Philea calls on the European Commission to reconsider withdrawing the European Cross-Border Association
Philea strongly opposes the European Commission’s proposal to withdraw the Directive on European Cross-Border Associations (ECBA) within 6 months, as was announced on 21 October 2025.
The ECBA Directive has been long awaited and welcomed by the wider civil society and philanthropy sector. It would:
- Contribute to creating a single market for public good
- Remove red tape and barriers
- Enable public-benefit organisations (PBOs) to operate and be recognised across borders
- Enable PBOs to join forces with partners for new European initiatives
- Offer a level playing field for associations and foundations in the internal market
We believe that the ECBA is an important step in moving ahead with European company law, also for public-benefit and social economy actors. The ECBA is in line with the Commission’s priorities to both “deepen the EU Single Market” and to “embed citizens’ participation across the EU”. The ECBA also delivers on the European Commission’s commitment to strengthen democracy and civil society and implement the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP).
The call for a Single Market for Philanthropy is crucial to Philea’s policy and advocacy activity, as expressed in our 2024 European Philanthropy Manifesto.
It is true that the work on the directive has been slowed down in the last months at the level of the Council due to a debate around the directive’s legal basis, but there have been no public calls for its withdrawal among the options considered by the Council. The European Parliament supported the initiative as well as the civil society, social economy and philanthropy sectors and Philea submitted input to the ECBA consultation in February 2024.
The announcement of the withdrawal must be followed by a decision within the next six months. We now urge Vice-President Séjourné and the College of Commissioners to listen to the civil society and social economy sector and to reverse this proposal.
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