Statute For A European Cooperative Society (SCE)

Publication of the law dated 10 March 20141 executing the Council Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003 of 22 July 2003 on the Statute for a European Cooperative Society and amending the Luxembourg law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies.

The Luxembourg parliament implemented on 21 January 2014 into domestic legislation the Council Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003 of 22 July 2003 on the Statute for a European Cooperative Society (hereafter the "SCE") (hereafter the "Law"). These provisions form an indissociable complement to the Council Directive 2003/72/EC of 22 July 2003 supplementing the Statute for a European Cooperative Society concerning the involvement of employees and are both to be applied concomitantly.

The Law establishes a legal statute for an SCE ensuring equal terms of competition between cooperative societies and capital companies and aiming at facilitating the cross-border and trans-national activities of cooperative societies.

The main characteristics of an SCE can be summarized as follows:

its activities should be conducted for the mutual benefit of the members so that each member benefits from the activities of the SCE in accordance with his/her participation, members of the SCE should also be customers, employees or suppliers or should be otherwise involved in the activities of the SCE, control should be vested equally in members, although weighted voting rights may be allowed, in order to reflect each member's contribution to the SCE, there should be limited interest...