President of the Republic of Slovenia shows support to cooperative enterprises

Intervening at the conference ‘Cooperatives – a vector of change in Europe,’ Danilo Türk, President of the Republic of Slovenia and honorary chairman of the International Year of Cooperatives in Slovenia, expressed his strong support for cooperative enterprises as important agents for change in difficult and uncertain times. The Presdident called for an increased inclusion of Slovenian cooperatives into the European networks and stated that “the financial and economic crisis makes it necessary to think about different models of enterprises such as cooperatives, which have already proven to be very successful in other parts of Europe and the world.”

Following his speech, Marc Noel, International Development Manager at Cooperatives Europe, presented the challenges of working together at the European level and advocating for the cooperative business model at the EU Instutions. “Because cooperatives are about people, they are a perfect model canalasing the impetus for greater participation, democratic decision-making, and ownership into the business world. We have to further raise interest to establish a cooperative reflex at the policy and decision-making levels to assure proper support to the European cooperative enterprises.”