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On October 31 2011 the United Nations launched the International Year of Cooperatives 2012. The launch of this initiative comes at a time of increasingly severe economic crisis - what Carlos Heller referred to yesterday at the UN as a "paradigm crisis" - in many parts of Europe and beyond.

It is increasingly clear that the cooperative model provides an integrated solution that places human capital above financial capital, and offers an approach that should be highly attractive to those who are caught up in the current perfect economic storm.

Judging by the media coverage in recent days, highlighting the closure and forced merger of a number of Spanish 'Cajas', the increasing nervousness of the markets with regard to the euro, and the potential exposure of European banks to sovereign debt, commentators are expressing real concern that we may be on the verge of a second financial crisis.

I learned earlier this afternoon that the Moscow convention has been cancelled as a consequence of the near total shutdown of European airspace due to the cloud of volcanic ash. My heart goes out to the folks at Cooperatives Europe who no doubt will have been working on this event for some months.