The General Assembly of CECOP – the European Confederation of Industrial and Service Cooperatives – met on 16 October in Brussels and elected Monica Fantini as its new President, succeeding Giuseppe Guerini, who had held the position since 2016.
Fantini also becomes Vice-President of CICOPA and, notably, the first woman ever elected as President of CECOP, a position she will hold until 2029.
Monica Fantini is the President of Conscoop, an Italian consortium of cooperatives operating in the construction and infrastructure sectors, and Vice-President of Legacoop Produzione e Servizi. She also serves on the governing bodies of Legacoop, both at regional and national levels.
Fantini brings extensive experience in cooperative development and international project management. Her distinguished career includes a decade leading environmental protection and public health initiatives in North Africa, and in her home country, Italy, she has held senior roles within Legacoop, including serving as Director-General of the regional office of Legacoop Romagna.
She has also served on the boards of major banking foundations that promote sociocultural and health research initiatives. Her professional and personal commitment to social and economic progress, both in Italy and abroad, earned her the title of Knight of the Italian Republic.
“It is a great honour and a great responsibility for me to have been appointed President of CECOP. We must work together to develop concrete proposals that reconcile responsible innovation, competitiveness, and social development, while contributing to Europe’s strategic autonomy. The complex times we live in call for extraordinary commitment from our network. Across Europe, there is an unprecedented need for cooperatives, given the socio-economic values they represent, and the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) must take this into account,” said Fantini following her election.
