A fascinating panel on both existing financial instruments for facilitating worker buyouts of enterprises and an engaging discussion on the need for new and improved support structures for encouraging awareness and adoption of such mechanisms. Featuring Alessandro Viola (Italy, CFI), Thierry Perrin (France, Les SCOPs), Pedro Blazquez (Spain, COCETA) and Tej Gonza (Slovenia, Center for Economic Democracy), with feedback from Diana Duvgin (CICOP) and Alessandro Celoni (Banca Etica).

One of the points that seemed to come out of the discussion is the current incommensurability, to borrow Karl Popper’s phrase, of policy at the EU level and the needs of local stakeholders, such as workers. Often times there is a disconnect at the level of mindset and even of goals, since many ministries are concerned with analysis and verification, instead of in the process of local value creation. Perhaps future lessons can be drawn from discussions like this one.

The event was hosted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission in the aegis of the FI-COMPASS event.