PANHELLENIC UNION OF
SOCIAL ECONOMY PARTNERSHIP
“DISTINCTION OF SOCIAL COOPERATIVES”
The question
The key
question of the conference is "whether all cooperatives should be
considered to be institutions of the social economy and belong to the same associations". The answer can
not be unambiguous because all cooperatives have different goals. Some serve
the interests of a particular group of producers or professionals exclusively for
their members, while other interests of
the wider community.
There are
profit-making cooperatives aiming to
maximize the profit of their members and others aiming at lowering the prices
of goods for the benefit of consumers and users. In addition, some forms of
cooperatives are virtually represented as cooperatives, while in fact they act
as private companies.
In the
first case, we have cooperatives operating in terms of market (co-operatives of
private owners) and in the latter, cooperatives where part of society attempts
in a shared space (land, factory, internet etc.) with the main purpose is
securing revenues to members , its employees and cheap services to the
community.
The second
category develops with more social features, especially after the great
recession. In Europe and Greece, we have many forms of cooperative
entrepreneurship, hence separate legislation. This is why in our country the
relevant policies are shared in many ministries (Labor, Environment, Rural
Development, Health, Infrastructure, etc.). While efforts have been made, there
seems to be real consolidation difficulties both in the institutional framework
and in the policies.
