Legal Regulatory Framework of Cooperative Principles

Cooperatives are an essential structural element of national economies. They contribute to the sustainable and intensive economic growth and to the promotion and development of social market instruments. Due to their specific principles of organization and functioning, cooperatives are distinguished from all other forms of corporate typology, as well as from the state bodies, the nonprofit legal entities etc. Their characteristic features are manifested at national and cross-border European level. The principles on the basis of which cooperatives develop their activities and differentiate them from other organizational and legal establishments are emphasized in a number of acts of the European Union such as Council Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003 of 22 July 2003. The Statute for a European Cooperative Society (SCE) points out that their activity is based on „the specific features of cooperatives” and that „cooperatives are primarily groups of persons or legal entities with particular operating principles that are different from those of other economic agents”. The article analyzes the national legal frameworks and the European regulatory framework of the cooperative principles: voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among co-operatives and concern for community.

The relationships between them as well as those in the context of the normative regulation of cooperative values are explored.