СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ И ПРОБЛЕМЫ РАЗВИТИЯ АГРАРНЫХ КООПЕРАТИВОВ В ГОСУДАРСТВАХ ЕВРОСОЮЗА

Abstract

The last three or four decades in the EU countries have been marked by a noticeable increase in the role of agricultural cooperatives in solving many economic and social problems. However, in their development, cooperatives face new challenges, which are caused by the growth of global threats and risks, the tightening of competition, the more frequent manifestations of unfair partnership in business. These circumstances force cooperatives to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing external environment, to restructure their organizational form in the direction of increasing its flexibility in order to increase market stability. There is an increasing trend towards further concentration of production, as a result of which large cooperatives of national and regional scale are formed. In the conditions of increasing competition (and, often, conducting competition by unfair methods), as well as the constant statements of the European Commission about the need to exempt cooperative activities from state support, more and more cooperatives are going to revise the "classical" principles of cooperation. The evidence of this is: the rejection of the principle of "one member of the cooperative – one vote" in favor of proportional voting; participation in the management and control bodies of the cooperative, as well as in its economic activities of persons who are not its members; attraction of external investors as co-owners; use of shares, individualization of available funds, participation in operations on the stock exchange. Such cooperatives are more focused on entrepreneurial activity and, often, they are more effective. However, at the same time, their role in serving social goals decreases. According to the author, the introduction of a significant part of the mentioned innovations into the practice of domestic agricultural cooperatives at the present time may compromise this form, which has not yet found sufficient recognition among the majority of the rural population. When making decisions at the general meeting, the principle of equality of votes of all members should remain unshakable, while the management bodies of the cooperative (the management board, the chairman, the supervisory board) should be elected only from its members. Otherwise, the equality of the members is violated, and the cooperative will not be able to fully serve their interests. In any case, in modern Russian conditions, when deciding on the inclusion in regulatory legal acts of provisions on new elements of the organization of cooperative activities, it is necessary to proceed from the degree of their compliance with traditional cooperative values.