ICA advocates for regulatory improvements in Greece to help agricultural cooperatives

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In February 2020, ICA’s director general Bruno Roelants presented a speech at the parliament in Greece to advocate for agricultural cooperatives. At a parliamentary hearing attended by members of the Permanent Committee of Production and Trade, Mr. Roelants requested that further attention be given to a draft law which contains provisions that do not fully embrace cooperatives principles that have been fully endorsed by the government of Greece.

Mr. Roelant’s attendance at this parliamentary hearing was done in coordination and urging of ICA member PASEGES – the Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives, to address the lack provisions to protect and promote the cooperative identity of its members.

Below is the speech in its entirety:

Esteemed Members of the Permanent Committee of Production and Trade,

International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), established in 1895, currently headquartered in Brussels (Belgium), is the global representative body that unites, promotes and serves cooperatives worldwide. As of January 1, 2020, the ICA represented 309 member organizations from 110 countries worldwide with a diverse array of membership hailing from different business sectors, international cooperative umbrella bodies and government departments.

In 1995 the ICA with the Statement on the Cooperative Identity provided a definition of the cooperative, which has been broadly accepted ever since, as well as a list with the cooperative values and principles, as they emerged and were consolidated by decades of cooperative practice. The latter is what distinguishes cooperatives from any other type of business, especially the stock companies.

The legislation can play a significant role in safeguarding the cooperative identity, as well as guiding and encouraging cooperators to embrace it in the everyday business life of their cooperative. Within this context, an adequate legal framework for cooperatives’ development has been highlighted by a number of regional and international actors, such as the EC, the ICA, the ILO and the UN.

The ICA at the behest of the New PASEGES submitted a response to the online public consultation on the draft law on agricultural cooperatives and noted that a number of provisions needed to  be further examined by both international and national actors, as they may  appear as not fully embracing the cooperative principles and the R. 193/2002 of ILO, which is worth mentioning that it has been endorsed by Greece.

Despite the minor changes to the draft law that was submitted to this committee, its conformity with the cooperative identity and the R. 193/2002 is still an issue to be resolved. In particular, some of the most pressing questions on the draft law’s provisions are the following:

– the omission of provisions on the formation of cooperative unions and federations (with the sole exception of ar. 38 on the national union of agricultural cooperatives) which poses an infringement to the 6th cooperative principle on Cooperation among Cooperatives, to Paragraph 6 (d) of the R.193/2002 that reflects the above principle, while it disregards relevant provisions that constitute the norm of national European cooperatives laws (such as  the case of France, Spain and Portugal),

– the lack of prescribing for indivisible reserves, which does not protect cooperatives from their dissolution for personal gain and infringes the 3rd Cooperative Principle on Member Economic Participation [Articles 26.10 & 33.4],

– the absence of provisions for special auditors trained in cooperatives to ensure audits are done in line with cooperative way of business as Paragraph 6 (c) of R. 193/2002 stipulates [Article 24],

–  the obligatory provision on the minimum share capital (10.000e) under the Draft Law, which seems to be restrictive in enabling cooperative business, especially for micro and small cooperatives [Article 9.1],

 – the obligation to submit 75% of the annual produce to the agricultural cooperative, which poses the question on whether it is maintainable in view of the autonomy of cooperatives, the international norms of monopolistic restrictions of trade practices and competition law [Article 8.1 f] 

– the taxation of surplus that is to be distributed to the members, which should not be taxed at all, as its refund is a price correction (deferred price reduction or price increase) [Article 27.2]

– the newly added provision that enables the conversion of cooperatives to any other type of business without any reference as to what happens with the assets of the cooperative [Article 29.8],

– the absence of any measure in favor of the cooperative education (5th cooperative principle), which is the sole responsibility of the national union of agricultural cooperatives [Article 38.4c].

Based on the above remarks, the draft law’s content in many aspects introduces many traits of stock companies to agricultural cooperatives, while drifting away from the ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity and the R. 193/2002 ILO.

