Collective call to grant limited profitability enterprises a legal meaning and ensure a fair competition with private undertakings.

The VYV Group has initiated a collective call for action, and are looking for like-minded organizations willing to join them in their efforts towards the recognition of the notion of “limited profitability”. Here is an excerpt from their letter.

…the specific legal models of companies with limited profitability are not yet recognized by European legislation. This concept is defined in an own-initiative opinion adopted by EESC in 2019 and recognized at international level by the United Nations.

Therefore, our structures are facing an unfair competition with for-profit enterprises caused by the legal oversights on our inner differences: we have a different approach to the distribution of surplus earnings and we have higher constraints on access to capital, which is necessary to grow. The Paint Graphos case law by the CJEU granted a specific regulatory framework to cooperatives regarding those inequalities in EU law and specifically State Aid. It recognized that in view of the constraints to finance their activities, cooperatives are not evolving in a factual and legal situation that is comparable to that for-profit companies

EU and national regulations must more effectively foster the development of limited profitability enterprises by setting a legal and political framework guaranteeing a fair while safeguarding our fundamental values of solidarity, economic resilience, and the absence of the pursuit of profit.

Read the full text HERE, and more about the background of this call in the letter from Thierry Beaudet, president of the VYV Group.

More information about the initiative in their website www.advocatingeurope.eu or directly with:
Dialiha FOFANA for VYV GROUP UMG
Email: dialiha.fofana@groupe-vyv.fr

 

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

 

Smart Villages – a new approach for developing rural communities

Smart Village is a new concept in the field of EU policies. ‘Smart and Competitive Rural Areas’ is one of the broad themes of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) in the 2014-2020 programming period. Smart Villages is one of the sub-themes of the EU Rural Development policy’s.

Smart Villages are “rural areas and communities which build on their existing strengths and assets as well as on developing new opportunities”, where “traditional and new networks and services are enhanced by means of digital, telecommunication technologies, innovations and the better use of knowledge” (by European Comission). That means rural communities taking the initiative to find practical solutions to challenges and make the most of new opportunities. ’Smart’ means also thinking for yourself, building new forms of cooperation beyond the village itself. Most of these coopertions and alliances are social entreprises at the moment as well as in the nearest future.

Watch a video about Smart Villages (with Estonian subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=114&v=iAVilTmxXl0.