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Brussels, 05/06/2001
Euro Coop calls for the adoption of the European Co-operative Statute
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 Member States of the EU and in 4 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.
Euro Coop, the European Community of Consumer Co-operatives, is calling for the urgent adoption of the European Co-operative Statute.
The adoption of the European Co-operative Statute (ECS) has always been strongly supported by the co-operative organisations throughout Europe, but its importance is now further emphasised by the growing need for cross-border co-operation, in order to face the internationalisation of business and the globalisation of the economy. European consumer co-operatives urgently need an appropriate legal instrument allowing them to operate at international level.
In addition to the inclusion as a priority on the Council's agenda, Euro Coop is calling for the Commission and Member States to consider the following amendments, which should be introduced in the last version of the proposed Regulation on the Statute for a European Co-operative in order to update it and ensure that it better responds to European consumer co-operatives needs.
1. Definition of Members: Article 1(3)
This should be expanded to allow an SCE to deal not only with its direct members but also with the members of co-operatives, which are corporate members of the SCE.
2. Registration Requirements: Article 12(5)(b)
The wording requires the registration with the official registrar of "the opening or closing of any establishment." This is an unnecessary burden on large consumer SCEs who would therefore have to register the opening or closing of individual shops. The only registration requirement should be the change of address of the head office of an SCE.
3. Approval of New Members: Article 15(1)
The compulsory approval of each new member by the management board is too burdensome for a consumer SCE with mass membership. However co-operatives might wish to have this power, and to exercise it at times to prevent hostile infiltration. An SCE should have the right to take this power. The words "where the statutes allow" should be added to the end of the first sentence in Article 15(1).
4. Public Access to Membership List: Article 15(4)
The second sentence should be deleted. An SCE should not be required to grant general public access to its index of members.
5. General Meetings: Chapter IV, especially Article 65
The proposal to hold sectional meetings in advance of the general meeting to consider the same agenda as the general meeting and to elect delegates for the general meeting does not solve the problem of having a democratic government. Article 65, as a whole should be rewritten to permit an SCE to set up any flexible system of representative democracy in its own statutes. Euro Coop proposes the following wording:
Article 65
(Representative member democracy)
- Where an SCE carries on several distinct activities, or where it has several establishments, or where its activities span more than one territorial unit, or where it has more than five (one?) hundred members the democratic influence of the individual members need not necessarily be exercised directly at the general meeting, and the statutes may provide for a representative member democracy based on local and/or regional bodies and competences and local and/or regional elections of representatives to the central governing bodies of the SCE, including its general meeting.
- Where the statutes provide for a representative member democracy in accordance with paragraph 1 the general meeting of the SCE shall be held in accordance with the principles set forth in Articles 53-64 with such material and procedural variations as may be mandated by its representative nature.
Contact:Louise Ousted Olsen, Acting Secretary General
E-mail: Lousted_Olsen@eurocoop.org
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