The Ministry of improvement and Technology is preparing revolutionary changes in law, which can straight affect the lives of millions of Poles surviving in cooperatives. The fresh draft envisages a drastic simplification in the power of lawyer to vote at general meetings. Although the goal is noble – the protection of the interests of cooperatives – the proposed solutions rise large controversy and are referred to by experts as impossible and absurd. The top amazement is the provision that in practice can force cooperative boards to verify private relations between residents. The government wants a proxy to be a individual who stays with a associate of the cooperative in common life, but sets 1 crucial condition. It is he who makes lawyers catch their head, and the members of the cooperative can shortly face bureaucratic absurdity, proving with whom they share their lives and their household.
The fresh regulations will hit millions of Poles. Who could be the attorney?
The draft amendment of the home Cooperatives Act aims to shorten the practices in which power of lawyer was placed in the hands of non-communist persons possibly harming it. The government wants a associate of the cooperative to be able to vote on behalf of only a well-defined group of people. Under the fresh regulations, the lawyer will be able to become only the closest person, professional lawyer (legal adviser) or the individual who actually resides with a associate of the cooperative.
The list of authorised representatives shall be as follows:
- The spouse, the forerunners (parents, grandparents), the descendents (children, grandchildren), siblings, related in the same line or degree, the individual remaining in the adoption relation and his spouse, as well as the individual remaining in the common life.
- Lawyer or legal counsel.
The most controversial is the category of “person who remains in a common life”. The Ministry added a key condition to it: specified a individual will be able to become a proxy only if make a declaration of staying in a common household and have a permanent check-in at the same premisesa associate of the cooperative. It is this request that is intended in explanation to facilitate verification, but in practice it creates a field for absurd situations.
A cooperative as a detective? Lawyers alert: It's impossible
Legal experts, including Prof. Piotr Palka from Derc Palka, do not leave a dry thread on the project. They indicate that the proposed rules are in practice dead and impossible to enforce. The problem is that the cooperative has no tools to verify the veracity of the message of "staying in a common life". The check-in request does not solve anything, due to the fact that the study only confirms the fact of residence and not the nature of the relation between the 2 persons.
How would the board of directors of a cooperative verify whether 2 people actually have an emotional, physical and economical bond that defines ‘joint consumption’? This task is not only cumbersome, but in fact violates the privacy of members. Prof. Pałka emphasizes that the message is made by the proxy itself, under punishment of criminal responsibility, but the cooperative is not able to verify it in real time. This means that the individual who made the false message will be voting anyway. The possible prosecution proceedings would be lengthy and would not undo the effects of the resolutions already adopted.
What gave you the thought of specified controversial changes? Government explains its intentions
The Ministry of improvement and Technology defends its project, arguing that it is simply a consequence to the real problems raised by the cooperative environment, including the National Cooperative Council. The goal is to increase transparency and protection of cooperatives against hostile acquisitions or actions of outsiders, which could influence key decisions, e.g. on the sale of attractive land belonging to cooperatives, by purchasing mandates.
The hotel emphasises that the current, very liberal rules, allowing the power of lawyer to virtually all person, led to many abuses. The limitation of the ellipse of possible representatives is intended to guarantee that decisions taken at general meetings reflect the will of actual members of the community. In the head of the government, the fresh regulations are intended to strengthen the position of cooperatives and stabilise the functioning of cooperatives, protecting them from external influences.
What does this mean in practice for a cooperative member?
If the regulations enter into force in the current form, the cooperative members will feel them very directly. First of all, The freedom to choose the individual to represent us will be drastically reduced. If you live with a partner or partner who for various reasons are not registered at the same address, they will not be able to get power of lawyer from you. Similarly, a trusted friend or neighbour who is not a household associate will besides be excluded from this possibility.
The fresh law will besides impose additional, embarrassing duties on the board of directors of cooperatives. They will gotta collect and archive statements, based on unverified declarations. This creates a bureaucratic fiction which, alternatively of solving problems, can make fresh conflicts and legal uncertainty as to the validity of the resolutions adopted. As a result, the noble thought of protecting cooperatives can turn into an absurd and impossible recipe that will make life hard for millions of Poles.
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The Cooperative will request proof of who you live with. Government prepares absurd rules
