Article 8:5, § 2 of the Companies and Associations Code (CAC) provides for the possibility for a cooperative society to be approved pursuant to the law of 20 July 1955 establishing a National Council for Cooperation, Social Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Enterprise, and at the same time to be approved as a social enterprise.
There are, therefore, three possible scenarios:
- the cooperative society concerned does not have any approval;
- the cooperative society concerned is approved pursuant to the law of 20 July 1955 and does not have approval as a social enterprise;
- the cooperative society concerned has approval as a social enterprise and is not approved pursuant to the law of 20 July 1955.
Conditions for approval and procedure
In order to be approved as a cooperative society and a social enterprise at the same time, the company concerned must satisfy the conditions inherent in each of the two approvals (approved cooperative and social enterprise).
A specific form (DOC, 42.5 Kb) allowing you to apply for approval as a cooperative society and as a social enterprise at the same time can be downloaded from the website of the FPS Economy.
Consequences of the withdrawal of one approval on the maintenance of the other approval
The royal decree of 28 June 2019 laying down the conditions for approval as an agricultural company and as a social enterprise provides that the withdrawal of one of the two approvals does not affect the maintenance of the other approval provided that the articles of association, the operation and the activities of the company concerned remain in conformity with the conditions of this other approval.
