Cabinet of Ministers: agricultural cooperatives will not be required to renew their certificates every two years

On Wednesday, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Ministry of Agriculture’s proposal that agricultural cooperatives should not be required to renew their certificates every two years. 

According to Minister Andrius Palionis, this will reduce the administrative burden on farmers. “Currently, the status of a recognised cooperative is granted on a temporary basis, for two years, and the cooperative itself must then take the initiative and submit data in order to regain that status. In many cases, there is duplication; we have data in the registers which we could use to reduce that administrative burden“ – the minister said at the Cabinet meeting. 

It is envisaged that a mark confirming the cooperative’s status will be visible in the Register of Legal Entities. 

Furthermore, it is proposed to establish three requirements for such status: at least 90 per cent of the cooperative’s members must be engaged in agricultural activities, more than 50 per cent of the value of purchased produce or services must be accounted for by transactions with its members, and tax arrears and debts must not exceed 500 euros.

It is also proposed to legalise the status of a “passive member”. This will allow long-standing members who, for objective reasons, are no longer farming to remain part of the cooperative, whilst ensuring that active members dominate the decision-making process.
 
The amendments provide clearer regulations on the procedure for electing the chair of the board, members of the board and the supervisory board, and also set out how to resolve situations where candidates receive an equal number of votes.  

These amendments to the Law on Cooperative Societies (Cooperatives) will still need to be approved by the Seimas.