B. whereas cooperative enterprises, by their nature, are structurally linked to the area in which they are based and therefore play an important part in accelerating local development, which is a decisive factor in generating genuine social, economic and territorial cohesion; whereas, in cooperative societies, the financing of continuing training in the fields of social responsibility and entrepreneurship, which are two areas not fully covered by other instruments of social participation, is of fundamental importance;

B. whereas cooperative enterprises, by their nature, are structurally linked to the area in which they are based and therefore play an important part in accelerating local development, which is a decisive factor in generating genuine social, economic and territorial cohesion; whereas, in cooperative societies, the financing of continuing training in the fields of social responsibility and entrepreneurship, which are two areas not fully covered by other instruments of social participation, is of fundamental importance,

Very recently, on 4 and 5 May, the most recent EU Forum for University Business Dialogue was held in Brussels with the following priorities: cooperation between universities and small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperation between universities and business on innovation, cooperation between universities and business on the quality of education.

The programme has two specific objectives: I. To promote, coordinate and strengthen measures to assist cooperatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations by: - strengthening the horizontal approach, in particular through conducting studies on the development of the sector in the Community, creating a favourable environment, evaluating the impact of Community policies and introducing machinery for the consultation of firms in the sector; - supporting specific measures aimed at promoting opportunities for transnational cooperation, in particular by small firms in the sector, helping groups of partners find new fields of activit ...[+++]y, improving information and disseminating innovative ideas; II. To reinforce, within the framework of other Community policies, measures to assist cooperatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations, in particular by developing Community statistics on the sector, providing training back-up and encouraging greater RD. Mr Vanni d'Archirafi stated that "Firms in this sector have a major role to play in the search for a new development model for the European economy and European society.

In addition, the continuity and consolidation of Community action will be ensured, in particular: - Towards those categories of SMEs which make a major contribution to the dynamism of the European economy but many of which are still unable to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the completion of the internal market: This will mainly involve identifying the needs of SMEs and developing pilot schemes, including for very small enterprises and the craft sector, the distributive trades, cooperatives, mutual societies, associati ...[+++]ons and foundations, in particular as regards trans-national information and cooperation; - By promoting a better financial environment for enterprises: The main task will be to facilitate access by SMEs to sources of finance (e.g. mutual guarantees, venture capital, analysis of the feasibility of second-tier markets) and to Community financial instruments (in this connection, particular attention will be paid to monitoring developments concerning the new European Investment Fund (EIF), given its interest for SMEs); - By ensuring a fuller understanding of the situation of SMEs and of the developments they have to come to terms with, as well as assessing Community measures to assist them (continued support for the work of the European SME Observatory1 and for the work to improve statistics on enterprises).

We created the master of management program in co-ops and credit unions to apply the cooperative values and principles and business purpose to every aspect of cooperative business, and to assist cooperative managers in doing that.