DAFNE’s winter meeting

On 20 and 21 January Donors and Foundations’ Networks in Europe (DAFNE) held its winter meeting in Moscow, hosted by the Russian Donors’ Forum. DAFNE members agreed to press for the European Foundation Statue, in particular by contacting their representatives at the European Parliament to secure their support for the written declaration on establishing European Statutes for Mutuals, Associations and Foundations.

It was also agreed to work together to ensure wide participation by foundations in the ongoing public consultation on the European Commission’s Single Market Act, especially with regard to its proposal that the Commission will present a regulation on a European Foundation Statue by the end of 2011.

The latest developments in the field of Value Added Tax (VAT) were presented, with a particular focus on the European Commission’s green paper on the future of VAT, Towards a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system. DAFNE will continue to work in cooperation with other European platforms on this issue.

Other topics discussed included the role of membership associations in promoting cooperation among their members, the promotion of philanthropy and its new forms more generally, and the role of foundations in global philanthropy.

The basis for an enhanced form of collaboration between DAFNE and the European Foundation Centre was also established, with an agreement to hold an annual meeting of the two associations.

For the first time, a number of meetings with national officials were held in conjunction with the DAFNE meeting. Meetings were held with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NGO Committee at the National Parliament, with the aim of getting to know the foundation sector in Russia better and sharing the experiences of the sector in different countries.

Event DAFNE winter meeting
Date 20-21 January 2011
Location Moscow, Russia
Organizer DAFNE

Rosa Gallego is deputy director of the Spanish Association of Foundations and chair of DAFNE. Email rgallego@fundaciones.org