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Co-operatives
  Communication
on the promotion of co-operative societies in Europe

Co-operatives are an
important part of European economic life and industry; the 132,000
co-operative enterprises in the EU have 83.5 million members and employ
2.3 million people. The performance of co-operatives has a major impact on
the lives of the citizens of Europe. They deliver wellbeing to citizens,
wealth to nations, promote entrepreneurship and participation.
A co-operative is an
autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common
economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly
owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
The defining
characteristics for a co-operative are:

Possibility of free
and voluntary association and withdrawal from the enterprise;
Democratic
structure, with each member has one vote, majority decision making and
an elected leadership accountable to its members;
Equitable, fair and
just distribution of economic results.
Co-operatives are
enterprises like any other, but they are enterprises that exist to serve
the needs of their members who own and control them, rather than to
provide a return on investment. All enterprises exist to serve the
interests of their cardinal stakeholder groups. For traditional companies
that means investors, however in a co-operative returns on capital (which
are in some cases permitted) must always be subordinated to other
interests. In fact a non-co-operative enterprise might be called an
association of capital (or investor-driven business) whereas a
co-operative is an association of people (or people-driven
business).
Consultation Document
on "Co-operatives in Enterprise Europe"
The Commission
prepared a consultation
document on "Co-operatives in Enterprise Europe". The two principal
aims of the document are:

To analyse the
advantages and disadvantages inherent in the co-operative form of
enterprise in Europe;
To assess the
potential contribution of co-operatives to the achievement of Community
objectives.
The deadline for
comments and suggestions on the paper was 30th April 2002. For
information on the replies received by 30th April 2002 click on http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/coop/consultation/index.htm
Following the
consultation, the European Commission on 23 February 2004 adopted a
Communication on the promotion of co-operative societies addressed to the
European Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and
Social Committee and the Committee of Regions.
Communication on the promotion of
co-operative societies in Europe [COM(2004)18]
The
present Communication reflects the outcome of this extensive consultation
process.
 
The
Communication tries to concentrate on three main issues which have been
pointed out in the responses and establishes what Member States and
co-operatives themselves can do to exploit that cooperativesł business
potential. For the same three issues the Communication enumerates a series
of concrete actions to be undertaken by the Commission in order to attain
the objectives.
The main
issues of the Communication are
·      The promotion of the greater
use of cooperatives across Europe by improving the visibility,
characteristics and understanding of the sector
·      The further improvement of the
cooperative legislation in Europe
·      The maintenance and improvement
of cooperativesł place and contribution to community
objectives.
 A press release IP/04/266
has also been published in German, English
and French
(http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/04/266|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=).
The Statute
for a European Co-operative Society was adopted on 22nd July
2003.
Further
Information

"Co-operative Movements in the European Union", Report
of the Higher Council for Co-operation (France) 2000. Published by the
Délégation Interministérielle Ä… lÅ‚Innovation Sociale et Ä… lÅ‚Economie
Sociale.    

The International Labour
Office Report on the Promotion of Co-operatives

Report of the U.K.
Co-operative Commission (2001)
Links to Co-operative
Organisations  

The International Co-operative Alliance (http://www.coop.org/ica/index.html)

the Co-ordinating Committee of European
Co-operative Associations (http://www.ccace.org/uk/indexuk.htm)

ICA European member organisations (http://www.coop.org/ica/regions/inforegeur.html)

dot COOP - the new co-operative top-level
domain name (http://www.coop/)
International Center of Research and
Information on the public and Co-operative Economy (http://www.ulg.ac.be/ciriec/index.htm)

Links to relevant European Commission
Programmes

The Commission's EQUAL Programme (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equal/index_en.html)

The Commission's ACCESS Programme for
candidate countries (http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/pas/phare/programmes/multi-bene/access2000.htm)

Links to Other Organisations

International Labour Conference
Recommendation on Co-operatives - 2002  (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc90/pdf/pr-23a.pdf)

United Nations report on Co-operatives -
2001 (http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/docs/2001/e2001-68.pdf)

 
 
Last update:
13/05/2004