THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL CONTEXT OF COOPERATIVES IN SERBIA, WITH A VIEW TO THE EUROPEAN UNION’S GREEN AGENDA FOR THE WESTERN BALKANS

Green agenda of the European union, family business and artifical intelligence – political and social aspects : thematic journal of papers. Book 1 (2025) (књига 1, 117-134. стр.) 

 

АУТОР(И) / AUTHOR(S): Dragan Bataveljić 

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DOI: 10.46793/87143.26.5.117B

САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:

The author of the paper first points to the historical development of cooperatives, whose origins can be traced back almost a millennium. He also emphasizes the fact that there are a large number of different types of cooperatives and that it is a multidisciplinary concept. Previously, it was mistakenly thought that cooperation (association, cooperatives) existed only in agriculture. On the contrary, it exists in almost all areas of social life, but one fact is indisputable, and that is: the peasant has been a state builder throughout Serbian history, in the true sense of the word. He is tied to his hearth and the land he cultivates (that is his factory), which he inherited from his ancestors and which he passes on to his descendants. The importance of cooperatives is also demonstrated by the fact that, just two years after the founding of the first cooperative in the world (Rodgel, England, 1844), it was founded in Bački Petrovac (today in Serbia, and then part of the Austrian Empire) in 1846. However, the development of cooperatives in the area of today’s Republic of Serbia was very turbulent, uneven and unjustifiably neglected, with the adoption of various regulations that “hindered” its progress. It was only in the last decade of the 20th century that appropriate legal regulations (constitutions, laws and by-laws) were adopted in Serbia, which returned the property to cooperatives (although this procedure is very long, complicated and still ongoing). A special “momentum” in the reafirmation of cooperatives and, we can freely say, a true renaissance of cooperatives, was given by the current Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 2006 and the relevant laws adopted on its basis. A special contribution to the revitalization of the cooperative movement in our country is made by the European Cooperative Movement and the necessity of harmonizing our national legislation with the legislation of the European Union. Finally, it should be emphasized that the EU Green Agenda for the Western Balkans opens up space for the aforementioned processes and for cooperatives to take their rightful place.

КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:

cooperative, European Union, Green Agenda, Republic of Serbia, Western Balkans, cooperative law

ПРОЈЕКАТ / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

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