New allies in Europe

By Joshua Massarenti

European foundations have a new ally: the European Parliament. A new study by the Gallup Institute reveals that the Parliament hopes foundations will play a role in shaping the EU’s agenda for 2020. But the chief of the European Foundation Centre warns that a formal partnership between foundations and institutions is still a long way off.

Findings

The survey, which from February to March 2010 polled Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on their relationship, perception and knowledge of foundations, showed that 86% of MEPs believe that the European Union should play a role in facilitating their work. Seventy per cent of respondents think that European foundations should play a role in the EU 2020 Agenda.

The findings were announced at the General Assembly at Foundation Week in Brussels, running until June 4, 2010.

“About two-thirds of MEPs involved in the survey claimed to have a good overall knowledge of foundations and “at least seven out of ten in each of the main political party claimed to have a good understanding, regardless of whether or not they were affiliated with the EPP, S&D or ADLE.”

Moreover, “eight out of ten respondents declared that they had either sometimes or regularly been in contact with foundations as part of their parliamentary work and four out of ten said that contact occurred on a regular basis.”

“Over a third of participating MEPs (36%) said that they had worked for a foundation as a staff member, board member or volunteer.”

“About a quarter (27%) said that they had been the beneficiary of a scholarship, fellowship, award or grant from a foundation and one in eight (13%) said they had established a foundation”.

About three-quarters of respondents (73%) had a very positive image of foundations.

The road to a partnership

 “The findings of this survey coincide with a will held by us in the foundation world to find partners within the European institutions” said Gerry Salole, the chief executive of European Foundation Centre (EFC).

This kind of support could translate into the creation of a European foundation statute. In fact nine out of ten parliamentarians agreed that the EU should play a role in facilitating the work of foundations and 73% said that they would support the proposal for a European foundation statute.

 “A statute enabling foundations in Europe to work in neighbouring countries is long overdue. Not having this mechanism in place is stopping foundations from reaching their full potential. In these difficult financial times foundations have an increasingly important role to play,” said Salole. ?Under the current regulation system, a national foundation working out of one of the 27 member states is met with hurdles when it tries to set up a new programme in another European country – even if it has the funds to do so.

This means that vital work is not being carried out. “This is out of line with the vision of Europe we all work so hard to uphold,” said Salole.

“Foundations have the potential to play a key role in supporting the EU’s 2020 agenda, but at the moment they lack the tools to do so.”

Even with the positive results from the Gallup survey constructing a formal partnership between European foundations and the EU Parliament is still a long way off,” said Salole.

It is worth noting that of the 736 parliamentarians asked to participate in the poll only 98 responded.

“Now we need to seek out those who didn’t respond and find out their point of view,” said the chief executive of the EFC.

By no means an easy undertaking but a worthwhile one, considering that with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty the Parliament now holds a considerable amount of power in Europe.