Situación y perspectivas de la Sociedad Cooperativa Europea
Abstract
The Statute for a European Cooperative Society (SCE) comprises two complementary provisions. Council Regulation EC no. 1435/2003 “on the statute for a European Cooperative Society» and Council Directive 2003/72/EC «supplementing the Statute for a European Cooperative Society with regard to the involvement of employees”. This supranational legal arrangement aims to endow European cooperatives with an instrument that would enable them to carry out international cross-border activities. However, nearly ten years following its implementation, the supranational scheme has not worked. Only twenty four European cooperative societies with fewer than fifty workers had been set up in Europe by 2012. It is striking that so few were created in countries such as France, Spain or Germany with such an active cooperative movement. Aware of this reality, the European Commission held a public consultation to examine the reasons for the poor adhesion of European cooperativism to the SCE Statute. In February 2012, a report on implementation of the ECS Regulation was published, marking finalisation of the necessary revision of its contents. This study analyses the origin and reasons for creating supranational entities in European Company Law and goes on to examine the content of the ECS Regulation, its complex system of sources and the reasons it failed. The different reform measures proposed by the European Commission to make the legal means more attractive to the European cooperative movement are also explained.
Received: 01 April 2014
Acceepted: 06 May 2014
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