UN Resolution Calls for a Second International Year of Cooperatives in 2025

That the Parliament welcomes the United Nations General Assembly's call for the proclamation of 2025 as an International Year of Cooperatives; considers that this will provide an opportunity to promote cooperatives and raise awareness of their contribution to social, economic and sustainable development; understands that the resolution draws governments to the recommendations of the 2023 UN Secretary General's report on cooperatives in social development, to focus on supporting cooperatives as sustainable and successful businesses and enable them to further contribute directly to decent employment, poverty and hunger eradication, education, social protection, financial inclusion and the creation of affordable housing options; further understands that the resolution also recommends reviewing existing legislation and regulations to make the national legal regulatory environment more conducive to the creation and growth of cooperatives, by improving existing laws and regulations and/or by establishing new ones, especially in areas of access to capital, autonomy, competitiveness and fair taxation, and celebrates the occasion of a 2025 International Year of Cooperatives, which will coincide with the 130th anniversary of the International Cooperative Alliance, showing that cooperatives are, it believes, building a fairer and more prosperous world for everyone.