• At the High Level meeting on the Social and Solidarity Economy in the EU 'The Social Economy for an inclusive, sustainable and fair recovery', held in Toledo.
• This act has led to the end of the Spanish presidency of the Luxembourg Declaration Follow-up Committee, handing over to the Government of Portugal that will preside over the Committee in 2021.
• The Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Diaz "What we want now is for this potential for cohesion and solidarity to play a decisive role in the reconstruction of Europe."
• The president of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño, pointed out that “it is the European Act in which governments and authorities have opted for the role of the Social Economy in the recovery with the greatest resounding and unanimity”.
• The Commissioner for Employment of the European Commission, Nicholas Schmit, confirmed the preponderant role of Spain in making the role of the Social Economy visible, so that it is not only on the European agenda and on the international agenda, but also so that it is one of the engines for a fair recovery.
Madrid, December 9, 2020.- The president of the Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES) and of Social Economy Europe, Juan Antonio Pedreño, participated in the High-Level meeting on the Social and Solidarity Economy in the EU ' The Social Economy for an inclusive, sustainable and fair recovery '. An act that ended the Spanish presidency of the Monitoring Committee of the Luxembourg Declaration, which during the following year will be held by Portugal. The event was opened by the Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, the President of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García Page , and the Mayor of Toledo, Milagros Tolón.
The meeting that was held in Toledo within the framework of the capital of the Social Economy brought together Governments of the European Union, Senior Officials of the European Commission and International Institutions such as the Commissioner for Employment of the European Commission, Nicholas Schmit, the Director General of the ILO, Guy Ryder , and Secretary General of the OECD, Ángel Gurría . Government representatives from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania also participated. The event was conducted by the General Director of Self-Employment, Social Economy and Corporate Social Responsibility, Maravillas Espín , and also included the participation of the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey .
During her speech, the Minister of Labor and Social Economy pointed out the validity of the Social Economy model, due to its potential for cohesion and equality, in the current context. “What we want now is for this potential for cohesion and solidarity to play a decisive role in rebuilding Europe. And for this we are here today, to weave alliances, share ideas and recognize ourselves in this collective task, which has also been the objective of the Spanish presidency of the Monitoring Committee of the Luxembourg Declaration ”.
“Ultimately,” the Minister of Labor continued, “placing people and decent work at the heart of reconstruction also means betting on the Social Economy. Because we are institutions with a soul, we work to solve people's problems and collaborate in the realization of their aspirations and life projects ”.
Juan Antonio Pedreño stressed that the Toledo European Meeting has been the act in which with the most emphatic and unanimous commitment to the role of the Social Economy in recovery. "It is an unprecedented fact that 18 European governments, 70% of the EU, sign the Toledo Declaration." During his speech, he advocated the urgency of approving the European Social Economy Action Plan as a key instrument that provides visibility and momentum to generate a real ecosystem for this business model ”.
The president of the Community Board of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, valued Toledo's capital of the Social Economy and launched the message of "recovering optimism, the avant-garde, the modern" which means that "no we deny the concept of creating, of generating wealth, but we consciously want it to have a moral, human and solidarity dimension ". "" The social economy that represents that 8% of GDP in Europe, and 10% in the whole of Spain, is a very special wake-up call, because it is not only creating wealth to distribute it, but because the way it is created this wealth is already being distributed ”, he concluded.
The mayor of the city of Toledo affirmed that Toledo's declaration in favor of the Social Economy reinforces the international and historical projection of the capital of Castilla-La Mancha “as a city of agreements and consensus” and has stressed that during this year “ we have contributed to the Social Economy being better known in our society and its community importance could be better visualized ”.
"Opening new horizons to the Social Economy is a commitment to the future, the values that this model entails are fundamental to reflect on what we want to build for the future. A future that is inseparable from the collective responses we give to the challenges set in the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development ”, Milagros Tolón pointed out.
Unanimous and resounding international consensus to promote the Social Economy
The Commissioner for Employment of the European Commission, Nicholas Schmit, confirmed the preponderant role of Spain in making the role of the Social Economy visible, so that it is not only on the European agenda and on the international agenda, but also so that it is one of the engines for a fair recovery ”. Schmit stressed that Spain has managed to get more European countries to join the Toledo Declaration and has also renewed the commitment of those already signatories.
In his double intervention at the Meeting, Schmit recalled the European Commission's commitment to promoting the Social Economy and to a “fair digital and green transition to mitigate the dramatic consequences of COVID-19 on the economy. This commitment includes the request of the president of the institution Ursula von der Leyen to develop an "action plan" to promote the Social Economy to achieve "a sustainable future", a Plan that is already included in the Work Plan of the Commission for next year.
