New European Commission policy aims to enable philanthropy sector

The European Commission has made recommendations to Member States for easing barriers to cross-border philanthropy and working towards a broadly enabling environment for the sector and the wider social economy.

The recommendations came in a European Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions.

The proposal recommends that Member States consider tax incentives for the sector including corporate tax exemptions and income tax incentives for donors. It also includes a focus on how to make public benefit cross-border donations easier.

Figures shared by the Commission show that the social economy provides more than 13 million paid jobs, accounting for 6.3% of EU employment, with 2.8 million social economy entities in Europe.

The aim is to advance access to the labour market and social inclusion by helping Member States to integrate the social economy into their policies and by creating supportive measures and a more favourable environment.

The proposal provides recommendations to Member States on:

• how public policies and legal frameworks can be tailored to support the actions of the social economy, particularly in areas where it is less developed
• how administrative and institutional structures can be adapted to support these entities and engage with stakeholders in the sector

It covers various topics including: skills, social innovation, access to funding, public procurement, taxation, social impact measurement and management, and more.

The proposal will now be discussed in the Council. If agreed on, Member States will adopt or update their national strategies for the social economy within 18 months, and the Commission will then monitor the implementation of the strategies through regular consultations with Member States via the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee.

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