3.3.1.1 Social enterprises of work integration in Greece

Scholarship notes that social enterprises could assist: (i) in the allocation and production of quasi-public goods and services in a redistributive manner, through the provision of services to deprived people; and (ii) the deprived persons, who are at risk of permanent exclusion from the labour market, to return to work.1 Social enterprises can support the employment of the long-term unemployed, the persons with disabilities, or other deprived and vulnerable groups in need of socio-economic integration, such as ex-convicts or drug addicts.2

Since the 1990s, this role was reflected in a significant social enterprise type called the work integration social enterprise (hereafter ‘WISE’).3 The WISE can be found in the tailor-made laws for social enterprises of various countries in the EU, including, for example the Finnish Law on Social Enterprises 2003, the Polish Law on Social Cooperatives and the Greek Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011.4

In Greece, the Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and its amendment introduced a special legal form for the social enterprise of work integration, i.e. the Koinsep of Integration.5 The Koinsep of Integration has a social purpose, which aims to promote the social and economic integration of individuals, and groups who are ‘vulnerable’ through labour and employment opportunities.

In the Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and amendment, ‘vulnerable groups’ are understood as those groups of individuals who belong to the weakest and most excluded parts of the Greek society. The Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and its latest amendment of 2016 defines these groups as groups whose integration into the social and economic life is hindered by delinquent behaviour and/or by physical and psychological constraints. In the legislation, indicative examples are provided concerning ‘vulnerable groups’ as groups which consist of people with disabilities, i.e. physical, mental or sensory disability, prisoners and former convicts. The legislation also prioritises the integration of individuals who belong to this type of groups in the Koinsep of Integration by introducing a mandatory employment quota.6

However, the policy that promotes the socio-economic integration of persons with disabilities is not a new one in Greece. In 1999, the Greek legislator introduced a legal form for one specific type of WISE only, the so-called ‘Limited Liability Social Cooperative’ (the English term for Κοινωνικός Συνεταιρισμός Περιορισμένης Ευθύνης, hereafter ‘Koispe’), which could employ predominantly persons with mental disabilities and psychosocial problems.7 The Law concerning the Reformation and Modernisation of Mental Health Services of 1999 (hereafter ‘the Mental Health Services Law of 1999’) introduced the Koispe legal form. In the Mental Health Services Law of 1999, the Koispe is regulated as a mental health unit and a commercial enterprise that employs people with severe psychosocial problems. These are individuals who suffer from severe mental disorders. Their integration is accomplished through the vocational rehabilitation and training.

Koispe is a social cooperative that seeks to promote the social and economic integration of persons with psychosocial problems by means of contributing to their treatment and to their economic self-sufficiency and independence. The underlying idea behind the introduction of the Koispe legal form is that people with mental disabilities and psychosocial problems generally suffer from psychiatric problems, which impede their participation and equal contribution to the economic and social life in society. They deal with significant barriers in finding employment opportunities and with stigma that hampers them to enjoy a social and economic life. Mental disability is further translated into a lack of opportunity for employment, employments constraints, long-term unemployment and lack of education.

The Koispe legal form, similarly to the current form, i.e. the Koinsep of Integration, is a social cooperative of integration with a commercial capacity by law, which aims at the integration of one particular ‘vulnerable group’, i.e. the persons with mental disabilities. As such, although the Mental Health Services Law of 1999 predominantly regulates the Koispe, all Koispe organisations are also subject to the newer Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and to its latest amendment of 2016. Article 2(2)(a) of the Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and Article 14(2)(αγ) of Law 4430/2016 amending the Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 provide that the Koispe legal form must also comply with all the requirements concerning the Koinsep of Integration. The legal requirements comprise but they are not limited to the rules regarding – amongst others – registration, governance, and accountability of the Koinsep.8 In other words, the provisions stipulate that each Koispe must be considered as a Koinsep of Integration, which must ‘automatically adhere’ to the rules applicable to the latter special legal model, i.e. the Koinsep of Integration, included in the Social Entrepreneurship Law of 2011 and in its latest amendment of 2016.

Besides being a social cooperative of integration, a Koispe is also a mental health unit and forms part of the mental health sector in Greece. It is a private entity, which is subject to the monitoring and supervision of the Greek Ministry of Health. Furthermore, the Mental Health Services Law of 1999 requires from the Koispe to be incorporated as a social cooperative that operates predominantly as a mental health unit in a geographically and demographically designated manner. In the Mental Health Services Law of 1999, the geographical extent of Greece is divided into 64 Mental Health Divisions, which allow for a numerus clausus in the incorporation of 64 Koispe per Mental Health Division.9