Cooperatives Europe

Coops and youth in action at #BordeauxGSEF2025! 🇫🇷    Last week, we actively participated in the GSEF (Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy) and spoke at five events. 💬    Our delegation brought together:  🔹 The Cooperatives Europe team including President, giuseppe guerini.  🔹 5 Young delegates from the Young European Cooperators Network (YECN) and Belgium coops.  🔹 Global partners from Cooperativas de las Américas and Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) (CEDP Member).      With CONCORD, we organised a Conference under #coops4dev🌍 discussing the level and nature of current and potential EU investments in cooperatives and the broader social economy under its Global Gateway Strategy.     The session highlighted an essential point: the need for cooperatives and social economy and the EU acting to through Team Europe mutually harmonise priorities, principles, and language. 🤝    We also contributed to key discussions around:    🌱 The link between cooperative entrepreneurship and territorial responsibility.  💡 Cooperatives as innovative social economy enterprises.  👥 How coops provide legitimacy and spaces for youth entrepreneurs.  🕊️️ The Cooperative and SSE contribution to peace and stability.    With 5,500+ participants, the Global Forum provided a powerful platform to position cooperative enterprises as key actors and reliable partners in localising the global economy, enlarge our network of partners, and highlight the cooperative contribution to the UN Agenda2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals #SDGs. Agnès Mathis Tiina Huvio Carlos González Blanco Helena Gorroño Annalisa Vallone Mathilde Delabie (she/her) GSEF 2025 International Cooperative Alliance Global Gateway #coops4dev🌍 #IYC2025 #BordeauxGSEF2025 #YouthCooperation #CooperativesBuildABetterWorld #YECN #SocialEconomy

🌍 This week we're building bridges across cooperative ecosystems and joining the GSEF (Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy) in Bordeaux. Our teammate Helena Gorroño, Vice President of the Young European Cooperators Network (YECN) representing KONFEKOOP Confederación de Cooperativas de Euskadi, will take part tomorrow in the round table “Entrepreneurship together and differently: youth cooperatives”, sharing the voice of young co-operators from Euskadi and across Europe. A space to talk about: 🤝 Collective entrepreneurship 🚀 New generations leading change 🧩 Democratic governance 🌱 Social impact as a starting point Helena will join young co-operators, researchers and representative organisations including CO-ACTIONS, Cooperatives Europe / YECN, and Université de Limoges and Université Paris 8 — moderated by Georges-Henri ABTOUR from Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine. We keep building bridges and strengthening the cooperative ecosystem. 🌐✨ Cooperatives Europe #GSEF2025 #SocialEconomy #YouthCooperatives #CooperativeMovement #Tazebaez #CollectiveEntrepreneurship #CooperativesEurope #YECN #Konfekoop #EuskadiCoop

📣  Does Europe invest in coops and the wider social economy worldwide? Join us and CONCORD at #BordeauxGSEF2025 on 30th October to discuss it!    Profit with purpose: unlocking value through people-centred businesses in the EU's international partnerships.   📅 Thu 30 Oct 2025, 10:15–11:15  📌 Salle C2 – Abdou Salam Fall   🔍 Full info: https://lnkd.in/eYh8HTam    At present, through its Global Gateway (GG) Strategy, the EU is pioneering a “360º approach” which integrates poverty eradication and sustainable development in its investment-based international partnerships. However, recent figures show that the mainstream private sector is the main beneficiary of this approach, with people-centred businesses lagging.     Under #coops4dev🌍 and building on our joint “Mind Our Business Report” (2020), join this session to:     🇪🇺 Explore the ways in which the EU can further support and partner with cooperatives and social economy actors worldwide, notably under Global Gateway.    💸 Understand whether GG's financing modalities are fit to supporting social economy entities and cooperatives, and whether adaptations are needed     🌍 Hear the voices of cooperators and social economy actors from around the world on their advocacy efforts for more people-centred policies and partnerships.    Moderation: Tanya Cox, Director, CONCORD    Speakers:     Tiina Huvio, Director, Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) (Finnish CEDP member);  Yohann Chaigneau, Senior Advisor, Strategy & Policy, European Investment Bank (EIB)  Carlos González Blanco, Program Coordinator, Cooperativas de las Américas, in the framework of #coops4dev🌍 bi-regional collaboration    Connect with us in Bordeaux to learn more on coops in international development! Check our #BordeauxGSEF2025 events: https://lnkd.in/eWmxhZWx    #coops4dev🌍 #IYC2025 #BordeauxGSEF2025 #YouthCooperation #CooperativesBuildABetterWorld #YECN #SocialEconomy    GSEF (Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy) Global Gateway International Cooperative Alliance European Investment Bank (EIB) Osuuskuntien Keskusjärjestö Pellervo Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) Cooperativas de las Américas Tanya Cox Borja Arrue-Astrain Caritas Europa World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) Fairtrade International ILO Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy RIPESS Europe RIPESS - Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy Social Economy Europe

