Giuseppe Guerini has been an Italian social co-operator since 1998, working in several different organisations. He was elected Cooperatives Europe President on 2 June 2025 for four years. He was previously the sectoral representative on the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) board for Cicopa, the ICA sectoral organisation of co-ops in industry and services, from 2023. In June 2016 he was elected president of Cecop, the European Confederation of Cooperatives in Industries and Services. From 2010 to 2018, he was president of Confcooperative – Federsolidarietà, the Italian Federation of social co-operatives, and since 2012 he has been president of Confcooperative Bergamo.
What led you to the co-operative movement?
I joined my first co-operative because I was looking for a job that would allow me to combine my passion for social solidarity with employment. Driven by this desire for change, I started working as a grassroots operator in a social solidarity co-operative that dealt with the inclusion and support of young people with employment integration challenges. This job led me to discover my vocation for education.
I began working with no prior knowledge of the co-op model; I did not know its potential or characteristics. Through studying social pedagogy, particularly the work of John Dewey and Paolo Freire, I came to realise that co-operatives could have a potential beyond the social service function to which I had initially dedicated myself.
I gradually progressed through various stages: from grassroots worker to a social educator, then head of services, and then manager of the co-operative, and finally president of a large job placement co-operative. In 2010, I also began to take on advocacy and representation roles for the co-operative movement, first at the local level in my area, then at the national level, and finally, in 2016, I became president of Cecop.
You were recently elected president of Cooperatives Europe. What are your priorities for the next four years?
The presidency of European co-operatives is exciting and challenging, because we are facing very complex times. These first six months as president have already been very intense because they also coincide with the implementation of the new political cycle at the European level, set in a broader and extremely complex geopolitical context.
Because of this, co-operatives are challenged on multiple levels, from market reorganisation and the need to find new balances to remain active on global issues and more sector-specific policies. At the European Union level, we will have to address the new EU multiannual financial framework in the coming years. In addition, many legislative proposals are currently in the pipeline that will have an impact on co-ops. These include public procurement, start-up scale-up policies, regulatory simplification, and new approaches to the regulation of investments and savings. These will be a strong focus of our work.
We could therefore say that the first priority is to ensure advocacy and lobbying activities to protect co-operatives and prevent market transformations from becoming too burdensome. A second priority concerns maintaining specific attention to the co-operative model as a highly relevant and modern model, capable of continuing to ensure economic democracy in today’s context. Co-ops can also act as a space for openness, for dialogue and inclusion, a sort of co-operative diplomacy that helps address this upheaval in global market tensions.
A third priority concerns the issue of skills and competitiveness, that is, how to develop the skills of co-operators and co-operatives to remain competitive businesses. These priorities will certainly guide our mandate and our board has already begun working on them. In addition, there are more immediate and sector-specific challenges, particularly for digital transformation, which is part of the broader innovation agenda.
A more short-term but significant priority concerns the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Co-operatives Europe as the European Region of the ICA. This will be an opportunity to celebrate our history and achievements. The European co-operative movement will also pay attention to Cop31, end of the year in Türkiye.
What have been the highlights of your time in the role so far?
These have been six intense months, with so many truly significant moments. I have spoken and represented Cooperatives Europe at various international events such as the ICA conference and General Assembly in July in Manchester (UK), the conference on co-operatives and international trade in Shanghai, and the Global Innovation Cooperative summit in Torre Vedras, Portugal, in October. Other events provided opportunities to promote the strength of co-operatives within social economy such as the Global Social Economy Forum in Bordeaux, and the social economy conference in Seville, Spain.
Related: Global Innovation Coop Summit positions co-ops as innovators
But as mentioned earlier, advocacy has been a central part of my mandate from the outset. It has included meetings with high-level representatives from the EU institutions, supporting our internal advocacy work coordinated by one of our vice-presidents, Thomas Meyer, and contributing to different reports and hearings to promote the co-operative position within the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
However, a president does not act alone. During these six months I made a conscious effort to involve the board members in these activities and to build a strong spirit of collaboration. These first six months are not mine they belong to all of us.
We are living in increasingly polarised and unstable times, both internally in Europe. in terms of Europe’s relationships with the USA, Russia and elsewhere. Can co-ops offer a useful way forward in such times of crisis?
Yes, co-operatives can play an important role.The co-operative movement has always shown a capacity for dialogue and openness to diversity. These permanent “schools of dialogue”, which co-operatives are, can play an important role to reduce polarisation. If more people in the world adopted the co-operative method, there would be fewer crises as co-operatives know, above all, how to organise participation, manage dialogue, and use conflict constructively.
Therefore, we must believe in this potential and seek to transfer this transformative power to the rest of the economy. The capitalist economy operates as a war economy, while the co-operative economy is an economy of collaboration, sharing, and ultimately, peace.
What are the key challenges facing the co-op movement in Europe today?
There are quite a few key challenges. Among them I have already mentioned competitiveness and digital transformation. But equally it will be about skills development, and building greater awareness of co-operative identity as a contribution to building a fairer, and therefore better, world.
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