Visit to the Archelon centre and the Glyfada beach write up! All one “family”, volunteers, refugees, WELCOMMON HOSTEL guests

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On Sunday the 8th of March, the Wind of Renewal /Days of Welcommon family organized a visit to Glyfada at the sea turtle rescue centre «Archelon» and the beach just next to this centre. The group included volunteers, refugees and Welcommon Hostel guests – all one ‘family’.

We left the WELCOMMON Hostel at 1pm and we went to took the metro to Elliniko, then we took a bus to Glyfada to go to the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre. We had a short visit of the centre with some explanations about the turtles, how they are being injured and what the volunteers team is doing to take care of them 🐢. Sea turtles tend to get entangled in fishing gear and such incidents may often result to injuries or drowning. They may also fall victims to collisions with speed boats, especially near nesting beaches. Several cases of deliberately killed animals washed ashore are also reported from different sites.

The nationwide Rescue Network of ARCHELON is activated in cases of reports of injured or sick turtles or strandings of dead animals. The network is set up and supported through the organization of information events in cooperation with Port police authorities, fishermen, volunteers and environmentally active organizations. Injured or sick animals are transferred to the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre in Glyfada, near Athens. About 50 sea turtles are treated annually and when fully recovered, are released back to the sea. First aid Stations for sea turtles are set up in the areas of Rethymnon, Crete and Amvrakikos Gulf.

After the visit, we headed to the beach just next to the centre to do a little clean up, to enjoy the quietness of this place and to chat all together. It was a very pleasant moment 😉

We ended the day by going back to Syntagma square and wishing us a good evening. That was such a good day ! ☀️

FUNday trips are every Sunday 13:00 – 17:00, always meeting at Welcommon Hostel at 13:00. In the past, we’ve visited the Acropolis, had a picnic, and played football in a nearby park. Anybody is welcome, just come along to Welcommon Hostel on Sundays at 13:00.

#ErasmusPlus #volunteering #volunteers #socialinnovation #socialinclusion #empowerment #art #intercultural #withrefugees #EuropeanSolidarityCorps #GreenSocialInnovationESC #SocEnt #GoGreen #hostels #cooperatives #WelcommonHostel #WindofRenewal

Could you support a humanitarian, win-win solution for the refugees and the local communities in Greece, our “remain human-welcome” project ?

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Dear friends

You are certainly informed about the very difficult situation in the Greek hotspots on the Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos for the refugees and migrants coming through Turkey mostly from Syria and Afghanistan. It is evident that apart from what European and national institutions should do, there is a task also for private organisations and individuals to do their best in order to guarantee to refugees the right to live in dignity, to participate in the social life and to be able to find a job. In this way, there are win-win solutions for all, the new-comers and local communities.

The social cooperative Wind of Renewal (Άνεμος Ανανέωσης) and the Welcommon Hostel, in Athens, Greece, are willing to contribute to the accommodation, empowerment, social inclusion, job integration for a number of persons in our place. We address this offer, to the most vulnerable persons (families, single / pregnant women, disable persons, victims of trafficking, torture and rape etc) and we are ready to collaborate with NGOs and refugees / migrants communities for the next months, until there is a clear situation. Despite the problems created by coronavirus, there are many people who would like to help also the vulnerable groups in a period of crisis.  But we need support in order to be able to finance:

  • the cost for accommodation, breakfast, social empowerment, job training, non formal education, language lessons and preparation for a job,
  • the hiring of a number of refugees as employees for such a project.

We need donors immediately to be able to support our “remain human-welcome” project. Donations of all sizes are welcome and necessary. You can also support us informing your social networks, friends, universities, through social media, real life social networks and all other communication channels. You can make donations now through our bank accounts:

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Cooperative Bank of Karditsa

ΙΒΑΝ GR 7608900100003010003540200

Bank of Karditsa’ s BIC / Swift Code is STKAGRA1

– ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA

Please send us your details for the invoice and inform us if you are willing to publish your donation at our website for transparency reasons.

