Non profit
The cooperative sector: best practice from Italy
CGM, a consortium of cooperatives, is a very powerful player in the Italian scenario
di Staff
According to David Ainsworth of Third Sector magazine, in many parts of southern Europe the cooperative sector is much larger and more effective than in the UK.
Italy’s Consorzio Gino Mattarelli (CGM), for example, is a consortium of 1,100 cooperatives that employ 35,000 people and have a combined annual turnover of more than € 1.2 billion ($ 1.03 billion).
“It works at a local level all the way up to national level”, says Dorotea Daniele, director of European social enterprise support agency Diesis and a former CGM employee. “It represents about 10 to 20 % of all the cooperatives in Italy, depending on where you are in the country, so it’s a very powerful player.”
Cooperatives, says Daniele, receive significant benefits thanks to the Italian constitution, including support for taking on some unemployed people such as ex-offenders or disabled people and the right to bid for small contracts without having to go to competitive tender.
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