• During the round table 'Reinventing capitalism from the social sector', held within the framework of the conference 'II Road to Impact. Together towards a new time ', organized by Spain NAB.
• The president of CEPES indicated that “we are in a moment of absolute recognition of what the Social Economy contributes to the future” and highlighted the figures that this business model represents in Europe, which represents 8% of European GDP.
• Pedreño stressed the need to define a regulatory framework for the Social Economy, as well as a global definition of this business model in Europe.
• According to CEPES data, the Social Economy contributes 6,229 million euros per year in benefits to society, 3,930 in salary income for groups of special difficulty and 1,700 million euros in benefits for Public Administrations.
• The need for a definition of the global Social Economy at the European level and public-private collaboration were two of the main conclusions of the round table.
Madrid, June 14, 2021 .- The Social Economy, due to its values and principles, is currently experiencing " a window of opportunity" and will reach a change in scale at the end of 2021, when the European Action Plan for the Social Economy.
This was pointed out this Monday by the president of CEPES and Social Economy Europe, Juan Antonio Pedreño , during the round table ' Reinventing capitalism from the social sector', held within the framework of the conference ' II Road to Impact. Together towards a new time ', organized by Spain Nab between June 13 and 17, in which more than 90 speakers will analyze the challenges, opportunities and innovation linked to impact investing.
During the round table, which was moderated by the president of the Tomillo Foundation, Carmen García de Andrés , the president of Microbank, Juan Carlos Gallego , and the CEO of Fundación ONCE, José Luis Martínez Donoso , also spoke, in addition to the president of CEPES. .
The panel addressed impact investment to strengthen and grow the ecosystem of the Social Economy, the issues of financial sustainability of social entities were addressed, as well as the need to promote public-private partnerships to generate social innovation and impact.
During his speech, Pedreño made reference to two events that occurred in December 2105 and that highlighted the relevance of this business model. On the one hand, the Council of Ministers of the EU unanimously approved a resolution identifying the Social Economy as a key factor for the future of Europe in the following years . On the other hand, at the same European Conference on Social Economy, a group of six governments was created that understood that their priority should be the Social Economy , a group that today is made up of 19 governments. "This means that at present, almost 70% of the governments of the EU have established, through the Toledo Declaration of 2020, the Social Economy as a priority due to its values and principles," he recalled.
The president of CEPES wanted to influence the next advances of this business model, one of which will occur with the approval at the end of this year, by the European Council, of the European Action Plan for the Social Economy, whose objectives are, on the one hand, improve social investment and, on the other, bet on innovation sofcial and quality employment.
Likewise, Pedreño recalled the weight of the Social Economy in Europe, representing 8% of its GDP , 2.8 million companies and 14 million jobs and commented on the need to further increase these figures. On the other hand, the president of CEPES stressed the need to define a regulatory framework for the Social Economy and a global definition of this business model in Europe , and stated that the Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES) is working together with the OECD in this regard, through a working group made up of an international consortium of 25 organizations.
The president of Microbank, Juan Carlos Gallego, pointed out that “it is evident that in the coming years the growth of the Social Economy is going to be very large but, for this, that definition is necessary. Much more progress can be made if we are capable of doing things together and thinking of everyone ”. He then explained how the entity he represents is a bank that at the same time works with the most vulnerable people, putting it as an example of a Social Economy business model.
Thus, he pointed out the three business focuses of the entity : families with low economic resources; entrepreneurs belonging to micro-businesses and without guarantees; and social enterprises. Gallego explained how they reached an agreement with the European Investment Fund to be able to give long-term financing to companies whose main focus was the social impact of what they were doing and stressed that "two thirds of social companies have financing problems."
"You have to get used to granting loans in this way, so that the financing has a social impact, " he said. “It is fundamental for society, for companies and governments. We are a transmission belt between savings and investment ”, he concluded.
For his part, the Director General of the ONCE Foundation, José Luis Martínez Donoso pointed out that "the Social Economy has been a model that has awakened politicians, who have begun to advance in the Social Economy" and recalled that there are many countries that , looking at the model of Spain, they have built their own legal frameworks on the Social Economy .
Thus, he detailed how the entity he represents is fully aligned with the principles of Social Economy. "Our objective is the person and in our case, people with disabilities, as a vulnerable group that is". Martínez Donoso pointed out that, in his opinion, "the indicator of the evolution of the Social Economy in 5 or 10 years will be the weight it has in the country's GDP", a figure that today in Spain stands at 10 % of GDP.
IMPACT INVESTMENT
According to the data collected by a CEPES study , the highest percentage of Social Economy companies are in municipalities with fewer than 40,000 inhabitants, something that Pedreño wanted to highlight as a sign of the contribution of this business model to social and territorial cohesion.
According to this study, the Social Economy contributes 6,229 million euros per year in benefits to society , 3,930 in salary income for groups of special difficulty and 1,700 million euros in benefits for Public Administrations . "If they lost their values and behaved like the rest of the companies, more than 172,000 people from particularly difficult groups would lose their jobs and about 125,000 workers would lose their job stability," said the president of CEPES. Likewise, Pedreño pointed to thethe need to decompartmentalize the Social Economy and work globally under the same objective.
Gallego pointed out that one of the consequences of the health crisis is the inequality it has created, “even more than there was, and furthermore, the recovery is being incomplete and uneven. The way to fight against these injustices has to be different from what had been used in the past. " And he stressed that “reality has shown that the purely capitalist model is not the ideal one. Employees and customers are fundamental, as are shareholders. If we try to have an economic growth with the principles of the Social Economy, the growth will be different ”.
The president of Microbank pointed out that this is only possible with public-private collaboration and insisted on the idea that "we must make the social aspect absolutely transversal."
Martínez Donoso agreed on the same idea: “We believe in a quality social impact investment. The center has to be the person and make everything revolve around him. The social purpose has to be complemented with the Public Administrations. Otherwise, it would not be possible ”.