  • Donors-institutions able to contribute €5,000 or more will receive an original painting of their choice from our collection of quality artworks provided by local artists who wanted to help us to achieve the social and environmental objectives.
  • Donors – Individuals can pre-book their stay in our WELCOMMON HOSTEL with 30% reduction of the room cost (before taxes) in the next 2 years

We remain at your disposal

Yours sincerely,

Nikos Chrysogelos                                PolinaGkioka                 Apostolos Ioakimidis

Chairman of “Wind of Renewal”      vice-president                 treasure of the board

About Wind of Renewal, WELCOMMON center for refugees and the WELCOMMON HOSTEL

Wind of Renewal social cooperative

  • It was established in 2014 as a center for the promotion of social economy and green innovation, intercultural dialogue, climate action and energy transition.
  • In September 2016 the innovative center for refugees, WELCOMMON (Welcome in common), was established in a seven floor old hospital with the support of UN and the Athens regionin order to host in dignity more than 600 vulnerable refugees. It operated as such until February 2018.
  • In this context we have employed and partially hosted more than 300 volunteers from all over the world for supporting non formal education, socializing, empowerment, art therapy, social inclusion and language / intercultural lessons for refugees, migrants and locals (staying in our premises and outside). We also organized the “Days of WELCOMMON”, to offer intercultural courses with the volunteers.
  • We are very proud that our social cooperative enterprise ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL has received 5 European-level distinctions for our contribution to the social economy, social green innovation and intercultural dialogue

Please find out more about:
www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon
https://anemosananeosis.gr/en/vol765/
https://anemosananeosis.gr/en/5prizes/ 

The WELCOMMON HOSTEL

  • After the interruption of the funding for housing of refugees (9/2016-2/2018), WoR opened in June 2018, the WELCOMMON HOSTEL, without any grant, capital or support. The aim was to continue the work on social and ecological solutions by providing training and employment for refugees and unemployed young Greeks. At the same time, we improved our tourism offer by providing opportunities for guests to stay and collaborate with us. We use five stores of our seven-floor building in Exarcheia, Athens, to welcome visitors. The remaining two stories are used for our social and ecological projects. Despite the lack of financial resources we were able to continue, not without difficulties, our innovative, volunteer-led program of social inclusion and integration activities (music, art, film, family picnics, cooking workshops, co-learning opportunities and sports) for refugees and
  • In 2020, we :

– Provide free language classes/intercultural courses for refugees and local Greeks

– Offer a rich program of inclusive cultural activities

– Support integration through music, art, comedy and film events

– Raise awareness of our next generation to tackle the climate crisis by training 200 teachers from 73 schools in Athens to harness the enthusiasm of over 3,000 students, in the frame of EUKI Climate Schools Be.Ath

– Support 11 young Greeks to gain professional qualifications in energy reduction and transition-creating social and ecological change holistically, in the frame of EUKI YESclima

– Are ready to engage and support any other  project in line with our objective for  social inclusion and climate action – from family picnics to seminars on the green economy and everything in between

Please find out more about the Hostel in:

– Welcommon Hostel: www.welcommonhostel.gr

– Welcommon Hostel in facebook: www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

– Welcommon Hostel in instagram: www.instagram.com/welcommonhostel
– Our building and sustainable tourism: www.welcommonhostel.gr/rooms-list

More about us:

Welcommon, a model housing and social inclusion centre for refugees (9/2016-2/2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMBwqRxDotk&feature=youtu.be

What the refugees themselves and others told about the role of WELCOMMON

Documentary  “WorkingWithRefugeeCommunities in Greece”, by the “In place ofWar” (IPOW) in cooperationwith Anna LindhFoundation

Bibiche, fromKongo, “Whatyoureallyknowaboutthe refugees

Beshir, fromSyria, “Whatyoureallyknowaboutthe refugees

Ghassan, from Syria, “Whatyoureallyknowaboutthe refugees

We are more thanpapers

– An article published by the e-newsletter «Cooperative.news»: «Taking steps to meet the long-term needs of refugees»

 –Our history: www.welcommonhostel.gr/slider/you-can-feel-the-history-of-welcommon

– Social change in our community: www.welcommonhostel.gr/social

Wind of Renewal: www.anemosananeosis.gr, www.anemosananeosis.gr/en/about-us-en/ ,
Six years of innovation: https://anemosananeosis.gr/en/sgi5667-2/
social media: www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives