Greek cooperative legislation during the post-crisis years: Between companization and socialization

Topic 13 – Stage 2&3 - MACRO The socio-economic changes in Greece, since the emergence of the 2008 crisis and its evolution into a deep recession influenced the priorities of the Greek legislator, as well as the content of... [ view full abstract ]

Topic 13 – Stage 2&3 - MACRO

The socio-economic changes in Greece, since the emergence of the 2008 crisis and its evolution into a deep recession influenced the priorities of the Greek legislator, as well as the content of the produced laws. Cooperatives have been at the top of the legislator’s agenda, viewed as a tool to restart the Greek economy. Consequently, two major legislative initiatives were taken, L.4015/2011 and L.4019/2011; the former amending the agricultural cooperative law and the latter establishing new types of cooperatives (social cooperative enterprises -SCEs). Considering the above, the scope of this study is to assess whether the recent cooperative laws have reinforced the cooperative identity and enabled the cooperative movement to expand to others sectors.

This study investigates whether L.4015/2011 promoted an extensive companization to agricultural cooperatives, by introducing practices of stock companies. To achieve this, a literature review provided a reference point for cooperatives' companization, a comparative analysis between the Greek stock company law and agricultural cooperative law explored similarities and data from the National Register of Agricultural Cooperative Organisations and Inter-branch Organisations were used to determine the extent of companization. In addition, the introduction of SCEs by L.4019/2011 reaffirms the phenomenon of cooperatives' “socialization”, according to which new forms of cooperatives are prescribed by law with the social scope to pursue the general interest of the community. In this context, a question is posed on whether the current framework succeeds in establishing such institution with an adequate regulatory framework. In order to assess the SCEs’ law, the Italian social cooperative law served as a model for comparison due to its success. For L.4019/2011 thus far implementation, data of the Social Entrepreneurship Register and quantitative methods (questionnaires distributed to existing SCEs) were taken into account.

The results of this study show that the companization trend is not a new concept for the Greek agricultural cooperative law, but it has been further enhanced by L.4015/2011, especially with the measure of forced mergers. Regarding L.4019/2011, a promising type of cooperative is introduced, however, without specific governance and auditing regulations, whereas its favorable tax provisions have been abolished. Data on its implementation indicate that 606 SCEs have been formed but with a limited economic activity, heavily relying on volunteer work and with a small contribution to the creation of vacancies.