WP 45 | 12 Cooperative finance and cooperative identity
The question addressed in this paper is whether the financial structure of cooperatives constitutes a badge of identity that differentiates cooperatives from other corporate legal forms such as capital-based companies.
To this end, it examines features of their financial structure that are considered typical of cooperatives in a number of documents published by international organizations: the International Co-operative Alliance’s Statement on the Co-operative Identity (ICA, Manchester, 1995); the International Labour Organization’s R193 Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation (ILO, 2002); Council Regulation (EC) No. 1435/2003 of 22 July 2003 on the Statute for a European Cooperative Society (SCE), and the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of Regions on the promotion of co-operative societies in Europe (Brussels 23.02.2004, COM(2004) 18).
