On December 20 last year, the Basque Parliament approved the new Basque Cooperatives Law. It is a law that will be applied to a large social and business group in the Basque Country: more than 2,000 cooperative companies and around 80,000 jobs.

The new law unifies and brings together in a single text the regulations applicable to cooperatives, which until now were regulated in five different rules. This integration brings together the rules that were scattered in a single legal text, which is technically appreciated, as it will be enlightening.

• Digital adaptation: The law adapts to the great digital revolution that the business network is experiencing, where innovation and new technologies have been fully implemented. With this adaptation, various formulas can be used, such as the use of ICTs to convene general meetings, the ability of the administrative body through videoconferencing or other technical support, the use of corporate websites to provide company information to members or the electronic filing of accounts.
• Market globalization: The new law also takes into account the level of globalization of Basque cooperativism, whose turnover is over 8 billion euros, of which two thirds are international sales. And in response to this reality, the regulation of cooperative groups raises to the legal level, allowing special mergers (that is, the cooperative can merge not only with other cooperatives, but also with other commercial or civil societies), cooperatives that will be adapted to each specific project. allows for the creation of mixed companies, or increases the percentage of employees from 25% to 30% in relation to partners, thus preventing the rule from being an obstacle to business growth and consequent growth in turnover and human resources
• Partner Responsibility: The law also does not forget the great business crisis that this decade and part of the previous one experienced; in fact, some new situations that needed to be resolved were revealed. To this end, it limits the liability of members to the creditors of the cooperative, establishes the unencumberability of social contributions and allows them to refuse the refund of contributions when it causes cooperatives to unbalance their economic-financial ratios.
• Governance: The law also covers aspects related to social change, sustainability and the need to deepen cooperative governance. To this end, it shall take a number of measures, such as increasing the number of non-members who may be members of the administrative body, allowing the appointment of a non-board member, as well as the appointment of CEOs or executive committees. forcing the directors not to carry out activities that involve loyalty obligations or that involve competition or conflict of interest with the cooperative.
• Social Agent: The Basque Parliament also recognizes the great importance of Basque cooperativism, which makes a significant contribution to achieving a more prosperous, participatory and equal Basque Country and considers it to be the most representative Basque Cooperative organization, representing economic, educational and social institutions. recognizes its representativeness and expressly includes its commitment to the promotion of cooperatives in a constitutive way (creation of new cooperatives) and qualitatively (full development of existing cooperatives).

Congress President Javier Goienetxea from MONDRAGON gave a very positive assessment of the approval of the new law, saying that "a broad consensus has been reached to make the necessary update, as the previous rule was 26 years old".