COGEA was founded in 1979, born out of the experience of its Partners acquired in Auditing, Certification and Management Consulting multinational companies. Since then the activities performed by COGEA have gradually focused on areas relating to the programming and management of initiatives cofinanced by the EU.
With its thirty-plus years of consultancy experience and over 150 assignments pertaining to activities cofinanced with EU structural funds, COGEA is now a leading company in Italy in the spheres of technical assistance, programming, evaluation, management and monitoring of programmes and actions cofinanced with EU Structural Funds.
Since 2010 COGEA has become a European leader in the conceiving and development of market intelligence solutions throughout the EU food distribution chain to aid policymakers and stakeholders.
Its main clients include: Community, National and Regional Administrations, Local Authorities, Public-Private Partnerships, Banks.
COGEA has proven experience in the handling of relations with collective interest organisations, having collaborated for years, as part of Community programming, with leading business and trade organisations, at both a national and regional level.
Since 2002 activities performed by COGEA are governed via a certified UNI EN ISO 9001:2008Quality Management System (Certificate nr. 7096/02/S of 10/06/2014).
Company Set Up:
COGEA’s quality and reliability levels are guaranteed by the efforts, professionalism and experience of its collaborators.
COGEA operates at a national level, using a territorial network of specialist experts, engineers and certified accountants working as a team using tried and trusted procedures and methods.
At an international level, it has given rise to the European Economic Interest Group (EEIG) Agrosynergie, specialising in the appraisal of the Common Agricultural Policy on behalf of DG AGRI, and to a networking group in the sphere of maritime policy involving leading European enterprises.
In Europe and Italy, COGEA’s structure is as follows:
temporary operational offices in Italy, according on projects carried out (work teams are currently active in Calabria, Emilia Romagna, Puglia, Sardinia and Tuscany).
Organization:
To perform its activities COGEA has:
The number of COGEA collaborators depends on the Company’s commitments, the type of single assignments and the geographic position of its partners.
The set of knowledge and multidisciplinary skills possessed by the Company guarantees the quality of services provided and the right degree of flexibility in relation to their clients’ needs.
Value of the Company
COGEA’s professional capabilities, its 30-plus years’ experience in the sphere of consultancy and constant interaction with leading European firms have enabled it to gain good standing in an extensive relational and operational network in Italy and Europe.
EXPERIENCE
Over 30 years’ experience providing technical assistance with planning, programming, organisation, monitoring and financial control activities.
EXPERTISE
Their consultants use tools that have been thoroughly tested, and management and control methods that are being constantly reviewed and fine-tuned.
FLEXIBILITY
Organisation, management, presence at a local level and speed of action make it possible to tailor tools and solutions to the specific needs of the client or project.
Areas of Activity:
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Since 1981 COGEA has been helping public bodies with the implementation and governance of EC/EU Programmes.
Over the years COGEA has gradually organised its activity into three main macro-activities:
Since 2004 COGEA has been involved in Mainstreaming, following on from experience on the EQUAL initiative, commissioned by the Ministry of Employment and Social Policies.
CONTROL SYSTEMS AND MONITORING
COGEA has been one of the first companies in Italy to carry out financial controls for structural funds and to issue Certification on the well-foundedness of public spending to the European Commission.
Ever since the 1994-99 Structural Funds programme, COGEA has carried out first-level controls (systematic and/or spot checks on operations), second-level controls (analysis of management system and control procedures, evaluation of systemic risks and consequent spot checks on operations, in situ).
Thanks to the numerous assignments awarded and performed, over the years COGEA has built up an extensive and consolidated network of certified accountants and auditors, dotted all over Italy.
COGEA has drafted and monitored audit trails, collected samples, carried out site inspections and issued certification pursuant to Reg. 2064/97, Reg. 438/01 and Reg. 1828/06 for regional and multiregional Programmes (POR – DOCUP – POM Industria), Operational Programmes (PO Energia – PON SIL) and Community Initiative Programmes (PIC PMI, Retex, Konver), working for both Ministries and Regions, certifying public spending programmes having a global value in excess of 14 billion Euro. These assignments have enabled COGEA to gradually build up an extensive network of particularly experienced collaborators: Certified Accountants, Auditors and Engineers, distributed in all Convergence Obj. (previously Obj. 1) regions and in the main Regions of the Centre-North of the country.
COGEA is in constant touch with leading institutions involved in the implementation of auditing in the Italian context (Commission DGs, IGRUE, European Court of Auditors, OLAF).
Ever since 1994 COGEA has acted as a Monitor, the aim of which is to ensure compliance with cofinancing procedures and regulations (physical-economic-financial-procedural monitoring), with reference to the Beneficiaries of initiatives subsidised through the use of national and Community public funds.
This activity, which is the professional area in which COGEA has its largest territorial presence, has been performed on behalf of Intermediary Bodies for CIPs (Community Initiative Programmes): PMI, LEADER I and LEADER II, URBAN), GGs (Global Grants), Sviluppo Italia (within the framework of Law 608/96), Ministerial Agencies (Istituto Sviluppo Agroalimentare ISA SPA), Regions (Programme Framework Agreements of Emilia Romagna region) and financial Institutes.
