European Action plan for the Social Economy – The Seven Pillars

The following seven pillars for a European Action Plan for the Social Economy have been proposed by Social Economy Europe.

Pillar 1: Establish a common understanding of social economy enterprises and organisations in Europe.

Pillar 2: Improve the visibility of social economy enterprises and organisations and of their values and characteristics.

Pillar 3: Measure and further document the weight of the social economy and its effective contribution to the socio-economic development of the European Union.

Pillar 4: Provide a conducive ecosystem for the growth of social economy enterprises and organisations, supporting them to access to finance and to scale up, and by establishing the necessary legal framework, allowing them to fully operate trans-nationally in the single market.

Pillar 5: Further integrate the social economy in EU funds and programmes such as the ERDF, ESP Plus and the cohesion funds.

Pillar 6: Foster the role of the social economy in the external action of the European Union.

Pillar 7: Consolidate and strengthen a permanent and structured dialogue between EU institutions and the social economy.

The European Action Plan for the Social Economy is due to be launched on Wednesday 8th December 2021.