Cooperatives Europe, based in Brussels, Belgium, serves as the European regional office of the International Co-operative Alliance. Established on 7 March 2006 as a nonprofit under Belgian law, it represents 84 member organizations from 33 European countries, spanning all business sectors. These members include 141 million individual co-operators who own 176,000 enterprises, employing 4.7 million people across the continent.
The organization emerged amid efforts to unify Europe's fragmented cooperative landscape, building on precedents like CECOP, founded in 1979 for industrial and service cooperatives. Since 2012, it has held Civil Society Organization status, participating in the European Commission's Policy Forum on Development. It advocates for equitable treatment of cooperatives alongside other enterprises, while fostering networks such as the European Young Cooperators initiative.
Recent activities include seminars on cooperatives and sustainable development, like the 2015 event co-organized with partners in Brussels addressing post-2015 agendas. It also contributed to the European Year for Development in 2015. Today, Cooperatives Europe focuses on policy influence in Brussels, research into cooperative models, and events marking International Co-operative Day each July. Registered in the EU Transparency Register, it channels member interests toward EU institutions, promoting cooperative resilience amid economic shifts without dominating the broader movement.