Site inspections have been carried out on the premises of over 3,500 enterprises.
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Since 1997 COGEA has gained significant experience in the design and development of Market intelligence systems.
Market Intelligence is taken to mean the understanding of market trends and constant updates on the main elements that have a bearing on price formation throughout the supply chain.
COGEA’s Market Intelligence may be aimed at policymakers, helping them to understand market functioning, and stakeholders, giving them access to harmonised and prompt information.
Worthy of particular mention in this sphere is the design and development of the European Market Observatory for fishery and aquaculture products, commissioned by the European Commission – DG MARE in January 2010, which is an ongoing project.
The Observatory represents, in order of time and importance, the first experiment of the European Commission in providing market information throughout the chain of a production sector in all 27 Member States (plus Iceland and Norway).
FISHERY AND MARITIME POLICY
In the last few years, COGEA has been expanding its business into fishery and maritime policy, mainly through the provision of support services and studies to the EU Commission – DG MARE.
As regards fisheries, COGEA has developed analyses and studies on the structure of the whole sector supply chain in the EU. The experience gained has led to the design and development of EUMOFA, the first market observatory of fisheries and aquaculture products covering the entire EU.
When it comes to maritime policy, COGEA has supported the constitution of EUNETMAR, a network of companies and organizations from all across the EU, of which is the lead company. EUNETMAR is carrying out a framework contract for the EU Commission to support the implementation of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy.
COGEA has focused especially on the quantitative measurement of Blue Growth potential in Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea countries, as well as on the contribution to the defintion and fine-tuning of macroregional strategies in the Adriatic-Ionian and Baltic Sea. Cogea has also worked on the identification of the potential for maritime cooperation in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Finally, COGEA is leading the consortium of companies in charge of developing EMODnet Lot 7 “Human Activities”. EMODnet is the European Marine Observation and Data Network. COGEA’s is building a web portal that makes available harmonized geographic data on 14 human activities at sea, through an interactive map.
QUALITY AND IMPROVEMENT SYSTEMS
COGEA is engaged in the creation of territorial and environmental quality systems, as well as collective tools for the protection and development of agricultural products and the self-regulation of producers.
In 1998 it conducted on behalf of the European Commission one of the first Community-wide studies on the analysis of collective and private quality labels, aimed at aiding the efforts of economic operators in the agro-foodstuff sector to meet consumers’ needs.
In 1993 COGEA created, with the Galgano Group, the Agribusiness Total Quality (ABTQ) Consortium, an innovative services organisation, aimed at applying Total Quality in the agro-industrial sector and in rural areas of Italy.
Since 2008 it has been working on systems for the development of rural territories in the Mediterranean area, such as the Ruralità Mediterranea quality label, bringing together 23 Local Action Groups of Sicily, Campania and Greece, with the participation of over 300 enterprises operating in the spheres of tourist accommodation, catering and the sale of wine, food and craft products.
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
COGEA’s initial core business, local development policies have always been a “laboratory” for new initiatives. COGEA’s experience in the design of territorial development systems began with Mediterranean Integrated Programmes (MIPs), the first attempt to interpret rural space in terms of integration of the agricultural sector within the specific socio-economic system.
Moving beyond that experience of 1988, COGEA has helped to create public/private partnership networks in many Italian regions, “institutionalised” through participation in “Leader” Community Initiative Programmes.
COGEA has provided its services to over 30 different LAGs within Leader I, Leader II and Leader Plus initiatives, and to a number of regional administrations, municipalities, Chambers of Commerce, Development Agencies and Banks.
EVALUATION OF PROGRAMMES AND POLICIES
COGEA is an independent Evaluator of the European Union for assignments of considerable financial relevance, and above all of strategic importance for defining future Community policies in different sectors.
Since 1999 COGEA has developed, alongside European Commission working groups, methodologies and evaluation schemes in the agricultural sector and the sphere of local and rural development, studying the effects of intervention policies of considerable socio-economic importance.
COGEA has gained significant experience in the evaluation of national and regional actions and Community policies.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Design, studies and researches
The COGEA working group has developed sectoral and territorial studies and analyses on behalf of local, national and Community authorities on questions relating to:
Tutoring
COGEA is at the service of Administrations that decide to support public sector policies for the promotion and support of businesses through specialised consultancy systems: market analysis, analysis of needs and positioning studies, assistance with strategies for operational and organisational enhancement, management control, support with the creation of networks of enterprises, help with fundraising.
COGEA also operates in the sphere of mentoring to enterprises that are granted considerable funding within the framework of Law 488/92, aimed at attaining the utmost efficiency when implementing investment plans and at boosting business growth and innovation.
Training
COGEA operates on behalf of public and private bodies on the design, rollout and monitoring of integrated training, skill transfer and best practices dissemination actions, within the framework of projects financed by the European Social Fund.
