THE SOCIAL ECONOMY IN THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS AND IN THE MEMBER STATES

The European Institutions have work forums where policies related to the Social Economy are addressed:

• Social Economy Intergroup of the European Parliament that guarantees permanent dialogue between all the Community Institutions, the Member States and the organizations of the Social Economy, promoting initiatives and measures for these companies. The Intergroup was born in 1990 and is currently made up of more than 80 members of the European Parliament from the main Political Groups.


• Social Economy Category of the European Economic and Social Committee that promotes initiatives in favor of the social economy in the opinions, studies and events prepared by this Committee. Together with the Social Economy Intergroup, the Category has promoted the preparation and adoption of strategic measures such as the European Day of Social Economy Enterprises.

The European Commission has:

• Two competent departments in matters of Social Economy:


• The “Proximity, Social Economy and Creative Industries” Unit at the Directorate General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs


• The “Social and Inclusive Entrepreneurship” Unit of the Address General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.


• A Group of Experts on Social Economy and Social Enterprises that advises the Commission on initiatives related to this business model such as the European Social Economy Action Plan.

Spain and the rest of the EU Member States play a key role in the development of the social economy in Europe.

In 2015, the Government of Spain together with other Governments of the EU Member States created the Follow-up Committee for the conclusions of the European Conference on Social Economy in the framework of the Luxembourg Presidency. Currently, 20 European governments are part of the activities of this Committee that promotes policies in favor of the Social Economy in Europe

The Spanish government has chaired this group of countries in 2017 and 2020, also participating in the main international initiatives to promote the Social Economy. It has established cooperation agreements in the field of Social Economy with countries in the European environment (Italy, France and Portugal) and Mediterranean as Morocco.