{"id":421916,"date":"2025-03-20T09:24:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/20\/legacoop-lavoro-competitivita-difesa-ue\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:45:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T10:45:45","slug":"legacoop-in-brussels-cooperatives-are-the-engines-of-competitiveness-they-should-not-be-penalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/20\/legacoop-in-brussels-cooperatives-are-the-engines-of-competitiveness-they-should-not-be-penalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacoop in Brussels: “Cooperatives are the engines of competitiveness; they should not be penalized”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – For\u00a0Europe, grappling with declining industrial performance, fragmented international trade, and escalating geopolitical tensions, competitiveness, one of the central themes of today’s (March 20) European Council summit, has become the central\u00a0goal.\u00a0Simone Gamberini<\/strong>, president of Legacoop<\/a>, the association that brings together more than 10 thousand cooperative enterprises active throughout Italy and the entire production chain, knows this well. He\u00a0addressed representatives of the European institutions<\/strong> last night at the\u00a0Cooperatives, a driving force for competitiveness and social cohesion in Europe”\u00a0event<\/a>. The conference aimed to explore critical issues related to competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability, as well as the central role of cooperatives in the future of the\u00a0industrial and agribusiness sector <\/strong>in Europe.<\/p>\n

“We account for almost 10 percent of European GDP.<\/strong>\u00a0We are one of the engines of the EU’s competitiveness growth.\u00a0We think we have a lot to say,” Gamberini explained on the sidelines of the event, speaking of a “very particular<\/strong>” phase<\/strong> for the continent in which “not only the structure of the Union is under discussion, but also the set of its policies that must assist in\u00a0recovering\u00a0competitiveness and productivity.”\u00a0\u00a0He added that the “world of cooperation and the social economy” must be central as the engine<\/strong> “of European competitiveness.” Gamberini also stressed,\u00a0“The need to share common defense spending cannot mean giving up<\/strong> our\u00a0economic and productive model<\/strong>, maintaining our welfare model and social innovation, strengthening social protections as an element of security and stability.”<\/p>\n

The Emilia Romagna representation to the EU hosted the forum.\u00a0 Regional president\u00a0Michele De Pascale\u00a0<\/strong>noted that in the region, cooperation “has an even greater value, if possible, than for the rest of the country, because there is a deep-rooted historical presence, a powerful\u00a0cooperative spirit.” The conference – which opened with institutional messages from the vice president of the EU Commission, Raffaele Fitto<\/strong>, and the vice president of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno – is an opportunity to defend “the basic values of freedom and social solidarity that inspire the European Union at a time when Europe faces complex challenges, from geopolitical tensions to the threats from the United States<\/strong>, to the need for greater strategic autonomy<\/strong>, the role <\/strong>of cooperative enterprises becomes even more\u00a0central<\/strong>;\u00a0For this reason, it is more important than ever today to implement a European strategy that enhances them, ensuring the right tools to compete on a global scale, easy access to funding, and a regulatory framework that recognizes their specificity,” the president concluded.<\/p>\n

Raffaele Fitto warmly welcomed the initiative and, speaking of a “change of pace<\/strong>,” emphasized the measures\u00a0the new European Commission is pursuing in the competitiveness that affect cooperatives, such as the Affordable Energy Action Plan<\/strong> and the Vision<\/a>\u00a0of Agriculture and Food<\/strong>. He also spoke of\u00a0the importance of flexibility<\/strong> in the Commission’s policies, “Current cohesion programs need to be coordinated, adjusted to today’s stringent problems\u00a0to provide appropriate solutions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the association, EU policies (including common defense) must not neglect the social economy. Agriculture, competitiveness, and territory are the themes of the event, with European Commission Vice-President Raffaele Fitto hosted by the representation of the Emilia-Romagna region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7883,"featured_media":421892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[26324,30670,25855,26279,28826,26884,30774,26444],"class_list":["post-421916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-agriculture-en","tag-trade-en","tag-emilia-romagna-en","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-legacoop-en","tag-work-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421916"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421948,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421916\/revisions\/421948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}