To the presidents, directors and communication officers of CECOP member organisations
As mentioned in last week CECOP Link, we are hereby making a call for contributions on best practice cases for a publication to be published later this year. Indeed, one of the tasks which we set ourselves to do this year is to make a publication targeted towards the European Commission and other entities (trade unions, other EU networks and federations, etc) on best practice among enterprises of our sector in complying and promoting the EC social inclusion policy, within the framework of the ongoing Progress project (planned activity 2.3.1 of the CECOP 2008 Work Plan approved at our 2008 Congress).
In terms of impact, the winds are in our favour: the Social Inclusion Unit of DG Employment (responsible for the Progress project) is developing a vision of social inclusion which privileges active inclusion policies and a close link with the EU employment policies. Thus, not only B-type social cooperatives, but also all enterprise within CECOP's constituency (including worker cooperatives, SME/artisans' cooperatives, A-type social cooperatives, SAL) are particularly relevant within the framework of those policies, as we explained last year to the Commission in our Project project proposal, which was approved.
On this basis, the main criteria for the best practice cases which we ask you to communicate to us should be the following:
- The capacity to create employment, e.g. through start-ups in promising and innovative sectors.
- The capacity to save employment, in particular through the “cooperativisation” of enterprises in crisis or without heir, including the whole support environment (not only the cooperativised enterprises themselves).
- The capacity to consolidate employment through enterprise projects, and to provide sustainable employment, in particular through enterprise networks, consortia, groups, support instiutions etc).
- The capacity to provide jobs and inclusion through work to disadvantaged workers or workers at risk (disabled, unemployed, people under precarious employment, socially disadvantaged, prisoners and ex-prisoners, drug addicts, ethnic minorities eg Roms, extra-EU immigrants etc);
- The capacity to provide social services which are geared towards social inclusion, eg towards disadvantaged populations and populations at risk (same categories as mentioned under the above bullet point).
The more those cases can be well documented with figures the better, in particular, figures on the long-term duration of the jobs created, saved or consolidated would be important. As a first step, we kindly ask you to send a concise paragraph about the prospective best practice case(s) which you would like to propose to us, for 10 August at the latest, to cecop@cecop.coop.
You can draft those concise proposals in any of the following languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese or Bulgarian.
We will then make a selection based on a number of criteria, such as the technical imperatives of the publication, the diversification of the cases etc.
Then, in September, if and when your best practice case(s) has (have) been selected, we will ask you to draft a more detailed text and to send us pictures as well.
We will then send you more concrete details concerning the parameters for the drafting of those texts. May we draw your attention that this initiative is an important channel to enhance the visibility of our movement, including the visibility of your own national organisations and enterprises?
It also provides a chance for us to convince the European Union institutions and other European and national entities that our enterprises are involved in social inclusion thanks to their participative governance and ownership structure.
