Background information

The term social economy refers to entities operating by providing goods and services to the marketplace with social and / or environmental goals as a reason for their commercial activities. In 2019, Nicolas Schmit, EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, was mandated to draw up a European Action Plan for the Social Economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fundamental role that the social and solidarity economy plays in building a fairer and more sustainable society and has made the case for moving to a fair, sustainable and resilient economic model even stronger than before. These experiences were the impetus for the presentation of the final version of the plan by the European Commission on 9 December 2021, after detailed consultations with many stakeholders.

Content of measure

The Action Plan aims to help develop the European social economy by harnessing its economic and job creation potential, and its contribution to a fair and inclusive economic recovery and to the green and digital transformation.

In the opinion of the Commission, the Plan will be a key factor in increasing social investment and supporting social economy entities and social enterprises in starting their activities, increasing the scale of their activities, introducing innovations and creating jobs throughout the European Union.

A series of initiatives is proposed in three areas:

• creating the right conditions for the development of the social economy;
• opening up opportunities for social economy organizations to start up and scale up;
• ensuring that the social economy and its potential are recognized.

The Action Plan announced a number of key actions to support the social economy, for example:

• Council Recommendation on developing framework conditions for the social economy;
• a new EU Social Economy Gateway, intended to be a clear access point for social economy actors, other relevant actors and those seeking information on appropriate EU funding, policies and initiatives;
• a new European Competence Center for Social Innovation.

Use of measure

Not applicable.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Other groups of workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) EU (Council, EC, EP)	European Funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Social partners were consulted as part of open public consultations.

Views and reactions

According to the EU trade unions (ETUC) the initiative is an useful initiative for a under-appreciated and often-neglected sector.

According to the EU employers (SGI Europe) the action plan rightly identified the main challenges for the social economy.

Sources

• 09 December 2021: Building the economy that works for people: an action plan for social economy (ec.europa.eu)
• 09 December 2021: SGI Europe comments on Social Economy Action Plan (sgieurope.org)
• 10 December 2021: Social Economy Action Plan modest but useful (www.etuc.org)