The World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU) and its European members from Ireland, Great Britain, Poland and Romania held the first-ever breakfast seminar here for members of the European Parliament. The event was co-hosted by Brian Crawley and Marian Harkin, both Irish members of the European Parliament, and was held within Parliament.
According to the World Council, the primary purpose of the breakfast seminar was to expand the knowledge base of European Parliament members and officials within the European Commission with respect to CUs.
"For a first of its kind event in the European Parliament for credit unions in the EU, I think the program was extremely successful," indicated Pete Crear, chief executive officer of WOCCU. "Anytime you can attract the numbers of elected officials that we did and keep them engaged in a discussion for the duration that we did, it's a huge success. The best stories of the benefits of credit unions were told by some of the Parliament members to their colleagues."
Credit union representatives present at the breakfast seminar included Liam O'Dwyer, Uel Adair and Noel Madden of Ireland; Grzegorz Bierecki and Pawel Grezsik of Poland; Gary Plank, Pete Crear and Dave Grace of WOCCU; Roney Hobley and Ciara Morrison of Great Britain; Florin Simion from Romania; and Eleonora Zgonjanin from Macedonia.
