As far as the composition of this new Board is concerned, there are at present 15 members who were directly elected by the Cooperatives Europe general assembly in Manchester, and, so far, 4 sectoral members, namely CECOP, Eurocoop (consumers), CECODHAS (Housing) and UEPS (pharmacies), each one represented by a delegate. It is also worth noting that there are at present 4 members of the Board of Cooperatives Europe who are representatives of CECOP or of its member organisations (Felice Scalvini for CECOP, Jan Wiesner for SCMVD, Daniel Pavel for Coop Product Slovakia ex-SZVD, and Juan Antonio Pedreño for COCETA).
This is more than the former ICA-Europe Board (on which there were already Felice Scalvini, Jan Wiesner and Daniel Pavel). Thus, more than 20% of the Cooperatives Board members come from the CECOP network. This is the double as compared to the representation of our sector on the ICA Board, which is 10% (two delegates: Felice Scalvini and Janusz Paskowski). All this constitutes a substantial progress in the representation of our sector within the international cooperative system, especially if one considers that there were no representatives from our sector within the ICA Board before 2005 nor within the ICA-Europe Council before 1998.
The main decisions that took place at this Cooperatives Europe Board meeting are the following:
- The wording of a general agreement between the ICA and Cooperatives Europe was agreed upon
- The Executive Committee of Cooperatives Europe will have the same composition as the Executive Committee of the ex ICA-Europe for one year (the Executive Committee of Cooperatives Europe is a smaller body than the Board with the same function as the CECOP Executive Committee). In particular, Felice Scalvini will continue to be a member of this body.
- The first meeting of the new EUCC (EU Coordinating Committee), the successor of CCACE, will take place on 12 February
- The 5 core ideas for a Cooperatives Europe position on the services of general interest (SGI) proposed by CECOP (see CECOP Link n°2006/25) was approved and CECOP is mandated to draft a full position text to be examined at the next Cooperatives Europe meeting.
- Bruno Roelants was nominated as one of the four cooperative delegates to the CEP-CMAF (the apex committee for the European social economy), together with Jean-Claude Detilleux (CEP-CMAF president), Enzo Pezzini and Agnès Mathis, who were re-confirmed as delegates.
