Romania co-operative system during its existence passed through some different stages. Although, in the socialist time it evolved with amplitude, at present this system has decreased in all economic indicators, demonstrating the incapacity to adjust to the conditions of market economy. The socialist system has left marks on the behavior of business men and employees from the system, there are a number of other issues that conditioned the state of decline, characteristic for this system. In this paper are analyzed the problems faced by the co-operative system of Romania, especially, of the legislative framework. However, we believe that the co-operative system of Romania is likely to recover only if its management will motivate the entrepreneurship spirit and innovation as key factors in boosting the economic performance, because the social role of cooperatives is already creating competitive advantages for the consumers.