Commissioner Verheugen hails micro-credit and worker cooperatives' role in the social development of the poor
06 Dec 2007
Position paper
At the occasion of the seminar Social Economy: a key sector for growth and jobs” held by the European Economic and Social Committee on 3 December, EU enterprise and industrial policy Commissioner Verheugen said that “Social economy enterprises, whether they are cooperatives, non-profit associations, mutuals or foundations, range from small-scale enterprises to large businesses, and figures show that they have achieved good economic records in markets where the competition is strong (like banking, provision of social and health services, food distribution, insurance, etc)” and that the Commission was committed to contribute to their promotion.
He also noted that “last year, the Nobel Academy decided to award the Nobel Prize for Peace to Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the “Grameen Movement” in Bangladesh, for his ideas to couple micro-credit soft investments with social objectives in order to achieve, through small workers' cooperatives and non profit organisations, economic and social development for poor people in big city areas.
The Nobel winner is a social economy operator, one of yours, and his prize honours the movement”. (To read the full speech of Commissioner Verheugen, click here).
