The European Social Enterprise Law Association (ESELA) was launched this month in Madrid, bringing together law firms, legal experts and academics specialising in social enterprises, including co-operatives.
ESELA will work to promote a better understanding of the relationship between law and social enterprise, with a view to supporting the development and growth of social enterprise across Europe.
“ESELA is very much interested in co-operatives as part of the social economy and I am sure that most of our specialist law firms will have a number of co-operatives as clients and will be advising on co-operative law. I would hope that ESELA would help strengthen the links and relationships between co-operatives and other parts of the social economy, including new and emerging models of social enterprise,” said Luke Fletcher, the chair of ESELA.
The official launch took place on 2 December at the European Venture Philanthropy Association's annual conference in Madrid. ESELA was created as a result of a European Commission sponsored study into the state of social enterprise across Europe – the Strasbourg Declaration on social enterprises.
Jonathan Bland, managing director of Social Business International and one of the authors of the Strasbourg Declaration on social enterprise, said:
“An exciting result of this ground-breaking research is that it has led to the creation of a new European network of social enterprise lawyers, legal experts and others with a strong interest in the relationship between law and social enterprise: the European Social Enterprise Law Association. This new association has the potential to be an important source of knowledge and expertise that can share good practice, help member states learn from each other and make recommendations about the effect of EU-wide laws and policies on social enterprises.”
Photo: Ann Branch, head of the Unit responsible for Job Creation at DG Employment in the European Commission, Luke Fletcher and Lisa Hehenberger, Director of Research and Policy at the EVPA at the lanch.
