• The objective of this bilateral meeting in Madrid was to determine the contribution of the Spanish Social Economy to socio - economic scenario.
• Representatives of government and the Polish Government are set in CEPES and the Spanish model to develop legislation on Social Economy and boost the sector in their country.
(Madrid, March 3, 2016) .- The Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES) shown in the XXXI Polish-Spanish Economic Forum, held today in Madrid, the Spanish experience and expertise in Social Economy.
The aim of this meeting was to describe the work done by the Spanish Social Economy as a factor of economic development, and establish avenues of bilateral cooperation to promote business exchanges and help develop a Polish legislation on Social Economy taking as example the Spanish, the first to be regulated in the EU (Law 5/2011).
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Government, the Polish embassy and government; as well as representatives of CEPES and entities related to the Spanish Social Economy.
The president of the Spanish Polish Foundation for Cooperation and Development, Jaroslaw Supera, announced that the Spanish legislation should serve as an example in his country.
In this sense, Exceeds announced that on May 10 the University of Warsaw will host an event in which Polish experts in law study and analyze the Spanish Law of Social Economy with the aim of studying the possibility of adapting a similar piece of legislation in its country.
Vice President of CEPES, Rafael de Lorenzo, recalled that "Spain was the first EU country to have a specific Social Economy Act which also was approved unanimously by the Parliament which constitutes a milestone in recognizing the value the Spanish Social Economy. "
Lorenzo stressed "the provision of CEPES to collaborate institutionally with the Polish authorities in the search for solutions to improve the lives of people in our respective countries through formulas of the Social Economy and transfer the best of our experience in Spain and we learn Polish, in our ongoing process improvement and knowledge of reality. "
The first director of the Department of Promotion of Trade and Investment of the Polish Embassy, Miroslaw Węglarczyk said that "trade between Poland and Spain reached 9,000 million euros" and our country "is the sixth largest importer Polish products ".
Weglarzczyk said some food products imported by Spain, such as apples or mushrooms come from Polish Social Economy companies. He also mentioned the support given by both the embassy and the Chambers of Commerce Spain-Poland (in Spain) and Polish-Hispanic (in the Slavic country) for companies wishing to trade between the two countries.
The director of the Office of the Department of Civil Society Prime Minister of Poland, Wojciech Kaczmarczyk, highlighted how the Spanish experience serves "to show how two seemingly different worlds, such as social and business can be reconciled and create significant employment and business tissue".
In this regard, the representative of the Polish Government mentioned the surprise that led them to know, during the visit to Ilunion Laundries and Hospitality Services, the existence in Spain of viable companies whose workforces are formed mainly by workers with disabilities.
The Hispano-Polish Forum also featured a round table in which 'the current state and prospects of further development of social enterprises in Poland and Spain' was discussed. In her present were the secretary general of the Spanish Confederation of Cooperatives of Consumers and Users (Hispacoop), Felix Martin; the director general of the Spanish Association of Foundations, Silverio Agea and Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Maria Inmaculada Buendia.
The Hispano-Polish Forum has been held since 1994 with the aim of increasing socio-economic relations between the two countries and this edition, the XXXI is the first to explicitly deals with Social Economy. The meeting was also attended by the vice president of the Westporeanian Region, Jaroslaw Rzepa; and the director of CEPES, Carmen Comos.
At the end of the Forum, the Polish representatives announced that they wish to deepen the knowledge of the legislation and Spanish experiences of Social Economy, to which they invited representatives of CEPES to hold future meetings to promote this business sector in the Slavic country .
