Mutual benefit societies are widely recognized as a kind of enterprise deeply rooted in the European social model. They provide quality and affordable services to more than 160 million European citizens and have contributed to economic growth and jobs despite the economic crises. However, mutuals are faced by legal constraints that prevent them from fully benefitting from the European internal market. The AIM has gathered experts and institutions to discuss this issue and put forward concrete proposals.

Which is the role of mutual benefit societies in Europe, both from an economic and a social perspective? How can the European Union facilitate their development, especially when it comes to cross-border activities? These are the main questions that a panel of experts and representatives from the EU institutions tried to answer during the conference organized by the International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies, in Brussels, on Wednesday 14 October.

According to one of the panelist, ICMIF[1] representative Catherine Hock, mutuals represent together with insurance cooperatives, 30% of the global insurance market (€2,4 trillion in total assets). They are financially robust and no mutual needed a bail-out during the financial crisis, on the contrary they have even increased their market share during the crisis. As a matter of fact, “only in the UK, mutuals created more than 120 000 jobs between 2008 and 2013” said Paul Keenan from Benenden UK. Because their primary goal is the well-being of their members instead of the maximization of return on investment, mutuals provide quality services at a reasonable price and contribute to inclusive growth and social cohesion.

Nevertheless, mutuals still lack of legal recognition at the EU level and are therefore unable to go cross-border and to benefit from the internal market, as highlighted by AIM representative Pedro Bleck Da Silva. In line with several recommendations of the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee, AIM asked the European Commission and Council to take initiatives to:

• Address the lack of legal recognition of social economy enterprises and notably mutuals at European level by providing an adequate legal framework safeguarding their models and enabling cross-border activities
• Promote social and solidarity economy players to avoid any legal uncertainty, increase financing possibilities and visibly
• Further develop the activities of the Commission’s Consultative Group of Experts on Social Entrepreneurship (GECES)
• Encourage Members states to remove restrictions upon the activities of mutual

Ipse welcomes the willingness of the European Commission and the Luxembourg Presidency to remove barriers to the development of mutuals as it must be a policy priority of the European Union. They ensured all participants that the Commission is eager to move forward on this issue. However, as pointed out by some stakeholders, no roadmap for concrete actions has been set up yet.

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[1] International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation