Co-op News (August 2019)

CO-OP CULTURE IN
EUROPE
How can we bring together different national cultures in one
organisation? Cecop looks back during its anniversary conference
BY ANCa VOINEA
Forty years ago co-op apex bodies from
six European states met in Manchester
where they agreed to set up Cecop, the
European Confederation of co-ops in
industry and services.
At the time, the UK was governed by
Margaret Thatcher, who was breaking the
UK’s post-war political consensus. Her
approach changed economic and fiscal
policy at national and global level, while
economic liberalisation changed the
world of work and curbed union power.
Cecop president Giuseppe Guerini
says the world now faces similar
challenges to those of 1979, with
illiberal populism on the rise in
Europe and elsewhere. In response, he
sees co-ops as playing a key role in
safeguarding democracy.
Speaking at the organisation’s 40th
anniversary conference in Manchester
on 21 June, he looked at its achievements
in bringing co-ops together to share
experience and speak with one voice.
Vice president Siôn Whellens said:
“The purpose of us getting together is
understanding one another, tackling the
sometimes uneven development of our
movement across Europe and being ready
for global challenges.”
Rainer Schlüter, secretary general
of Cecop from 1985 to 2004, said that
in 1979 other sectoral organisations
were representing European co-ops in
retail, agriculture or banking. But these
organisations were focusing on sectorspecific
issues, rather than lobbying for
the co-op business model.
Co-op bodies from across six European
states joined Cecop not only to defend
the worker co-op model, but also speak
for the co-op concept with a single voice
before European institutions. Cecop’s
permanent secretariat was established in
1982 in Brussels.
Initial successes included getting
co-ops for the first time on the agenda of
MEPs in 1981 and securing a debate on a
European co-operative code. But agreeing
a common message proved a challenge
for Cecop’s members as well as other
co-op sectoral organisations.
“The histories and cultures of co-op
movements were very different and had
very different rules,” said Mr Schlüter,
adding that movements across different
countries were worried their national
co-op cultures would disappear under a
European co-operative statute. German
co-ops were worried the ability of their
apex body to approve the establishment
of co-ops would be eroded; Italian co-ops
had multiple organisations and voices;
and French co-ops were afraid indivisible
reserves rules could change.
If Italy and France had strong industrial
co-ops, Belgium had co-ops operating as
an alternative economy model – and the
UK movement included many radical
worker-owned businesses. Holland had
loose forms of self-managed enterprises,
said Mr Schlüter, adding that Cecop
needed to keep an open mind.
In the late 1980s the European
Commission (EC) fully recognised the
social economy sector through the
creation in 1989 of a social economy unit
in the DG Enterprise. Following multiple
reorganisations, the unit was replaced
by the autonomous European Standing
Conference of Co-operatives, Mutual
societies, Associations and Foundations
(CEP-CMAF), which adopted the name
Social Economy Europe in 2007.
36 | AUGUST 2019