We have been advising leaders in the European Commission about the developing their strategy for working with CoP, as well as facilitating the learning community coordinators  since the Summer of 2006. CoPs in the Commission come in different forms, sometimes called "knowledge networks," or just simply "networks." No matter what their name is, their common denominator is: they exist because their members derive some value from participating in them.

There are wasteful practices and there are excellent, high-leverage practices of managing the social funds received by the Member States from EU, and anywhere in between the extremes. The difference translates in more or less people are getting vocational re-training in areas struck by modernization, or network of woman entrepreneurs becoming more visible and able to do more for their members, just to mention two examples.