European economic interest grouping

A European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) is a type of legal entity created on 1985-07-25 under European Community (EC) Council Regulation 2137/85. It is designed to make it easier for companies in different countries to do business together, or to form consortia to take part in EU programmes.

Its activities must be ancillary to those of its members, and, as with a partnership, any profit or loss it makes is attributed to its members. Thus, although it is liable for VAT and employees’ social insurance, it is not liable to corporation tax. It has unlimited liability. It was based on the pre-existing French groupement d´intérêt économique (G.i.e.).

Several thousand EEIGs now exist, active in fields as varied as agricultural marketing, legal advice, research and development, osteopathy, motorcycle preservation and cat-breeding. One of the more famous EEIGs is the Franco-German television channel ARTE. Among other EEIGs:

In contrast to the SE and the SCE, the lack of a Latin name for the EEIG lead to different names in the languages of the European Union:

An EEIG is required to have the abbreviation in its legal name (Art. 5(a) of Council Regulation No. 2137/85).

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