Entrepreneurship & Social Economy

160.000 businesses in Europe are cooperatives. They work in all economic sectors and range in size from micro enterprises to large companies working at the international level. Together with mutual, associations and foundations, cooperative enterprises are part of the social economy.

Representing such a big share of European enterprises, Cooperatives Europe work for a real recognition that in Europe there are different ways of doing business, which equally deserve the attention of policy makers.

We are calling on the EU to abandon the one-size-fits-all approach and start designing entrepreneurship policies taking into account the plurality of business forms, a principle recognised by the funding treaty of the EU.

We support this position in different consultative bodies of which we are part (Network of SME Envoy, the CSR Multistakeholders forum). We participate in the meetings of the Social Economy Intergroup at the European Parliament. Additionally, in collaboration with the European Commission, Cooperatives Europe is drafting a European Roadmap for Cooperatives. The roadmap will mainly focus on three themes: cooperative entrepreneurship, education & training, and access to funding.

The conclusions of the Roadmap will be relayed to the European Parliament through the network of #coopsupporter MEPs.