Director of Co-operatives Europe believes there is an immediate role for co-ops in Greece
Co-operatives are a badly needed alternative to the austerity policies that are currently crippling the crisis-hit economies of Greece and southern Europe says the director of Co-operatives Europe.
Speaking to the Guardian at the end of the Co-ops United conference in Manchester, Klaus Niederländer said: "There is clearly an immediate role for co-ops in the Greece where we're seeing huge swathes of the Greek economy being sold off to the private sector at knockdown prices.
Why not set up co-operatives that can be owned by the people themselves rather than external investors who just want to drain off the cash-flow?"
"It's not going to solve all the problems in the Greek economy of course, but there is a great deal of evidence that points towards the co-operative enterprise business model as being of great benefit to the long-term recovery of the Greek economy."
Whilst at the local level people in Greece are actively organising new co-ops that for example are directly linking consumers with farmers, this has yet to translate into a bigger, national movement.
"The main barrier to the Greek co-op sector is that the legal framework doesn't yet provide the support to enable growth on a national scale," says Niederländer.
Whilst the grassroots co-operative movement in Greece is now focussing its efforts on getting a completely new law for Greek co-ops through parliament, Niederländer doubts that this new law will come any time soon.
"Unfortunately the Greek parliament doesn't have the best track record of developing legislation and getting it approved in a short time-frame."
Further west in Spain the picture is one great regional variations says Niederländer, with the northern provinces of Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque country having strong co-operative sectors which have proved to be able to withstand the worst impact of the Spanish economic crisis.
Niederländer cites the example of Mondragon, the giant Basque co-op whose continued success has helped the Basque Country stem its unemployment rate to just half of that of the Spanish average.
In Italy a recently published survey by the European Research Institute on Co-operative and Social Enterprises provides more evidence of the ability of co-ops to outperform regular businesses in the face of an economic downturn.
The survey found that between 2006 and 2010 co-operatives in the Trentino region of Italy outperformed shareholder companies in Bologna by a factor of almost three to one.
The Trentino region of northern Italy has one of the most vibrant co-operative sectors in the country with co-ops making up 90% of the agricultural sector and 60% of the banking and financial services sectors.
"The strength of the co-operative banking sector in Trentino leads to banks collecting local money that is re-invested back into the local economy," says Niederländer.
"Crucially money isn't leaking outside the region and this is the secret of successful co-operative-based economies."
Dan Gregory winner of the Ethical Consumer 2012 essay prize 'Is there a co-operative alternative to capitalism?' which was announced during Co-ops United, says that it's vital that policy makers are made aware of the strength of the co-operative model.
"Spanish co-operatives have seen an increase in employment by an average of over seven per cent in the last quarter of 2011 despite wider unemployment at record levels," says Gregory an advisor at Common Capital, adding that: "Co-operatives have higher resilience in economic crises."
Simon Birch has been reporting from the Co-operatives United event in Manchester
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