An Introduction to Tailor-Made Legislation for Social Enterprises in the EU: A Comparison of Legal Regimes in Belgium, Greece and the UK

Abstract

Various countries in the EU have introduced tailor-made legal forms for social enterprise in their national legal systems. Social enterprises are organisations which exhibit characteristics different from those applicable to mainstream companies. Their main objective is to have a social impact rather than to make a profit. They involve various types of stakeholders in their decision-making activities and they communicate their activities in social reports. This article introduces tailor-made legal forms for social enterprises in three selected national legal systems, i.e. in Belgium, Greece and the UK. It contrasts their similarities and differences based on certain legal variables, i.e. social purpose, participatory governance, accountability-responsibility and financial structure. The legal variables are extracted from the Commission’s definition of the social enterprise in the Social Business Initiative Communication of 2011.