The aim of this paper is to describe the aid and support provided for social economy in Poland, especially with respect to social cooperatives. In Poland idea of social economy spread after 1989. One example of social economy entity in Poland is new type of cooperative – social cooperative. Social cooperatives in the Polish legal order are the only type of a social enterprise entered in the legal system by a separate act in 2006. The Polish legislative body followed the model of social cooperatives type B, operating in Italy. Polish social cooperatives are an example not only of a social enterprise, but also a very good active social policy tool to actively counteract unemployment according to the principle “Jobs instead of benefits”. Due to this aspect, social cooperatives can also be interpreted in two ways – firstly, as a place of social employment (or supported employment) and secondly – simply as a subject of social economy. Those two ways of interpretation are connected with the possible aid and support for this kind of enterprises. These organizations may aid and support from different sources like: from authority/state – the governmental aid (e.g. special funding, special taxation rules), from European Union (EU) – EU funds, from others civil society organizations or non – governmental organizations (NGO’s) and at least from private sector. This paper starts with short description of polish model of social economy and the regulation about it. Author presents the information, regulation and data about actual position and situation of social economy in Poland. A key point of this part is the act of April 27th, 2006 on social cooperatives (Social Cooperatives Law Act of April 27th, 2006 – Journal of Laws of 2006 no. 94, item 651 as amended). Afterwards there are presented the dynamics of the aid and support and theirs influence on social cooperatives. Those analysis are at first more theoretical, but subsequently are also presented examples of the aid and support. In the summary author gives answers to four questions. Firstly, is the provision of aid and support rightful (in relation to fair/unfair competition)? Secondly, is the aid and support provided in the same manner in each Polish region? If there are any differences, how do they influence social cooperatives? Finally, is the aid and support delivered efficiently and, therefore, is the development of social cooperatives stimulated?
