3 December, 2017
Slovenske Konjice

The cooperative business model allows for equal participation and involvement of natural and legal persons in the enterprise.

The conceptual design of the establishment of a local cooperative, registered as a social enterprise, is based on the recognised needs, opportunities and capacities of the local environment and inhabitants for the integration of human, subsistence, tourism and business potentials into a legal one, the start-up and development of the legal entity of a cooperative, which, also based on more than 100 years of stable development of cooperatives at home and worldwide, represents the fairest business model that allows all stakeholders of the cooperative to participate democratically in the creation, co-management and sharing of the enterprise’s output. Examples of good practice at home and especially abroad show that cooperatives are the most effective and long-lasting response to the many business, service, ecological and social challenges faced by local communities, and that they do so to a large extent better than public institutions and capital-intensive enterprises.The establishment and operation of cooperatives is of paramount importance because they are founded on the basis of the private initiative of the founders, natural and legal persons, for the purpose of providing socially useful services in the local environment. Taking into account the untapped development potential of the municipality of Slovenske Konjice in the field of tourism, ensuring local self-sufficiency in food and energy and the related possibility of developing new decent jobs, the members of the initiating group for the establishment of the Slovenske Konjice Cooperative are convinced that it is the inhabitants of the municipality who, with their creativity, are in a position to, innovation and honest cooperation, we can find answers and ways to ensure the successful development of tourism, the establishment of a local subsistence system for local food production and processing, a market for the sale and purchase of locally produced food, the collection and processing of woody biomass, the self-supply of energy from renewable energy sources, the provision of affordable rental housing in the municipality, and the provision of jobs to the unemployed from vulnerable groups on the labour market. The cooperative business model allows for equal participation and involvement of natural and legal persons in the enterprise, which enables its members to include not only citizens but also local associations, businesses and the local community. If we wish to register the Slovenske Konjice Cooperative as a social enterprise, we must take into account the restriction in the Social Entrepreneurship Act that the founders of social enterprises may not be legal persons governed by public law. They can, of course, be equal members.

Address: Stari trg 27, 3210 Slovenske Konjice
Tel: 041 732 570
E-mail: tadej.slapnik@gmail.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/kooperativakonjice

The project is part-financed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund.

EU funds

The Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is supported by: