This second cooperation seminar was organised on 5th March by GENIES, the association that is the premises of the Economic Pole of Territorial Cooperation of SICOVAL. It was highly successful, given the numbers of actors who took part, the quality of their input, exchanges and perspectives in building an EPTC that would be both the reflection of local actors and supported by local authorities.

Morning session: brief presentation of the local authorities that were present

The urban community authorities of SICOVAL, represented by François Régis-Valette, President, and Henri Arevalo, Vice-President in charge of solidarity economy, the Midi-Pyrenees Region, represented by Marie-Christine Pons, member of the Regional Parliament responsible for social and solidarity economy, and Syvie Bories, also member of the Regional Parliament, all congratulated the members on the quality of the work that had already been accomplished, and expressed their support for the project.

The EPTC approach was presented by Aude Boisadan, project coordinator of EPTC in the SSE Labo in Paris that had supported the collective appropriation of the project in terms of its concrete implementation.

This is part of the on-going process of building a cooperative, innovative EPTC.

It approves of the desire of those actors who are involved, to support Research and Development via committed action-research, based on the idea of cooperation between SEE actors and those of the so-called mainstream economy.

This constitutes one of the fundamental pillars for ensuring the sustainability of an EPTC.

Submissions have been made to the Ministry for SSE to get a budget line that would support the design and sustainability for EPTCs throughout France.

During the feedback session the public partners noted how dynamic the joint construction process had been and how instrumental it is in building a truly cooperative and innovative EPTC.

Afternoon session: workshops

Group1: Charter and cooperation projects

Group 2: Real estate and economic cooperation

The feedback from these 2 work groups will be presented at the General Assembly of GENIES on 15th March at 14h30 at the Maison de l’Économie Solidaire in Ramonville.

Number of participants: 46

Structures represented: 30

Public partners present: Communauté d’agglomération du Sicoval, Midi-Pyrenees Region and Ramonville Town Hall.