It is composed of two different sections:
- One for representatives from the Member States (Directors-General of Industry and high-level administrators responsible for SMEs)
- One for “high-level experts from the enterprise community”, called the Business Chamber. The call for candidates is for the Business Chamber.
According to the Commission's website, it “consists of eminent persons active in industry and services” and “provides a forum for European business actors to exchange ideas and provide direct, first-hand input to the Commission's policy development process, particularly in areas linked to the development of innovation policies and small and medium-sized enterprises”.
Its mission is to help the Commission to “define new priorities and guidelines” and to “evaluate already implemented policy measures”. Its members are appointed in a personal capacity “in principle for a renewable period of three years”.
It holds meetings with the Commission twice a year in Brussels. It is very important to have people from the cooperative movement, and from the CECOP network in particular, in this body.
In the ongoing period which is now coming to an end, two persons directly linked to our sector are members of it: Jesus Catania, president of Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (indirectly affiliated to COCETA, full member of CECOP), and François Soulage, president of ESFIN-IDES (associated member of CECOP).
Two other persons from the cooperative movement are also members: Jean Claude Detilleux, president of GNC (French intersectoral cooperative organisation) and Jean-François Hoffelt, president of Febecoop (Belgian intersectoral cooperative organisation).
The deadline to submit applications is 15 January 2007. For any information on the application procedure, please go to the relevant webpage (click here)
