A number of co-operative organisations have been appointed as members of the European Commission’s expert group on Social Economy and Social Enterprises (GECES).
CECOP, which represents Europe’s industrial and service co-ops, will be sending its secretary general, Diana Dovgan, to sit on the group. Cooperatives Europe, the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse) and Centre International de Recherches et d’Information sur l’Economie publique, sociale et coopérative (CIRIEC) have also been asked to join the committee.
GECES group was established in 2011 after the publication of the EC Communication’s Social Business Initiative.
The first meeting of this group is scheduled on October 23 in Brussels. More information can be found on the EC’s website.
The mandate of the new GECES will be to:
- examine the progress of measures envisaged in the EC’s communication on the start-up and scale-up initiative
- advise the EC on policy measures to strengthen social economy and social enterprises ecosystem in EU countries and in the international arena
- raise awareness at the national level of EU level actions and exchange of practice from other EU countries.
