A3-0039/94

Resolution on the contribution of cooperatives to regional development

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr de la Cámara Martínez on a programme of support for cooperatives (B3-0906/91),

-having regard to the EC Treaty, in particular its Articles 100, 58, second paragraph, and 130a,

-having regard to the report of the Economic and Social Committee on the contribution of cooperatives to regional development,

-having regard to its earlier resolutions on cooperatives,

-having regard to the Commission communication to the Council on 'business in the "Economie sociale" sector and Europe's frontier-free market',

-having regard to the measures comprising the European Growth Initiative agreed by the European Council in Edinburgh and ratified and extended by the European Council in Copenhagen and Brussels,

-having regard to the amended Structural Fund regulations,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having delegated the power of decision, pursuant to Rule 52 of its Rules of Procedure, to the Committee on Regional Policy, Regional Planning and Relations with Regional and Local Authorities,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Regional Policy, Regional Planning and Relations with Regional and Local Authorities (A3-0039/94),

A.having regard to the importance of the cooperative sector in the Community economy, with over 60 million cooperative members and 3 million jobs,

B.having regard to the specific organizational approaches, based on the principles of participation by and solidarity between members, which characterize cooperatives,

C.whereas these principles of solidarity, participation and the priority of the individual over capital make a positive contribution to enterprise culture in the Community; whereas cooperatives, with their close links to the local and regional social fabric, are especially suited to playing a major role in the recovery of the less-favoured regions,

D.whereas, despite the 'social' nature of cooperatives deriving from their structure and specific aims, their productive activity must inevitably follow the rules of the market and of sound economic management,

E.whereas the internal market is creating greater challenges in the economic environment for cooperatives; whereas, in this context, their structure and specific aims may make it more difficult for them to adapt to greater competition,

F.whereas cooperatives have demonstrated their capacity to create and preserve employment, which is of particular relevance to regions affected by industrial decline,

G.whereas the cooperative sector largely comprises small and medium-sized undertakings,

H.having regard to the great variety of the cooperative sector, from both the legal and the economic viewpoints,

1.Considers that the Community must act so as to facilitate access for cooperatives to the internal market, placing them on the same footing as other forms of enterprise through the removal of legal and economic obstacles, with a view to effectively safeguarding equal opportunities;

2.Considers, nonetheless, that no action by the Community can replace the initiatives of enterprises in the sector themselves, and that only associative effort and mutual cooperation can guarantee a truly effective response to the present challenges;

3.Reiterates the urgent need for an alternative optional legal form to facilitate the transnational operations of cooperatives, and calls on the Council, taking into account Parliament's positions, rapidly to adopt its common positions on the statutes for the European association, the European cooperative society and the European mutual society;

4.Calls on those Member States where legal obstacles still exist to the access of cooperatives to certain areas of economic activity to remove those obstacles;

5.Is aware of the specific limitations of cooperatives as regards capital formation and increasing equity capital (in particular due to the lack of provisions, in some Member States, for membership of cooperatives for non-user investors); considers that these limitations, arising from the nature of their legal and organizational structure, place them in a position of inferiority in relation to other types of enterprise as far as benefiting from the single market is concerned;

6.Reaffirms the need to develop, at Community level, a specific financial mechanism to facilitate the acquisition of capital by cooperatives in the context of the new needs arising from the opening up of frontiers and the financing of transnational operations;

7.Welcomes, in this connection, the establishment of the SOFICATRA investment company, under a pilot scheme supported by the Commission, as representing the first step towards creating a more complex and ambitious financing mechanism geared to operations with a transfrontier or transnational component while at the same time consolidating the local base of enterprises regardless of their legal form;

8.Recalls that much activity in the cooperative sector consists of managing small and medium-sized undertakings, and considers it essential to ensure the full participation of cooperatives in Community support policies for SMUs;

9.Welcomes the fact that many of the measures included in the European Growth Initiative are aimed at supporting SMUs, thus recognizing their key role in relaunching growth and employment in the Community, and considers it vital to maintain and reinforce the SMU component of the EIB's temporary loan facility, in particular by using the European financing mechanism for equity capital and quasi-equity capital for enterprises in the mutual and associative cooperative sector, including mutual investment funds;

10.Shares the Commission's analysis in the White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment as regards the role which SMUs might play in economic recovery and their contribution to employment and calls on the Member States, in accordance with the conclusions of the Brussels European Council of 10 and 11 December 1993, to incorporate the measures proposed therein into their economic policy, in particular those aimed at reducing constraints of a fiscal or administrative nature and other restrictions which obstruct their activity;

11.Urges, in this connection, those Member States which have not yet done so to complete the national ratification procedure concerning the establishment of the European Investment Fund;

12.Expresses its conviction that the cooperative sector has a major role to play in regional development, both as a factor of job creation and preservation and insofar as it frequently fulfils functions transcending the purely economic, contributing to greater social cohesion and integration; considers it essential to recognize and strengthen this role by offering wider participation to the cooperative sector in the implementation of Community structural policies;

13.Recalls the Commission's undertaking to take account of the specific training needs of undertakings in the mutual sector when deciding on the financing of actions by the European Social Fund under Objective 3;

14.Considers that the European Social Fund should contribute under Objective 4 (anticipation of industrial change) to specific training with a view to setting up new cooperatives and to training designed to help workers take over companies in difficulty and turn them into solidarity-based enterprises;

15.Considers that the inclusion, even on a limited basis, of the social partners in the principle of cooperation improves the prospects of the cooperative sector being taken into account when implementing the Structural Funds; calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognize the cooperative sector as an economic and social partner as regards utilization of the Structural Funds at regional level;

16.Recommends that the Commission make substantial use of global grants as an instrument, and that it consider, where relevant, the possibility of cooperating with intermediaries from the cooperative sector;

17.Is convinced that full use by cooperatives of the various Community support instruments depends in the first place on the existence of an adequate information flow between companies in the sector and the Community institutions, especially the Commission; welcomes the creation of the ARIES information network and the support given it by the Commission, which has recognized it as a centre for European business information;

18.Calls on the Commission to grant ARIES support commensurate with the programme it is to fulfil, i.e. the development of a European mutual- sector network;

19.Calls on the Commission to submit, as soon as possible, a working programme concerning undertakings in the mutual sector, to include a quantitative and qualitative report on the use by such undertakings of the various relevant Community instruments and policies;

20.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Member States and the representatives of the organizations of cooperatives, mutual societies and associations in the Community.