News

This is going to be our last Social Compass before the summer break. However we are still working hard because on July 17-18 Social Platform will participate in the Informal Joint Meeting of EU Labour and Environment Ministers and Informal Meeting of EU Labour Ministers in Milan. We will contribute to the: round table “Towards a green economy: successfully manage the associated labour market transitions”; in the opening plenary on poverty targets in the EU 2020 Strategy mid-term review; in the workshop on EMU-wide automatic stabilisers; and, in the plenary session on the importance of the social economy. All our contributions to the Informal EPSCO Council will be available on our web site after July 10.

It is the first time that Social Platform has been invited to an Informal Joint Meeting of EU Labour and Environment Ministers. We are grateful to the Italian Presidency because it is also the first time that we are fully associated to all ministerial debates. We also appreciate the emphasis that has been given to social economy by this EU Presidency. We consider this an excellent continuation of the positive dynamic triggered by the Single Market Act and the Social Business Initiative to increase the recognition and visibility of social economy and social enterprises, both at EU and national level.

In fact, social economy represents two million enterprises (i.e. 10% of all European businesses) and employs over 14 million paid employees (the equivalent of 6,5% of the working population of the EU).

Social economy and social enterprises are a school of thought which integrates the constraints of the economy, the internal market and social considerations. This human-centred approach, which puts people and the environment before profits, should serve as a model for mainstream businesses and should be brought into the centre of EU governance principles. However, an ordinary business that carries out a corporate social responsibility policy should be clearly distinguished from a social enterprise and should not benefit from the measures designed for supporting the latter. In fact, social economy actors and social enterprises are characterised principally by their aims and their methods: a different way of doing business which continuously associates the general interest and / or a social objective, economic performance and democratic operation. To qualify as a social enterprise a business must reinvest surpluses to achieve the mission of the enterprise (social aim or general interest) and have a governance system that is founded on democratic or participatory principles – carrying out corporate social responsibility is not enough.

We consider that the European institutions and member states should continue the work launched with the Social Business Initiative: the Commission should continue having different Units from different DGs (DG Employment, DG Markt, DG Enterprise) working together and including also other interested DGs (DG research and innovation, DG Regio, DG Education) to further promote the initiative. We also call on the European Parliament to renew the Social Economy Intergroup. In the next period, the focus should be on the implementation at national level and on ensuring a better understanding of the sector. We also recommend unlocking the employment potential of social economy and social enterprises, in particular in social and health services, valuing the specific expertise of many of our members which are non-profit service providers. We have also developed proposals on how to best use public procurement and the European Structural and Investment Funds to support social economy in the member states.

Our contribution on the importance of social economy contains an annex which identifies how social economy and social enterprises contribute to achieving the Europe 2020 strategy’s objectives. We wish you a good reading of our papers (after July 10) and a lovely summer.

Valentina Caimi

Policy and Advocacy Adviser