Brussels, 30 june 2003

EURO COOP is the European Community of Consumer Co-operatives, whose members are the national organisations of consumer co-operatives in 11 of the 15 EU Member States and in 3 Central and Eastern European countries. Created in 1957, EURO COOP today represents over 3,200 local or regional co-operatives, membership of which amounts to over 19 million consumers in the EU and 2 million in the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

A. General Observations

Consumer co-operatives are enterprises founded by consumers, united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly-owned and democratically-controlled undertakings. Consumer co-operatives take a holistic approach to production and distribution, taking into account environmental concerns, consumer health and social responsibility. For consumer co-operatives therefore, an optimum european enterprise policy is one that balances both economic and social objectives.

EURO COOP welcomes the European Commission Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe as an important contribution to the challenge of devising an optimum european enterprise policy.

EURO COOP particularly welcomes the reference to social economy enterprises in the text.

On the economic front, the Lisbon Strategy set-out a ten-year roadmap to make the EU the world's most dynamic and competitive economy. It identified the creation of a friendly environment for starting-up and developing innovative businesses as a priority action. Entrepreneurship clearly plays a role in contributing not only to job creation and growth, but also to innovation since entrepreneurs are often agents of change. This is important as entrepreneurs' ability to respond to new opportunities determines how well an economy performs. It is therefore important to enhance competitiveness and growth through innovation and research in order to foster entrepreneurship in Europe.

On the other hand, consumer co-operatives' testify to the contribution of enterprise to fostering social objectives. For example, consumer co-operatives can often be found in rural or remote areas otherwise ignored by more commercial forms of enterprise, thus stimulating economic activity and job creation.

B. Specific Comments

I. Introduction - Europe's Entrepreneurial Challenge

EURO COOP agrees that a friendly environment for starting, developing and growing businesses is central to reaching the goals of the aforementioned Lisbon strategy; however, the environment must be friendly for all forms of enterprises, including co-operatives.

II. The Dynamics of Entrepreneurship

As mentioned above, consumer co-operatives take a holistic, grassroots approach to enterprise which helps to achieve an optimum balance between economic and social objectives. Indeed, it is the strong tradition of integrating social and environmental concerns in their business operations that has led consumer co-operatives to be true leaders in such fields as Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Accounting, Fair Trade, etc.

III. Policy Options for Entrepreneurship

EURO COOP welcomes the reference to the particular challenges facing social economy and social enterprises - including co-operatives. EURO COOP believes it is important to set-out a proper framework to facilitate entrepreneurship in Europe, particularly in areas such as finance, training and support and education. EURO COOP therefore agrees with the measures identified in the Green Paper regarding the administrative steps to be simplified, taxation of business transfers, access to skilled labour, micro-loans, the financial participation of workers, sponsorship from large enterprises to help employees to set-up their own business, and co-operation with the education sector. Such a framework must - as stated above - promote all forms of enterprise.

IV. The Way Forward

EURO COOP agrees that barriers to business and development must be dismantled. In this context, EURO COOP would highlight existing rules which create obstacles for the development of consumer co-operatives. For example, consumer co-operatives believe it should be possible for the European Commission to authorise their vertical agreements (e.g.: exclusive purchase and distribution rights). The original conditions for such authorisations did not cover agreements between more than two enterprises (which thereby excluded most co-operatives). These rules were modified in 1998 to specifically apply to associations of independent retailers and their members, where these members are SMEs. This has not satisfied the co-operatives of independent retailers who find that many of their members exceed the Commission's definition of an SME (96/280) and will also exceed the revised definition proposed in the recent draft recommendation.

EURO COOP also agrees with "learning from the best": successful enterprises can contribute to promoting entrepreneurship. It would be important that experience gained in starting-up and growing an enterprise can be shared with new enterprises starting up. In this respect, consumer co-operatives have a long tradition of older co-ops supporting newer co-operatives in getting started and growing by providing them with guidelines and experience gained in the obstacles new co-operatives may face, thus effectively limiting the pitfalls involved in creating an enterprise. This "Best Practice" is one of reasons why consumer co-operatives are among the most successful and resilient forms of enterprise.

EURO COOP would also stress the importance of rapid adoption of the European Co-operative Statute in order to ensure cross-border co-operatives the same recognition and level playing field enjoyed by other forms of enterprise via adoption of the European Company Statute.

While EURO COOP would in general agree with the message in the Green Paper to "think small", we would caution against completely losing sight of the "larger picture": when speaking of entrepreneurs it may not necessarily be a one-man enterprise, but may well be a group of users or consumers wishing to start-up a co-operative. Indeed, in terms of members, some of the largest enterprises in Europe are consumer co-operatives.

And finally, as a member of the Co-ordinating Committee of European Co-operative Associations ("CCACE"), EURO COOP also supports the comments communicated by CCACE .