Initiative No.6
Initiative published on 12th July 2017.
I called Mrs. Krampuš from the court register of the Krško District Court, which accepts applications for the initial establishment of new legal entities, and I would like to offer an insight into what it is like when you want to open a new social enterprise.
I needed advice on completing the application for the establishment of the institute after we received a supplementation for naming the legal entity from the court, since the name must show “referral to activity”. In order to avoid legalizing documents that would later be rejected, I first wanted to make sure that I had the right idea. All other 8 documents for the establishment of the institute with the status of a social enterprise have been properly prepared in the light of past experience: from the request for the recording, the decision on establishment, the decision of the founder, the application for registering a social enterprise, the selection of the main activity, the consent to the appointment, the consent for business operation and the articles of association. Yes, a lot of documents need to be prepared.
The lady from the court register told me that the referral to activity means that the name of the entity has to state what the company deals with, whether it is a store, an intermediation, etc. I said that our aim is to set up an institute, a social enterprise which would encourage reuse, in the form of a green shop of donated items, i.e. a reuse centre. Since this is a fairly new and relatively unknown concept, which is not the same as recycling, and because the green store is not a classic store, the lady did not understand me, of course. She said, that we need to add the reuse of, what… which waste? I told her, that this is not waste, and people donate things that are still useful. She asked, how does such a store even look like and where can you find them?
The lady from the court register has become rather impatient because I was still asking her whether “institute for promoting reuse” would be okay and she said that we should turn to a lawyer if we are not from the trade (to hire one to help open the institute and a social enterprise would cost us a hefty € 200).
“Look, you can add it, but we can also reject it”, she said.
I replied: “Of course we will add it, I just wanted to make sure…”
“We will see, we still have to check this KNOF of yours, at the financial administration, you know. If you paid all your taxes…”
“Yes, we did.”
“We will see about that…”
This is the case when trying to found a social enterprise, which tries to secure jobs for the hard-to-employ individuals like the disabled and migrants, protect the environment and reduce the disposal of waste by promoting reuse, and which will also provide basic necessities at affordable prices for people of less means.
INITIATIVE: Systemic support for the organization of annual raising awareness and training of office employees on novelties in the areas of social economy legislation, the purpose and importance of social economy, the way social economy works and how to facilitate and encourage the startup of social enterprises.
Mojca Žganec Metelko
KNOF, incubator of social economy
Social Economy Posavje
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