Two new members in Europe from France and Belgium The French cooperative bank, Crédit Coopératif is, by vocation, the bank of the structures of the social and solidarity economy. Credit coopératif is the first cooperative bank in our network, bringing with it a particular added value, especially regarding the identification of financing forms specific to the cooperative model at the European level.

SMart (Société Mutuelle pour artistes) is a Belgian cooperative grouping today 75,000 autonomous workers in Belgium and in 8 other European countries. It provides advice, production support, training, financing, crowdfunding, management, legal and financial tools, etc. These new arrivals have received a particularly warm welcome from CECOP, the European confederation of cooperatives in industry and services, which affiliates 26 members in 15 European countries. “As it is specifically focused on cooperatives in our sector, Crédit Coopératif is remarkably important for CECOP members”, says the president of CECOP, Giuseppe Guerini. “SMart brings to our network a good example of how cooperatives can respond to the changes in the world of work”, concludes Guerini.