On December 9, ERA Academy of European Law in cooperation with the European Foundation Centre, the King Baudouin Foundation, Transnational Giving Europe and the Fondation Fournier Majoie pour l’Innovation hosted a conference on cross-border philanthropy in Brussels.
High-level policymakers from the European institutions, stakeholders from the foundation and charitable sectors, as well as legal and fiscal experts had the opportunity to:
- Identify and analyse the existing hurdles to cross-border charitable giving in the European Union;
- Discuss the appropriate legal form and governance requirements of a European Foundation Statute – as recommended in the European Commission's feasibility study published on 16 February 2009 – and its relevance from a practitioner's perspective;
- Explore alternative options to improving the fiscal environment for European foundations, notably in the light of recent ECJ case law (Persche, Stauffer), as well as foundations' own initiatives such as the Transnational Giving Europe network.
The conference provided practitioners the opportunity to present their experiences based on the existing situation in their home countries in specific areas and to explore ways in which the proposed solutions could concretely promote cross-border giving and the transnational activities of foundations in Europe. On behalf of ECNL, Nilda Bullain attended the event and participated in a panel debate on the fiscal aspects of cross-border giving. Ms. Bullain provided an overview on recent Bulgarian and Polish law revisions to allow tax deductability of cross-border donations as well as shared her view on how an "equivilancy test" could work best.