The Current State And Prospects For Development Of The Polish Cooperative Law
The Current State And Prospects For Development Of The Polish Cooperative Law

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the current state, legislative threats connected with the preparation of the Polish cooperative act and selected legislative proposals. The legal status of Polish cooperatives is unsatisfactory. The basic assumptions, structure and content of the regulations, which are of archaic and residual nature, are defective.A new cooperative law will not solve the problem if the existing legislation is merely amended. Another danger may stem from the defective definition of the essence and status of co-operatives in social market economy.The forthcoming cooperative law should be limited to general issues which apply tom co-operatives. Specific acts should govern individual co-operatives, e.g. credit cooperatives. The law should guarantee a broad statutory freedom.It is very important to have a precise yet a comprehensive definition of the purpose of the co-operative. The Finnish cooperative law provides a good example in this regard: “The purpose of a co-operative shall be to promote the economic and business activities of its members by means of the pursuit of economic activity where the members make use of the services provided by the co-operative or services that co-operative arranges for, directly, indirectly or otherwise.” Any future regulation should not limit the possibility of co-operatives becoming members of commercial companies.Differences between legal entities are becoming blurred, and this also applies o co-operatives. Therefore, co-operatives should take over some solutions from typical commercial companies, such as the marketability of shares.

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