THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF EUROPEAN CROSS-BORDER ASSOCIATIONS

The EU institutions' desire to introduce into the legal system a type of association based on supranational concepts has been a constant over the last forty years. The most comprehensive proposal was the Amended Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on the Statute for a European Association of 31 August 1993, whose content was massively rejected, which finally failed in 2005. Almost two decades later, there was a new attempt through the European Parliament resolution of 17 February 2022 with recommendations to the Commission on a Statute for European cross-border associations and non-profit organisations that continued to raise doubts. As a result, a new effort has been made now with the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Cross-Border Associations of 5 September 2023, which is currently going through the ordinary legislative procedure. This proposal entrusts Member States with the task to regulate by national law a specific type of association, based on common rules, the so-called << European cross-border association >> (ECBA), and establishes as a key element for its regulation the setting up of an ECBA Register in each Member State with certifying powers. The aim is that once these associations are registered in any of the new and interconnected public registers, they can enjoy all internal market freedoms within the European Union without the need for subsequent authorisations or registrations to carry out their activities, in particular, economic ones. Thus, the present study aims at both, analysing the difficult journey of the long-awaited European association that despite its non-profit nature would have a key role in social economy, and monitoring its future, which is inevitably conditioned by negotiations of the European co-legislators, institutions and priorities that may emerge from the 2024 European Parliament elections.