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C
OOPERATIVES
E
UROPE
- Social Partner Program: Consolidation -R
EGIONAL
S
EMINAR
R
OME
– I
TALY 
11
th
& 12
th
November 2008List of participants:Gianna Perra – ConfcooperativeFelice Scalvini – Cooperatives Europe/ConfcooperativeSabina Valentini – ConfcooperativeSilvia Frezza – ConfcooperativeCarlo Marignani – LegacoopFilippo Turi – AGCIGiuseppe Gizzi – AGCISilvia Rimondi – AGCIGiuseppe Turi – UILCarlo Pignocco – CISLPaul Chetcuti – Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operativesRolan Micallef Attard - Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operativesEdwin Balzan – Union of United Workers (UHM)Barbara Kramžar – Primorsko svetovalno središče Slovenija Jadranka Vesel – Zdruzenje kooperativ SlovenijaKarmen Potokar – Primorsko svetovalno središče SlovenijaMarta Figueiredo – ConfecoopRogério Cação – ConfecoopCarlos Trias Pinto – UNCCUEAna Ceballo Herreros – UNCCUEMarco Cilento – ETUC & CISLRainer Schlüter – Cooperatives EuropeMarc Noel – Cooperatives Europe
The third out of the 4 regional seminars took place in Rome the 11
th
and 12
th
November 2008 and regrouped the Southern European countries Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain and Portugal. The objective of these regional seminars is to make a qualitative analysis of theexperiences and added value provided by the co-operative enterprises and their employers’ organisations in the social dialogue with the trade unions. Representatives of the co-operative organisations and trade unions of the countries concerned are thereforeinvited to present the situation of the social dialogue and industrial relations in their countries and how it could be further developed.
Introduction
Felice Scalvini, president of the CECOP-CICOPA, representative of Confcooperative andmember of the Council of Cooperatives Europe, as well as animator of the seminar,welcomed the participants to this seminar. He underlined the pleasure to host thisseminar in the beautiful city of Rome.
 
Felice Scalvini continued by presenting Cooperatives Europe as the European cross-sectororganisation for cooperative enterprises. This umbrella organisation has been the result of a long process of getting together by different European sector organisations and theEuropean national sector and cross-sector organisations. Today, Cooperatives Europe has its offices in the European Cooperative House in Brussels.Since the official start of its activities in November 2006, one of the first subjects to workon has been the social dialogue and the place and role cooperative enterprises areholding within it today. The social dialogue is a very important tool for all enterprises, andalso for the cooperatives, having a quite distinct functioning from other privateenterprises.
EU Social Dialogue
Rainer Schlüter, director of Cooperatives Europe, thanked the Confcooperative for hostingthis seminar. Before going into depth on the subject, he underlined the importance of Cooperatives Europe being a major employer organisation. There are more than 250.000cooperative enterprises in Europe, coming from 6 major sectors, which are regroupedwithin Cooperatives Europe; these enterprises represent 5,4 million jobs. But today,cooperative enterprises are not represented as such within the European cross-sectorsocial dialogue. Of course, this is also due to the fact that Cooperatives Europe is a veryyoung organisation. But also due to the fact that the European cooperative sectororganisations are not all present today within the European sector social dialogue.Further, Rainer Schlüter underlined, that it is not only about the social dialogue, but alsoabout the fact of being consulted on issues of economic and social affairs. Therefore thereare two steps: being recognized as a European social partner, in which processCooperatives Europe is now, and then to think about and analyse how the Europeansocial dialogue could be joined and be part of the negotiations. Of course, this is not easy,as the other social partners are not so keen to get an additional social partner within theirnegotiations; this is certainly true for Business Europe, but also the European Trade UnionConfederation (ETUC) is not so enthusiastic.Of course, common points of interest have to be checked with the public sector and thetrade unions, as the public sector includes also the enterprises providing services of general interest, a characteristic present also within the cooperatives.Rainer Schlüter continued by stating that it is clear though, that the demand has also tocome first from the national level. There has to be a demand from both sides, the tradeunions and the cooperative sector, in the different countries, and this social dialogue hasto come along with some added value. For example, in the Nordic seminar, the Swedishcase showed that the cooperative movement had a special agreement which resulted in avery low risk for strikes as the conflict resolving process has been constructed differently;this is why the fund which is usually foreseen for the strike situations can be useddifferently. That is also why the different national seminars are organised, to learn aboutthe different procedures taken by cooperatives in the countries and analyse the addedvalue of them.Marc Noël, responsible for Finance and Projects at Cooperatives Europe, highlighted theobjectives of the "Social Partner Program - Consolidation" (SPP-C): this program, beingpart of the EU support program for social dialogue, and co-financed by the DGEmployment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, aims to improve the qualitativeknowledge about the contents of the social dialogue between co-operative enterprisesand workers’ representation at different levels and in different countries of the EuropeanUnion.
 
 The Social Dialogue is an essential part of the European social model, being the mainplace for joint initiatives and negotiations between Trade Unions and Employerorganisations. Therefore, this program is a priority for Cooperatives Europe, intending tobecome a social partner and participate within the EU cross-sector dialogue.Further, Marc Noël explained that the program is a follow-up of the successful previousSocial Partner project. This program took place in 2006-2007, demonstrating theRepresentativeness and the participation in European sectoral & national SD by themembers of Cooperatives Europe, which are the conditions for a European Employerorganisation to become a European Social Partner. Further, the organisation must havethe capacity to consult and have a mandate from its member organisations for thenegotiations; conditions which have been verified in the first social partner program.As the European Commission consideried the SPP project to be an interesting andsuccessful initiative it was requested to deepen the results of the first project andintroduce the SPP-Consolidation program. The challenges for this new project aretherefore to analyse the difference and added value provided by cooperativeorganisations, to focus on the work with trade unions and to determine the themes beingdiscussed in the different national & European sector social dialogues. Additionally,counterparts for the social dialogue in the different countries have to be detected, adatabase of Trade Unionists & Co-operators has to be built up and a « SD CompetenceGroup » has to be launched, being a reference group for SD topics related to cooperativesin Europe and supported by a guide on best practices and a quality report of the differentcountries.Felice Scalvini resumed the situation by stating that these regional seminars can be veryuseful to inform and learn about the social dialogue. The cooperative movement has tobuild on its differences, and therefore it has to rely on its differences and underline theadded value it can bring into the social dialogue. The cooperative reality has to be shownand enhanced, and by that, the European presence of the cooperative system will bereinforced.
Country situations
Rogério Cação, president of the Portuguese Confecoop, explained the situation of thesocial dialogue in Portugal, and the participation of the Cooperatives within it. The socialdialogue started in 1984 between the main employer and worker organisations, but itreally got off the ground in the nineties. The cooperative movement is very present in Portugal, and is organised in sectororganisations. The Portuguese cooperatives represent nowadays about 5% of the PIB. Thesocial dialogue is an important issue for decisions, and an important tool to get themrealized. It is within the social and economic council, that the decisions are taken. Whilecooperatives communicate a lot between them, the communication with the other actorsand the outside world of the cooperatives is missing. Therefore, the cooperative visibilityhas to be enhanced and shown to a broader public, not aware of it; the same is the caseconcerning the social dialogue. The relation with the trade unions though is very good, while the problem remains thatthe cooperators are at the same time the employers and employees, and the spaces of negotiations are therefore not always very clear; cooperators are not always interested tobelong to a trade union or create a relation with them. Further, as already mentioned,these spaces of negotiation are sometimes also not developed enough, as thecooperatives fail to communicate in general with external partners, not belonging directlyto their movement.
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