Policy paper: “Co-designing the Action Plan for the Social Economy: for an economy that works for people and the planet.”

With this policy paper, Social Economy Europe pursues three main objectives:

–Mobilise social economy’s potential to contribute to the social, economic and environmental objectives of the EU, as well  to a sustainable recovery by boosting entrepreneurship and the creation of quality jobs. 

–Promote the convergence and coordination of the different public authorities involved in the promotion of the social economy (EU, national, regional and local levels) by defining strategic objectives, key targets, and benchmarks at EU level. 

–Foster a conducive ecosystem for the growth of the social economy in Europe, improving its contribution to key EU objectives and allowing social economy enterprises to take full advantage of the Single Market, EU funds and financial instruments. 

The paper also contains 7 priority areas for EU action (see image above) and 51 concrete proposals, as well as an analysis on the added value of social economy to build back better and contribute to the green and digital transitions and to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights; and a background on the history of EU policies for the social economy since the recognition of cooperatives in the Treaty of Rome (1957) and the 1989 EC Communication on Businesses in the Economie Sociale sector until our days.

SEE President Juan Antonio Pedreño declared: This is the begining of a new era of EU policies for the social economy. This a key year to define the collective future of the social economy and make sure that we build back better. I have no doubt, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  We have new opportunities with the Action Plan, the Next Generation EU and the new MFF. In this context, cooperation and coordination is needed to achieve our common objectives. We are and have always been stronger together.