Financing of Social Cooperatives – A Case Study Using the European Social Fund in the Podkarpackie Region

Abstract

Social cooperatives are entities of social economy, which is an area of the economy undertaking an attempt to balance commercial and non-commercial purposes. The main objective of social cooperatives is not only economic activity but also the social and vocational reintegration of its members. Through social reintegration should be understood rebuilding and maintaining skills for participation in the local community and perform certain social roles. Vocational reintegration is action to rebuild and maintain the ability to independently perform work on the labor market. Creating social cooperatives to be an expression implement active employment policies and social and vocational integration for people at risk of exclusion from the labor market. As a social economy players cooperatives are characterized by, among others, supremacy of social objectives over capital and profit. The Act of Law on Social Cooperatives support the forms of cooperatives and cooperative, for example, types of financing these entities. One of the types of financing are funds from the European Social Fund, one of the instruments the European Union, which allows the promo-tion of employment. Currently Podkarpackie region ranks fourth in the nation in the number of registered cooperatives. The performed analyzes allowed to establish a significant impact possibility of using European funds on the number of formed cooperatives. With 102 entities registered in the National Court Register in the Podkarpackie region, up 78 created through projects announced by the Regional Labour Office cofinanced by the European Social Fund over the last five years.