself and on the need for a European Foundation Statute, and to get more in-depth information on the operational problems that foundations face when operating cross-border. The consultation forms part of an assessment on the need for and impact of possible EU action in this field. “
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