Brussels, 22/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Cogeca (General Committee for Agricultural Cooperation) is calling for a project of a statute as "European Cooperative Company" to see the light of day, so that cooperatives, today organised at national level, may have the possibility of setting themselves up as European cooperatives, playing in favour of cooperation and rapprochement beyond borders.
Cogeca's President Mario Campli, stressed that alliances and mergers between agricultural cooperatives in different Member states were increasingly necessary for reasons of competitiveness, as well as being in the interest of consumers and in view of controlling the safety and quality of products. But they are legally complex. There are some between Scandinavian countries (the merger between the dairy cooperative Arla and Denmark's MD Food, which brings together over 17,000 producers, is a good example) and the countries of the Benelux. However, the possibility of creating European cooperatives would be simpler and more effective.