EESC Corner – International Year of Co-operatives

In the time of high unemployment and financial instability, the United Nations are launching an international year focused on a unique way of doing business – cooperative enterprise.

The International Year designation provides an opportunity for co-operatives to come together and to raise awareness of their way of doing business. The theme for the International Year is “Co-operative Enterprises Build a Better World”. Cooperatives are successful value-based businesses owned and democratically controlled by their members. Co-operatives are important economic and social actors.

In Europe they represent 160,000 enterprises with 5,400,000 employees. As key players, competitive in a whole range of economic areas, they perform in generating activities, sustainable employment, innovation, social link and cohesion on territories, economic growth, in favouring creativity allowing individuals to create and find solutions in a collective way.

Last but not least, they resist and avert crisis. Their model of enterprise particularly fits to tackle and help overcome economic downturns. The EESC, in its opinion Cooperatives and restructuring highlights how cooperative enterprises anticipate and manage change in industry and services in the current economic situation. The EESC perceives the cooperatives as enterprises bringing new perspectives of social innovation and contributing to a sustainable socio-economic model.

The Member States are invited to support the actions of the cooperative sector by creating an enabling environment, promoting co-operatives and easing their access to finance, supporting cooperation between enterprises, recognising co-operatives as an economic and social actor and improving the national statistics on cooperatives.

Marie Zvolská
Member of the EESC – Group I