The president of the Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES), Juan Antonio Pedreño, the Director General Contract Labour, Social Economy and CSR, Miguel Angel Garcia Martin and the Minister of Education, Training and Employment of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, Constantino Sotoca have been the protagonists of the close of this conference.
The meeting brought together more than 150 delegations from 12 Mediterranean countries, experts in cooperative has not only raise awareness of the importance of this business model in the Euro-Mediterranean area, but establishing new challenges on the effort needed to display and promote this business model
The Chairman of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño, has reinforced the message of Secretary General United Nations, cooperatives have proven to be a versatile and viable business model that can thrive even in difficult times. Pedreño, stressed that this meeting has helped identify new measures and proposals to take advantage ofcooperatives offer opportunities to the Union for the Mediterranean to promote social development, job creation and greater social integration. In this framework ESMED Network, as a meeting of the Social Economy in the Mediterranean, is to immediately continue working to strengthen ties between Mediterranean countries. In the final movementcooperative has the ambitious goal of transforming the Mediterranean into an area of "?"?peace, democracy and shared prosperity
Miguel Angel García Martín has indicated that job losses in cooperatives stood six points below the rest of the companies during the crisis years, since it is a way of doing business in addition to creating stable employment, promotes sustainable growth of the areas in which it operates. Therefore, the cooperativeSpanish is a model for export.
García Martín also stressed that the government has allocated in 2012 over 940 million euros to promote self-employment and the social economy.
Constantino Sotoca closed the event by sharing some thoughts on the objectives that have been the celebration of these days, where cooperatives have been the protagonists as successful business model and an identity that enables them to revive the labor market, such as they are showing in the Region of Murcia.
