CECOP welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the European Commission in developing its 2025 Single Market Strategy. While the Single Market offers many opportunities, barriers still exist and possibilities to improve it remain untapped. This makes it particularly challenging for small and medium cooperatives to unlock the full potential of the Single Market. Therefore, CECOP believes that the upcoming Single Market Strategy should consider the following recommendations:

  1. Review and adapt State Aid rules and the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) to recognise social economy enterprises
  2. Revise the Directives on public procurement to ensure access for social economy enterprises, including cooperatives
  3. Promote and support workers buyouts as a tool against deindustrialisation
  4. Invest in research, development and innovation
  5. Support skills development
  6. Reduce administrative burdens

Finally, in order to ensure that the EU is equipped to tackle the challenges of the 21st century, it is essential for the Single Market Strategy to recognise the importance of and mainstream environmental sustainability, economic prosperity, and social and territorial cohesion.

Our detailed feedback to the consultation can be found here.