Regional Minister for Social Care Ermanno Russo met the three main Campania cooperatives, namely Confcooperative, Agci and Legacoop.

During the meeting, a standing taskforce has been settled about social cooperation and the opening of a guarantee fund for companies supplying welfare services has been established with an initial 50 million € fund, half of which is public and half is private.

Coordinator of the federations of Confcooperative Maria Rosaria Soldi, representative of Agci Giuseppina Colosimo, Director of Legacoop Campania Rosario Florio and Coordinator of the Area for Social Care of Regione Campania Antonio Oddati participated in the meeting, held at Palazzo Arnieri.

Regional Minister Russo pointed out: “The issues raised by the representatives of the social cooperation sector are really practical and partially well-known. The need for an ad hoc regional law to rule the existence of businesses on a local level and to establish a relevant register is already on the agenda of the standing Council Committee of the sector, chaired by my colleague Antonia Ruggiero. Concerning other issues, such as the big delay in payments, that affects above all social Territorial Authorities and Local Authorities, the regional Government is working hard and already conceived the establishment of a guarantee fund, with a big economic commitment, namely 25 million € of public resources and 25 million € of private resources. It aims at simplifying as much as possible access to credit and to look beyond the crisis, that, in spite of being deep and almost general, since it affects the whole welfare sector and not only the social care branch, cannot hinder investments in this sector or slow the assessment of alternative roads to strengthen social cooperation”.

On the other hand, the representatives from the three cooperatives, welcomed the idea of this remarkable measure, agreeing on the need to start a process of shared work, that has been set by the establishment of a standing taskforce on social cooperation, based at the Regional Administration for Social Care.