Slovenian government interested in the development of worker and social cooperatives
After a recent law on social enterprises (2011), under which 26 social cooperatives are already registered (and about 70 enterprises of other models), there is a new interest towards developing cooperatives under the new government. In 2014, there were 332 cooperatives in Slovenia (about 80% of them active in farming and forestry) employing 3,087 people. However, according to a recent visit of CECOP to the country it looks as though the push towards developing cooperatives in industry and services has come. Business transfers to employees are also high on the agenda.
On 6, 7 and 8 July, CECOP Secretary General Bruno Roelants met the Slovenian Minister of the Economy, Mr Počivalšek, the Minister of Labour, Ms Kopač Mrak, the Secretary of State for cooperatives, Mr Slapnik and members of Parliament from the Employment and Social Affairs and Economy Commissions, among others, to share the state-of-the-art of worker and social cooperatives in Europe and see how they could be developed in Slovenia.
The audience composed mainly by representatives of cooperatives and other social economy enterprises and together with the Government, were particularly interested in business transfers to the employees under the cooperative form and governance in cooperatives and seemed to reflect a genuine interest in promoting worker and social cooperatives in Slovenia.