🏘 Who stands strong when times get tough? #CoopVsCorp When crisis hits companies withdraw. They tend to cut staff, close sites, or move elsewhere. Cooperatives stay connected to the places that built them. Research from the ILO, OECD and Eurofound shows that cooperatives often remain operational through downturns, protecting local jobs and supply chains. By keeping income and activity within communities, they help stabilise demand and support recovery long before outside investment returns. They endure because their priorities are set locally. Members don’t abandon their own communities, they adapt, reinvest, and rebuild… Resilience is not just surviving but also continuity: the shop that stays open, the energy project that keeps running, the credit union that still lends. Coops act as local anchors when others drift away. 🌱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫. 🌀 In the International Year of Cooperatives, we’re proud to show what real resilience looks like. #CoopVsCorp Every Wednesday! #IYC2025 #Resilience #LocalPower #CoopDifference #EconomicDemocracy

📣  We’ll be there! - We are heading to Bordeaux for GSEF 2025!! 🇫🇷 | 29–31 October Next week, our team will participate in the GSEF (Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy). 🚀 The global forum is one of the largest gatherings of the social economy! We will be there to amplify the cooperative and youth voice, positioning cooperative enterprises as private sector partners that contribute to sustainable development. Under #coops4dev🌍, Cooperatives Europe will co-organise a joint conference with CONCORD and participate as speaker in two workshops. Conference: Profit with purpose: unlocking value through people-centred businesses in the EU's international partnerships  📅 Thu 30 Oct 2025, 10:15–11:15 | 📌 Salle C2 – Abdou Salam Fall  Our Speakers: Tiina Huvio (FFD), Carlos González Blanco (Cooperativas de las Americas)  🔗 More info: https://lnkd.in/eYh8HTam Workshop: Cooperating for the common good: corporate territorial responsibility  📅 Wed 29 Oct 2025, 16:30–17:30 | 📌 Salle A – Elinor Ostrom  Featuring: Our Director Agnès Mathis, will discuss cooperative territorial angle, circular economy, and insights from the Global Innovation Coop Summit   Workshop: Entrepreneurship together and differently: youth cooperatives  📅 Fri 31 Oct 2025, 9.00–10.00 | 📌 Salle C1 — Claude Alphandéry Featuring: Helena Gorroño (YECN) will share the youth perspective and how cooperative governance is fit to address youth unemployment and economic inclusion. 🎙️ giuseppe guerini, President of Cooperatives Europe will speak at the following two events: The International Coalition of SSE: Stability in incertain times: how SSE contributes to sustaining peace? 📅 Wed 29 Oct, 17.45–18.45 | 📌 Room E — Karl Polany Social dialogue in the social and solidarity economy: a model of social innovation in Europe 📅 Thurs 30 Oct, 10:15-11:15 am | 📌 Room A — Elinor Ostrom 🎤  Cooperatives Europe will be teaming up with five young delegates from the Young European Cooperators Network (YECN) to advocate for a central role for young people in social economy, and contribute to the International Youth Declaration. 📝    Stay tuned for more updates from Bordeaux!     📘  Explore the Full Program: https://lnkd.in/eeT_MBh9 #coops4dev🌍 #IYC2025 #BordeauxGSEF2025 #YouthCooperation #CooperativesBuildABetterWorld #YECN #SocialEconomy Global Gateway International Cooperative Alliance Bordeaux GSEF 2025 giuseppe guerini

