160.000 businesses in Europe are cooperatives. They work in all economic sectors and range in size from micro enterprises to large companies working at the international level. Together with mutual, associations and foundations, cooperative enterprises are part of the social economy.
Representing such a big share of European enterprises, Cooperatives Europe work for a real recognition that in Europe there are different ways of doing business, which equally deserve the attention of policy makers.
We are calling on the EU to abandon the one-size-fits-all approach and start designing entrepreneurship policies taking into account the plurality of business forms, a principle recognised by the funding treaty of the EU.
We support this position in different consultative bodies of which we are part (Network of SME Envoy, the CSR Multistakeholders forum). We participate in the meetings of the Social Economy Intergroup at the European Parliament. Additionally, in collaboration with the European Commission, Cooperatives Europe is drafting a European Roadmap for Cooperatives. The roadmap will mainly focus on three themes: cooperative entrepreneurship, education & training, and access to funding.
The conclusions of the Roadmap will be relayed to the European Parliament through the network of #coopsupporter MEPs.
12.01.2022
10.12.2021
05.05.2021
26.05.2022
Cooperative Development Support, Entrepreneurship & Social Economy, Regulatory Framework for Cooperatives
31.03.2022
10.04.2015
Entrepreneurship & Social Economy
05.05.2022
A participatory workshop with testimonials and discussions hosted by ConcertES, UNIPSO, Cooperatives Europe, Social Good Accelerator at the conference on the social economy and the future of Europe.
This conference, organised French Presidency of the Council of the EU, took place in Strasbourg. It was an opportunity to...
01.03.2021
The 2021 edition of the Civil Society Days sparked a debate on the essential components of a Sustainable Recovery for the Future of Europe’s citizens. This fully virtual edition was made up of 8 interactive workshops as well as a closing session presenting the main outcomes. Cooperatives Europe, together with...
24.11.2020
Cooperatives contribute to entrepreneurship, job creation, providing access to finance, ensuring inclusive and gender-balanced green growth, and stimulating the economic and social progress at a community level.
Despite their economic and societal importance, cooperatives are underrepresented in the university curricula.
The lack of cooperative entrepreneurship education is precisely the...
www.starter.coop The current generation of young people is faced with a double challenge: socially motivated youth are met with mass unemployment, precarious jobs and lack of inclusion on the job market. Cooperatives are convinced that they are the innovative answer rising up to the challenge, offering sustainable, participatory and socially responsible way of doing business […]
Currently there are 20 million SMEs operating in all economic sectors and business transfers are an uptapped source of economic dynamism. TransfertoCOOPS project develops a practical and pragmatic approach to improve the environment for transferring businesses to cooperatives and raise awareness about the cooperative benefits in Europe. Some of the objectives include identification and assessment […]
‘The Power of Cooperation – Cooperatives Europe Key Figures 2015’. The report brings forward the impact of cooperatives across Europe, which provide more than 4.7 million jobs and have a total annual turnover of 1,005 billion Euros – more than the GDP of Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden combined. Significant information with up-to-date facts and figures […]