Development

Cooperatives in Sicily, eight points to ask the Region for a new strategy

Confcooperative, Legacoop, Unci and Unicoop present a common platform: credit, energy, supply chains, welfare, housing, internal areas, digital and confiscated assets at the centre of the debate

by Nino Amadore

27 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

An eight-point programme platform to put cooperation back at the centre of Sicily's economic and social agenda. This is the heart of the States General of Cooperation, scheduled to take place today, 27 May, in Palermo, where Confcooperative, Legacoop, Unci and Unicoop will bring to the debate with the regional government and the Sicilian Regional Assembly a document conceived as the basis for a new development strategy.

The political step is significant: for the first time the four Sicilian cooperative centres present themselves united, with a single platform to be proposed to the Region. Not a sum of associative instances, but a common document that aims to recognise cooperation as the island's economic and social infrastructure. Eight axes have been identified: credit and finance, energy and water, production chains, territorial welfare, housing and urban regeneration, inland areas, digital innovation and assets confiscated from organised crime. The message is clear: cooperation is not a niche. It is a productive and social network that redistributes wealth, creates jobs, guarantees services and keeps alive communities often left on the margins. Strengthening it means trying to build development that is more deeply rooted in the territories. Weakening it would mean making a Sicily that is already paying a high price in terms of depopulation, inequalities and loss of competitiveness even more fragile.

The numbers of a widespread system

Co-operation arrives at this appointment with a significant economic weight. About 11,800 cooperatives operate in Sicily, with a total value close to 5 billion Euro. The primary sector alone, including agriculture, breeding and fishing, is worth 1.8 billion. If we also consider the cooperative financial system, the value is close to 17 billion. Behind these numbers are over 100 thousand members and more than 55 thousand workers, many of whom are members of the enterprises themselves. It is a network that spans agriculture, fishing, credit, services, culture, tourism, logistics, innovation and social cooperation. In many territories it represents one of the last strongholds capable of guaranteeing employment, services and cohesion.

Credit, Energy and Supply Chains

The first node is credit. The centres are calling for the full operation of subsidised credit, the immediate launch of +Cooperazione, the relaunch of Irca (the recently created regional institute that also deals with credit to cooperatives), patient finance instruments, Workers Buyout mechanisms and public-private co-investment funds. The aim is to strengthen the investment capacity of cooperative enterprises.

The second axis concerns energy, water and ecological transition. The platform proposes a regional plan for sustainable water management, energy efficiency measures, renewable energy communities and cooperative energy-production districts.

Then there is the chapter on supply chains. Agribusiness, fishing, culture and tourism are indicated as fundamental assets of the regional economy. The proposals focus on integrated cooperative supply chains, asset strengthening, brands for cooperative 'Made in Sicily' and exports to the Mediterranean. Specific dossiers are also included in the document: cooperative wineries, wine, durum wheat, fishing, aquaculture and the future ZES Sicily.

Welfare, home and domestic areas

Territorial welfare is one of the most sensitive points. Social cooperation demands tariffs that are in line with the real costs of services and labour costs, respect for payment times, reorganisation of Regional Law 22 of 1986, implementation of the essential levels of social services, and strengthening of shared administration.

The perspective is to move from performance welfare to community welfare. It means making co-planning and co-designing effective, strengthening the social and health districts, implementing health budgets and ensuring a more widespread presence of kindergartens.

The platform also addresses housing hardship, with a regional plan for cooperative social housing and urban regeneration interventions. For inland areas, instead, the proposal is an extraordinary plan for community cooperatives, with support for local services, tax incentives, simplifications and digital infrastructures.

Digital, Confiscated Assets and Method

Another axis concerns innovation: cooperative digital platforms, regional hubs, access to data, technologies applied to production chains and ethical use of artificial intelligence.

The last point is that of confiscated assets. The proposal is to transform assets taken from organised crime into engines of development and inclusion, through cooperative networks, agricultural, tourism and social supply chains and educational programmes on legality.

The States-General also call for a change in method: a permanent Region-Cooperation table, co-programming of policies, monitoring of ERDF, ESF and national resources, annual priorities and a stable agreement with local authorities, universities and the financial system.

There are five immediate requests to the Region: to adjust the costs of social welfare and sociomedical services, to make subsidised credit effective with Irca and +Cooperazione, to support aggregation and capitalisation of social wineries, to promote cooperation as a subject of the social economy, and to set up a permanent dialogue with regional institutions.