Cooperatives Europe

Last updated
Cooperatives Europe
Company type Cooperative federation
Founded2006
Headquarters
Brussels
,
Belgium
Area served
Europe
Key people
Agnès Mathis, Director and Giuseppe Guerini, President
Members84 member organisations in 33 European countries
Website coopseurope.coop OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Cooperatives Europe is the European regional office of the International Co-operative Alliance. It acts on behalf of cooperative enterprises in Europe, with a goal to promote the cooperative business model and advocate for a "level playing field between cooperatives and other forms of enterprise".

Contents

As of 2026, it consists of 84 member organizations from 33 European countries across all business sectors. [1] It represents 141 million individual member cooperators, who own 176,000 cooperative enterprises and employ 4.7 million European citizens. [2]

Overview

On the first Saturday of July each year, Cooperatives Europe celebrates International Co-operative Day. In December 2009, the United Nations declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. [3]

Cooperatives Europe claims to increase knowledge of the cooperative business model across Europe and to facilitate the development of cooperative enterprises. Cooperatives Europe is registered in the European Union Transparency Register, [4] created by the European Commission.

Cooperatives Europe is developing a European network of Young Cooperators. [5]

History

The office was established on 7 March 2006 as a nonprofit organization under Belgian law (ASBL). [6]

Since 2012, Cooperatives Europe has been recognized as a Civil Society Organization [7] and takes part in the Policy Forum on Development, organized by the European Commission’s DG DevCo. Cooperatives Europe has organized several seminars on international cooperation, such as the event Cooperatives and Sustainable Development: Challenges for the Post-2015 Agenda, [8] co-organized with CoopBuro in Brussels, among others.

Cooperatives Europe was one of the partners within the European Year for Development (EYD2015). [9]

References

  1. ↑ "Member organisations - Cooperatives Europe". Cooperatives Europe. 8 February 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Cooperatives Europe - EU Social Economy Gateway - European Commission". social-economy-gateway.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
  3. ↑ "International Year of Cooperatives". International Year of Cooperatives. United Nations. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "EU Transparency Register - Cooperatives Europe's profile". European Union Transparency Register. EU Commission. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Harvey, Rebecca (12 January 2015). "International News round-up: 31 Dec 2014 – 13 January 2015". Co-operative News media. Co-operative News media. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "Enterprise Register database - Belgian Government". Government of Belgium - Enterprise Register database. Government of Belgium.
  7. ↑ "Civil Society Organisations - Platforms and Networks". Civil Society Homepage. EU Commission - Development and Cooperation. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  8. ↑ "Cooperatives are major job creators". International Labour Organisation - United Nations. United Nations. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "Partners - Cooperatives Europe". European Year for Development. EU Commission. Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
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