Since 2007, the College has been a founding partner and key driver of the Co-operatives Europe Development Platform (CEDP), a European network of co-operative organisations active in international co-operative development. The CEDP brings together European partners from diverse sectors to share their expertise in complementary fields such as co-operative financing, agricultural co-operative development, co-operative law and co-operative energy to share good practice and facilitate partnerships. The fact that CEDP members are active in 76 countries and across such a wide range of sectors means that there is a vast pool of expertise from which to draw. The CEDP has so far been instrumental in influencing EU policy in favour of promoting co-operatives, most recently succeeding in advocating for co-operatives to be recognised as an effective international development tool in the European Consensus on Development, 2017. Based on this success, the CEDP is currently playing a pivotal role in discussions with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) on the creation of an International Co-operative Development Platform to extend and affirm its influence.