EUROPA - Enterprise - Social Economy - Mutuals













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Mutuals
Mutuals are part of
the social economy, together with co-operative societies, associations and
foundations. In common with other social economy enterprise forms, they
operate according to the principles of:

Voluntary and open
membership
Equal voting rights
(one member
one vote; resolutions carried by majority)
Autonomy and
independence
No share
capital
A mutual enterprise is
therefore an autonomous association of persons (legal entities or natural
persons) united voluntarily, whose primary purpose is to satisfy their
common needs and not to make profits or provide a return on capital. It is
managed according solidarity principles between members who participate in
the corporate governance. It is therefore accountable to those whose needs
it is created to serve.
Mutuals
can be differentiated from co-operatives (which are in many respects
similar) by the fact that they operate with their own, collective and
indivisible funds, and not with share capital. Rather than purchase
shares, members pay fees (for example based on insurance
calculations).
They are
present in all the Member States, in the insurance (life and non-life) and
health sectors (and, in UK, in the home mortgage sector: the building
societies). However, their importance varies from one Member State to
another: for instance they have a major share in the non-life insurance
sector in France, in Germany and in Spain, but they are very few in Italy,
and the French health mutuals represent 85 % of the complementary health
insurance market. 
However,
the lack of reliable and exhaustive statistics prevents from drawing up an
exact and accurate overview of their place at the European
level.
Consultation Document
on "Mutuals in an enlarged Europe"
The Commission
prepared a consultation
document on "Mutuals in an enlarged Europe". The three principal aims
of the document are:

To improve the
understanding of the sector by national and European authorities in
order to ensure appropriate and suitable regulation;
To consider the
potential use of the proposed Statute for a European Mutual both to
facilitate cross-border activities of existing mutuals and for the
creation of new mutuals.
To analyse the
potential contribution of mutuals to enhancing competitiveness, to
reaching the Lisbon objectives and to meeting the challenges of
enlargement.
The
deadline for comments and suggestions is the 30th January
2004. 
For more
information, please click on http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/coop/mutuals-consultation/index.htm

Contact person at
the European Commission:    [e-mail]
Further
Information


A pilot study on co-operatives,
mutuals, associations and foundations, EUROSTAT, based on data from
1995-1998, published in 2001 

"Building
the Mutual State", MUTUO, 2002  
Links to European
Mutual Organisations

Association
Internationale des Sociétés dÅ‚Assurance Mutuelle
AISAM - (http://www.aisam.org/)
International
Co-operative and Mutual Insurance Federation
ICMIF -(http://www.icmif.org/)
Association of
European Cooperative and Mutual Insurers
ACME - (http://www.icmif.org/acme/acme_splash.asp)

Association
Internationale de la Mutualité
AIM
(http://www.aim-mutual.org/)

Building Societies
Association (http://www.bsa.org.uk/)
Mutuo (Communicate
Mutuality Ltd) (http://www.mutuo.co.uk/)
EURESA (http://www.euresa.org/)

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)

The Commission's
mutual information system on social protection in the EU Member States
and the European Economic Area (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/missoc/index_en.html)

Links to Other
Organisations

RECMA - Revue des études coopératives,
mutualistes et associatives - (http://www.recma.org/) 

 
Last update
21/10/2003