We’re proud to take part in the Global Innovation Coop Summit 2025 in Torres Vedras, Portugal, next week on 27 and 28 October! 🌍 💬 giuseppe guerini, President of Cooperatives Europe, will deliver the opening remarks and take part in two key sessions: 👉 moderating “Building Impactful International Cooperative Partnerships”, exploring how cooperatives can strengthen inter-cooperation across borders; 👉 joining the panel “Building Trust Together”, highlighting how cooperatives are expanding their impact globally through new models of digital and data collaboration. 🗣️ Our Director Agnès Mathis will moderate the closing plenary session “Cooperate for the Future – From Innovation to Action”, guiding reflections on how cooperatives and mutuals can drive a more sustainable future together. We look forward to connecting with cooperative leaders worldwide to exchange ideas, inspiration, and action. 🤝 More info and full programme at https://lnkd.in/dbp9dq-d #GICS2025 #Intercooperation #SustainableDevelopment #CooperativeInnovation

🏡 🏥 Webinar Recap: How are cooperatives addressing housing and care needs?      Last Thursday, we co-hosted the second and final Euro-American dialogue of the "Caring Cooperatively" webinar series, in partnership with Cooperativas de las Américas under #coops4dev🌍 🌎     💡Cooperative leaders across Europe and the Americas shared their ongoing work on integrating care into housing models, with inclusiveness and accessibility as central pillars to their activities.     🌎 Damaris R., We Effect Central America, showed how the coop model collectively organizes care and housing needs and transforms #social #norms, recognizing and rewarding women time and work. Leveraging on their global network, best practices from Honduras and Guatemala are now being translated in Eastern Europe. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eBpkR9Qy 🇮🇹 Using a legal lens, Emilio Emmolo, Confcooperative Federsolidarietà, shared how Italian social coops are integrating housing and care by providing shelter homes for #women victims of violence, and residential and day care for persons with disabilities, elderly and minors.  🇺🇾 Beatriz Bellenda and Luis Sancho, Cohabitar Carpe Diem shared their inspiring coop journey through INCUBACOOP. Thanks to state support, the #elderly-owned coop is innovating daycare as a means to territorial redevelopment to create an adaptive environment specific to their needs. Read more: https://lnkd.in/drQYmxMV   🇪🇺 Alice Pittini, Housing Europe, shared European examples 🇳🇱🇩🇪🇮🇹 from the Housing Solutions for Independent Living project. Within this multi-stakeholder action addressing the needs of an aging population and people with intellectual impairments, housing coops are testing #digital #technologies to ensure adaptive housing. Read more: https://hs4il.eu/    Key takeaways:    ✅  The coop business model recognises and advances housing and care as collective and interlinked #human #rights.  ✅  Cooperative housing goes beyond building homes; it fosters community engagement, #accessibility, care integration and adapts to residents’ evolving needs.  ✅ From Americas to Europe, state support and multistakeholder partnerships are key enablers for care and housing cooperative development, magnifying the cooperative difference in local communities.    📺 Curious to know more? Watch the full recording: https://lnkd.in/e3aGVANQ & stay tuned 👀 for more resources!     #coops4dev🌍 #careeconomy #IYC25     ILO Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy UN Women CARE We Effect We Effect América Latina Cooperativas de las Américas WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing EU Employment and Skills Laure Rogès Ana Pashalishvili CECOP CICOPA

