This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance.(November 2025) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )
Cooperatives Europe is the European regional office of the International Co-operative Alliance. It acts on behalf of cooperative enterprises in Europe, with a mission of promoting cooperative business model and advocating for a "level playing field between cooperatives and other forms of enterprise".
As of 2025, it consists 84 member organizations from 33 European countries[1] across all business sectors, and represents 141 million individual member cooperators, who own 176,000 cooperative enterprises and employ 4.7 million European citizens.[2]
Overview
As part of the International Cooperative Alliance, Cooperatives Europe adheres to the definition of a cooperative as outlined in the Statement on the Co-operative Identity, which also defines seven cooperative principles. Over time, the international cooperative movement has made small readjustments to the first set of principles of the Rochdale cooperative. The most recent adjustment was made in 1995 at the Centennial Congress of the International Cooperative Alliance, when the seven cooperative principles were approved:
Voluntary and open membership
Democratic member control
Member economic participation
Autonomy and independence
Education, training and information
Cooperation among cooperatives
Concern for the community
The new principles, while building on and refining the previously accepted ones, position cooperatives as jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises, emphasizing values such as self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, and solidarity.[3]
Cooperatives Europe claims to increase the knowledge of the cooperative business model across Europe and to facilitate the development of cooperative enterprises. Cooperatives Europe is registered on the European Union Transparency Register,[5] created by the European Commission.
Cooperatives Europe is developing a European network of Young Cooperators.[6]
History
Cooperatives Europe was established on 7 March 2006 as a nonprofit organization under Belgian law (ASBL).[7]
Since 2012, Cooperatives Europe is recognized as a Civil Society Organization,[8] 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,[9] co-organized with CoopBuro in Brussels, among others.
Cooperatives Europe is one of the partners within the European Year for Development (EYD2015), EU’s first ever thematic year dedicated to international development cooperation. The year 2015 is designated as the European Year for Development, focusing on the European Union's external actions and its role in international development. For development organizations all over Europe it is an unparalleled opportunity to showcase Europe's commitment to eradicating poverty worldwide and to inspire more Europeans to get engaged and involved in development. 2015 is also the year in which the Millennium Development Goals that the world agreed to reach in 2000, and in which the international community will agree on the future global framework for poverty eradication and sustainable development.[10]
↑"Cooperatives are major job creators". International Labour Organisation - United Nations. United Nations. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
