The World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU), the Irish League of Credit Unions, Great Britain Association of British Credit Unions, and Poland's National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions met last week with European Parliament and key officials from the European Commission.
The joint meeting and lobby activities are part of a larger presence that the World Council and its European members have been undertaking in concert with the Brussels-based public affairs firm Policy Action, Ltd., WOCCU reported.
As part of the series of meetings, WOCCU and its members raised the awareness of the role that credit unions as not for profit, member-owned, cooperative financial institutions play in serving their roughly five-million members within the European Union (EU).
"The fact that credit unions are not banks and should not be treated as if they were banks was communicated to and received positively by members of the European Parliament and European Commission," the World Council stated.
Specific issues added during the meetings included a review of Financial Services Action Plan, the draft Consumer Credit Directive and a draft Money Laundering Directive.
"It is very clear that the targeted education campaign we jointly conducted with our European members was well received by officials in Brussels," said Dave Grace, WOCCU's Senior Manager of Association Services.
