During the passage through parliament of the “Patronage Law” there were numerous criticisms that called it restrictive, interventionist and not reflecting regulations in other European Union countries. This led the Government to revise its position in part and at the end of 1993 it presented a new Bill on Foundations. A conference was held in Bilbao only weeks before the parliamentary debate on the Bill, organized by the BBV Foundation with more than 200 foundations taking part. It debated the provisions of the Bill, stressing the importance that the legislators should assume the new political culture of western countries, based on a new division of functions between state and society.