With the status of a cross-border association, Renew Europe wants to relaunch the European citizenship project
The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) took a big step towards European citizenship today by adopting a statute for European associations and non-profit organizations. The third sector allows tens of millions of our fellow citizens to get involved in civic life and for the common good, but this commitment is hampered when it comes to campaigning or operating in another Member State. The European cross-border association status and the accompanying certificate should in the future, at the end of the legislative process, provide them with this automatic recognition and allow them to fully develop their activities in other Member States.
Pierre KARLESKIND (Renaissance, France), shadow rapporteur for the status of the European association within JURI, declared: “This text is a real step forward towards the consolidation of a European civil society and will make life easier for thousands of associations operating in several European states. I welcome the inclusion of a clause respecting the values of the European Union, which will guarantee that this new status will not be misused in the service of ideologies contrary to European identity and its values.”
These legislative texts result from an initial request from the European Parliament. The status is aimed at non-profit associations which wish to operate in more than one EU member country. These are currently not automatically recognized when they operate in a country other than the one in which they are established and often have to create a new entity. This concerns some 310,000 associations in the EU, but the European Commission says that 185,000 more entities are likely to engage in cross-border activities thanks to this simplified framework.
Non-profit associations create economic and societal value across the Union and carry out activities in key sectors such as health, care and social services, culture, employment services, sport, research and development and education. EU member states have 3.8 million non-profit associations, which represent 2.9% of EU GDP.
