Europe: a statute for social and solidarity based enterprise

A report exploring the legal frameworks within Member States governing social and solidarity based enterprises has been published: see here (pdf). The study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs. The report recommends the introduction of legislation in order to permit the recognition of entities called European Social Enterprises (or ESEs).  Such entities would be those meeting qualifying conditions, and would include companies, cooperatives and foundations. The suggested conditions include having an exclusive (or dominant) community or social purpose as well as constraints on profit distribution.