😊 Where are workers the happiest? #CoopVsCorp In many corporations, people clock in for someone else’s goals. Decisions are handed down, and effort often feels disconnected from the outcome. Cooperatives bring work closer to meaning. When workers have a say and see how their effort shapes results, motivation changes; people don’t just work for a business, they work as part of it. Research shows, for example, that employees in worker-owned coops report higher job satisfaction, stronger motivation, and greater well-being than in traditional firms. When workers have a say, work becomes more than a job; it becomes a shared responsibility and therefore a shared success. So where are workers happiest? In places where their voice matters. 💚 🌀 In the International Year of Cooperatives, let’s show what better work really looks like. #CoopVSCorp Every Wednesday! #IYC2025 #CoopDifference #WorkplaceDemocracy #BetterWork #WeAreCoops

Principle 6 in Action!! On October 8-9, we were delighted to welcome members from the Cooperatives Europe Development Platform (CEDP) in Brussels! 🇪🇺      🌍 Coming from 12 different countries, they gathered to collaborate, exchange ideas, and discuss how to promote the cooperative business model in international development and strengthen inter-cooperation around the world.    Our Director Agnès Mathis opened the meeting, defining the CEDP a key tool to advance our international development work under #coops4dev🌍 and stressing the importance of dialogue with the whole European Network. From thematic dialogues to brainstorming sessions, members shared their international cooperative development work and built new synergies across regions and sectors. Key outcomes include:     📚  Joint Publication: agreed on the next steps towards a guide on how to conduct international cooperative development.  🧭  Looking ahead to 2026: shared upcoming projects, events & advocacy initiatives.   🤝 Collective Action: commitment to increasing the collective impact of the CEDP and its contribution to the UN Agenda 2030 and its SDGs. Some of the agreed themes: 🌿 Twin Transition - 🙋♀️Women economic empowerment - 💡Youth and intergenerational change - 🕊️ Crisis response & peace.    The CEDP in a nutshell (Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e52dyitQ) 👉 Cooperatives Europe’s working group on international cooperative development (ICD)  👉 14 members – 2 European sectoral and 12 national  👉 Active in research, advocacy and capacity building activities on ICD under #coops4dev🌍 linked to the EU External Action Agenda (Eastern Neighbourhood & Global Gateway)   Coopermondo - Confcooperative Haliéus CERA CV BRS - Belgian Raiffeisen Foundation CASES - Cooperativa António Sérgio para a Economia Social Coceta DGRV Euro Coop Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) Kooperationen Det Kongelige Selskap for Norges Vel REScoop.eu Co-operative College We Effect Global Gateway EU Neighborhood & Enlargement Dr Sarah Alldred Paola Ferrara Gabriele Verginelli Korbinian März Elsa Brander, PhD Jenny Öhman Julie Nåvik Hval Maria Taddesse Edna Neves Amaya Delgado Annalisa Vallone Paola Rosatelli #coops4dev🌍 #CEDP #IYC25

So how do cooperatives shape daily life? NEW video! 🎥 On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we are excited to share our new video, “A Day in the Life with Coops.” The video portrays cooperators and their cooperatives from across the world - from different regions, sectors, and ways of life - showing how they are shaping their futures. Representing Europe, we meet Jas, a young linguist and member of a language and interpretation cooperative called NoBarriers Malta, which supports migrants in her community. 🌍 From Valletta (Malta) to Cebu (Philippines), Lindi (Tanzania), and Bahía Blanca (Argentina), cooperation shapes daily activities and cooperative journeys! 🎬   🤝 Released on 17 October to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this video also helps to aim to raise awareness about the power of cooperation in uplifting communities.     🔗 Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/ekh9mxmz  The video was developed as a collaborative project between International Cooperative Alliance, Cooperatives Europe and all other ICA regions in the framework of the #coops4dev🌍 partnership between the ICA and the European Union.  International Cooperative Alliance - International Cooperative Alliance - Africa - International Cooperative Alliance - Asia and Pacific - Cooperativas de las Américas Malta Cooperative Federation NoBarriers cooperative #coops4dev🌍 #UNSDG1 #SustainableDevelopment #Agenda2030 #GlobalGoals #IYC2025 #IDEP2025