The Future of EU policies for the Social Economy: Towards a European Action Plan

This policy paper aims to serve as basis for a future European Action Plan for the Social Economy, that -over the last years- has been consistently requested by the social economy sector, the European Parliament (and its Social Economy Intergroup), the Council of the EU and the EESC, among other key actors and institutions.

SEE policy paper includes 20 policy measures and 64 actions structured in 7 pillars:

• Establish a common understanding of social economy enterprises and organisations in Europe

• Improve the visibility of social economy enterprises and organisations and of their values and characteristics

• Measure and further document the weight of the social economy and its effective contribution to the socio-economic development of the European Union

• Provide in the framework of the European Single Market a conducive ecosystem for the growth of social economy enterprises and organisations, supporting them to access to finance and scale up, and by establishing the necessary legal framework, allowing them to fully operate trans-nationally in the Single Market.

• Further integrate the social economy in EU funds and programmes, such as the ERDF, ESF Plus and the cohesion funds

• Foster the role of the social economy in the external action of the European Union

• Consolidate and strengthen a permanent and structured dialogue between EU institutions and the Social Economy