Registration can be completed free of charge here.

In July 2023, the ELI Council adopted the above project which aims at providing guidance on present approaches and solutions to foundation law in different European countries, as well as developing a model enterprise foundation law. At present, despite their significant contributions to European society, European enterprise foundations live out a shadowy legal existence which limits their potential contribution.

The new ELI project therefore aims at contributing to overcoming these obstacles by presenting a catalogue of solutions to legally regulate enterprise foundations. The project will develop a legal definition of enterprise foundations with a view to providing clarity on this legal construct. Through comparative legal analysis, the team will identify key sources of variation in national enterprise foundation law (including the law of functional equivalents such as trusts and companies) and explain the legal and economic implications of these choices. This will provide national and European legislators with an informed menu of options on the issue.

Moreover, based on existing enterprise foundation laws, the team will outline a model enterprise foundation law and key legal obstacles which currently prevent enterprise foundation rules from being implemented by a broader set of European countries. The model law will be drafted to meet the needs from as many European countries as possible.

At the Kick-Off Webinar, the Reporters of the ELI project will outline the project and the context out of which it arose. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide input.

Confirmed speakers are:

• Anne Birgitte Gammeljord (Chair; Assessor of the ELI project; ELI First Vice-President; Danish Supreme Court Lawyer)
• Eugenio Barcellona (Project Advisor; Equity Partner, Pedersoli Studio Legale; Professor of Corporate Law, University of Eastern Piedmont)
• Michael Redbrake (Project Co-Reporter; Legal Counsel, Bosch Stiftung)
• Anne Sanders (Project Co-Reporter; Chair for Civil Law, Company Law, the Law of Family Businesses and Comparative Judicial Studies, University of Bielefeld, Germany)
• Hanna Surmatz (Head of Policy, Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea))
• Steen Thomsen (Project Co-Reporter; Novo Nordisk Foundation Professor of Enterprise Foundations, Center for Corporate Governance, Copenhagen Business School and European Corporate Governance Institute)
• Ivan Tot (MCC Chair; Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Business Law, Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Zagreb)