Social enterprise and their eco-system: A European mapping report of Serbia

This fiche is part of the study “Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe” and it provides an overview of the social enterprise landscape in Serbia based on available information as of May 2018.

There are two major roots of social enterprise in Serbia: 1) legal forms traditionally recognised by the Serbian legal system (cooperatives and WISEs); 2) new organisational forms: non-profit organisations (associations and foundations) and business companies operating as spin-offs.

The roots of social enterprises related to the first stream are rather weak. Due to the prevalence of agriculture in the Serbian economy until the end of World War II, the cooperative spirit spread to other spheres of the economy to a negligible extent. During socialism (1945-1990) and blocked post-socialist transformation (1990-2000), cooperatives were under the strong political influence of the state, decreasing in number and losing their democratic character. As for WISEs, during socialism they suffered from significant economic inefficiency and low productivity…