My concern is that unless there's some form of legal control by the Wikimedia Foundation over such international subsidiaries, there could be some divisiveness and heartbreak in the future. What can we do now to prevent such things in the future?
It would seem best to me if it is possible for the U.S. foundation to legally open an "office" in the legal sense in Europe, either for the entire EU or on a per-country basis.
If you want to open a foundation subsidiary that's not that easy: If there is a subsidiary of the Foundation in Europe (let's say in Germany), german law will apply. In that case some articles on the english WP would have be taken down, since they are likely to be illlegal by german law. Since taking down articles for that reason is very unlikely to happen, no one here in Europe can take responsibility for the Foundation directly without a more direct control over the content. So having a foundation subsidiary here will - set aside the technical (formal) difficulties - not work, since no one wants to do that job.
However, we need some sort of organization here in Germany. Otherwise, the major contributors who stick their head out to much (namlely the admins, even more namely Kurt) are endangered to be held liable (for copyright violations or whatever reason) in case someone tries to milk some money out of us (Remember the SCO/Linux-Case. We are far more endangered to have sleeping, undiscovered copyright violations than Linux ever was). We need some sort of organization to draw attraction of that particular sort to the organization and away from the admins.
Furthermore, we need it - as Kurt already mentioned - for collecting tax exempt donations and for better "marketing". The german Wikipedia is the second biggest Wiki in the world now - we are featured by one of the three big german news magazines next month, we need a more or less official representation of the german language Wikipedians in general and the german ones in particular. We need someone who can sign letters and speak officially for the community, not just a "press contact".
So that "Verein" must and will be founded. It's just the question if we name it Wikimedia or not. We would like to, because we feel ourselfes connected to the foundation, even if it should be - for the reason given above - no formal connection. Yet - as Kurt also already mentioned - one could think about a global organization putting those local organizations under a common roof with an international board. But let's take one step after the other. So let's try us first with "Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. ", and do our best to link that association with the foundation the best way possible.
Uli