Giuseppe Guerini from Italy was elected president of Cooperatives Europe at the organisation’s General Assembly in Antalya, Türkiye (1-3 June 2025).
Guerini, who has served as president of Cecop–Cicopa Europe, vice-president of Cicopa, and as a board member of Cooperatives Europe and the International Cooperative Alliance, is a long-standing member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), where he has written over 30 policy opinions. He was supported by DGRV (Germany), Coop FR (France), and Febecoop (Belgium), who nominated him for the position.
He takes over from Petar Stefanov, president of CCU Bulgaria, who held the position for one year, replacing Susanne Westhausen, who had to step down ahead of her term’s completion due to health reasons.
“We are facing profound transformations in all co-operative sectors,” said Guerini. “Cooperatives Europe must be present and active in shaping these changes – defending economic democracy, strengthening policy dialogue, and making the co-operative voice heard.”
The General Assembly also a new board made up of:
- Iñigo Albizuri Landazabal, Coceta (Spain)
- Jacques Debry, Febecoop (Belgium)
- Mariam Gabrielyan, Farm Credit Armenia (Armenia)
- Stephen Gill, Co-operatives UK (UK)
- Illia Gorokhovskyi, UKRKOOPSPILKA (Ukraine)
- Mieczysław Grodzki, National Cooperative Council (Poland)
- Andreas Kappes, DGRV (Germany)
- Teodora Kuzmanova, CCU Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
- Catiuscia Marini, Alleanza delle Cooperative Italiane (Italy)
- Thomas Meyer, Coop FR (France)
- Ünal Örnek, Orkoop (Türkiye)
- Anu Puusa, Pellervo (Finland)
- Vivian Woodell, Co-operative Housing Ireland (Ireland)
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Sectoral organisations also nominated the following representatives for the board, confirmed by the General Assembly:
- Mathias Fiedler, Euro Coop
- Leonardo Pofferi, Cogeca
- Priscille Szeradzki, European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB).
Two more organisations will also designate their representatives following their respective General Assemblies, Cecop and REScoop.eu.
Cooperatives Europe has 77 member organisations from 32 European countries across all business sectors. Its member organisations represent 250,000 co-operative enterprises with 141 million individual members and provide jobs to 5.4 million European citizens.
