The EU's regions and cities are looking forward to
the Social Economy Action Plan, which the European
Commission is expected to publish before the end of
the year. The opinion adopted by the European
Committee of the Regions (CoR) on Thursday
underlines that it is essential to harness the full
potential of social economy enterprises and
organisations to ensure economic recovery, to
promote collective entrepreneurship and to create
high-quality jobs after the COVID-19 crisis.
Diverse forms of social economy enterprises and
organisations currently employ 13.6 million workers,
which corresponds to around 6.3% of the EU workforce.
Rapporteur Mikel Irujo (ES/EA),
Minister for Economic and Business Development of the
Navarre Regional Government, highlighted that that
these businesses have local roots and shared values,
such as the primacy of individuals and the social
purpose over capital, democratic governance and the
reinvestment of most of the profits in a sustainable
way.
"EU action to promote the development of the social
economy is particularly relevant due to the economic
and social crisis caused by COVID‑19. Social economy
enterprises and organisations are businesses that never
relocate, as they are created in the local area and
owned by people based there, and are strongly committed
to the economic and social development of the place
where they operate. It is important that regions
include the social economy in their smart
specialisation strategies as a key lever for economic
and social development", Mr Irujo said when presenting
the opinion.
However, the
CoR opinion
points out a need to support, finance and strengthen
social economy networks at European level. Social
economy enterprises and organisations often face
difficulties in accessing finance and operating
transnationally in the Single Market, partly due to
poor visibility and understanding of their business
models and lack of common legal frameworks covering
different forms of social economy,
Regions and cities are calling on the Commission to
promote education and training for entrepreneurship
throughh different forms of social economy at all
educational levels, and to support the training and
life-long learning access of social economy workers
through the Pact for Skills. The opinion also suggests
to strengthen cooperation with the industrial ecosystem
of the social economy and to build alliances with other
business actors, public authorities, vocational
training centres, professional schools, universities
and research centres..
The CoR would also like to see more ambitious
initiatives to support the role of local and regional
authorities in promoting the social economy. The
Commission should boost the visibility of the social
economy with a broad communication campaign, which
could include publishing a guide to public social
economy policies, selecting a European Capital of
Social Economy and creating a single online platform
which links all European studies and reports on the
social economy and the opportunities offered by the EU
in this field.
Finally, the Social Economy Action Plan should have a
timescale of at least five years for its implementation
with appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and
supporting social economy policies. The opinion also
calls for cross-sectoral social dialogue with social
economy employers, with measures to build the
capacities of a European social economy employers'
organisation and to consolidate it.
Contact:
Lauri Ouvinen
Tel. +32 473536887
lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu