Press Release - 14 November 2005

 

For a social economy which is more visible on the stage of globalisation.

 

The social economy now has its own international “summit”: the second Mont Blanc Meetings (MBM) have just been held, from 4 to 6 November, near Annecy. They brought together leaders of cooperatives, mutuals, associations, foundations from all continents, representatives of international organisations (the International Labour Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, the International Cooperative Alliance), researchers and academics, leaders from-access software and encyclopaedias (the Wikimedia Foundation), and outside experts (McKinsey, the Ecole de Guerre Economique).

                                                  

The participants agreed to position the social economy more clearly on the stage of globalisation by opening up several avenues: visibility, thanks to “rallying signs”, exchanges on the consistency of shareable brand images; the strengthening of the presence of the social economy in new means of communication, new technologies, extending achievements such as the internet domain name “.coop”, developing actions with players in free-access software and free-access encyclopaedias.

 

 

At the same time, they agreed to work together on the values of the social economy, so that an economy which serves people can be taken into account by international organisations such as the WTO, or the World Bank, and regional organisations such as Mercosur or the European Union, as they already are by the ILO.

 

 

Finally, many international cooperation projects were set up: the international centre for intelligence on the social economy, solidarity money, the social economy development fund in Central Europe, the Strabon Euro-Mediterranean intercultural network, the creation of free-access software, or the setting up of a network of consultants to support cooperative projects in Africa. These projects will be worked on in the coming weeks by the leaders of the interested cooperatives, mutuals, associations and foundations. The Mont Blanc Meetings are gradually becoming a forum for finding reciprocal co-operations.

 

To ensure the continuity of the MBM, the founders (the Macif, the Groupe Chèque Déjeuner, the Maif, the Groupe Crédit Coopératif, the Groupe Esfin-Ides) have set up an association, which will have the participation of organisations from several continents and countries (Canada, Spain, Italy, and Japan, among others) to give it a transnational dimension. Links have been forged with various networks and initiatives in the social economy (such as the RIPESS meetings in Dakar).

Contacts:

 

- Thierry Jeantet, President of the Association Les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc

 

tel.: (33)-1 45 74 08 56

 

- Jean-Philippe Poulnot, Vice-President of the Association Les Rencontres du Mont-Blanc

 

tel.: (33)-1 41 85 08 53