La mutualité française dans l’Union européenne : nouveau contexte, nouveaux défis

This article analyzes the conditions for change and the viability of French mutual societies from the health insurance sector in an EU organization for supplementary social welfare protection. In an increasingly competitive environment, social economy organizations, which include mutual societies, have been finding themselves in an uncomfortable position. They have to assert themselves, and sometimes re-structure themselves, in order to preserve their solidarity values. After placing the French specificities within the context of the mutualist movement in Europe, the author presents the stages for constructing a single European insurance market and the reasons for mutual societies coming under EU directives. The transposition of the directives should lead France to revise its Mutual Code. After their incorporation in a market subject to European regulations on competition, mutual societies will have to make profound changes. The French mutualist movement is facing new challenges, and the measures taken to support it, on both the national and the European level, will be decisive.