On Monday 30 March, in a new report, the European Commission took stock of the progress made since 2021 on the development of the social economy in Europe (see EUROPE 12850/15).
“The implementation of the Action Plan is well underway. In the last five years, 21 Member States have adopted or are preparing national or regional social economy strategies, and 12 have reformed their social economy laws”, explains a press release.
Over €1.62 billion in European funding and €1.2 billion in InvestEU guarantees have also been allocated to support the EU social economy for the 2021-2027 period.
Looking ahead, the report also identifies priority actions, such as clarifying State aid rules, strengthening frameworks for private social investment, improving data collection in Member States and providing a toolkit to support regional and local social economy policies.
Over 4.3 million social economy organisations in the EU currently provide 11.5 million jobs. These are associations, cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, foundations and social enterprises that pursue activities that prioritise social and environmental objectives, and apply participatory or democratic governance models. These organisations operate in a wide range of sectors, from personal services to finance, agri-food, retail and culture. The Action Plan for the Social Economy advocated unlocking the potential of the social economy and amplifying its impact by 2030.
One of the key milestones so far was the adoption of the 2023 Council recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions, says the report.
The Commission’s “efforts have been supported by an increasing international momentum. EU Member States and the Commission have contributed to UN General Assembly resolutions and International Labour Organization conclusions on the social and solidarity economy, and the Commission’s work informed the OECD Recommendation on the social and solidarity economy and social innovation”.
But there is still considerable untapped potential at regional and municipal levels, says the report.
“For example, the recent evaluation of the Directives on public procurement shows varying levels of maturity in integrating social considerations into public procurement practices across Member States”.
The Commission therefore undertakes to: “develop a toolkit to support regional and local social economy policies; boost its work with public authorities, stakeholder communities and networks to promote the exchange of best practices; and, embed the social economy in external cooperation and international dialogues by providing specific training, skills development and social entrepreneurship support to public authorities and deploying projects in non-EU countries”.
It will also explore opportunities to promote the adoption of socially responsible public procurement practices, including the use of the best price-quality ratio and of collective bargaining, in the context of the ongoing revision of the EU public procurement directives, and to promote a more systematic integration of social economy organisations into the value chains of mainstream businesses by inter alia launching a call for proposals to scale up business-to-business partnerships.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/ldm (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)