• These are specific actions that the employers of the Social Economy have developed to promote, among others, the ecological and digital transition, innovation in the territory, sustainable tourism, energy and gender equality, as well as promoting entrepreneurship , promote decentralization and the care economy
• The president of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño, accompanied by the working group that has prepared the document, met this Tuesday with the fourth vice president and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to deliver it and present its content.
• The minister welcomed the CEPES proposals with great satisfaction and assured that “it is an excellent and necessary document that contributes not only to addressing the demographic challenge, but also to generating employment and wealth in the territory”
• Faced with the challenges that our country faces in relation to the demographic challenge, the social economy contributes its decisive weight in rural Spain, since social economy companies often constitute the only existing business fabric in large areas of rural areas
Madrid, February 23, 2022.- The Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES) presented this Tuesday to the fourth vice president and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera , a document with more than 140 economic proposals society in the face of the demographic challenge.
This was done in a meeting held between Minister Ribera; the general director of Policies against Depopulation, Juana López; and the president of the employers' association of the social economy, Juan Antonio Pedreño, accompanied by José Montés, representative of Agrifood Cooperatives of Spain, by Luis Miguel Jurado, president of COCETA, and by Carlos de la Higuera, president of FECOMA, all members of the working group of CEPES in charge of preparing said document.
The CEPES report is entitled ' Companies and entities of the Social Economy as allies in the face of the demographic challenge and the emptied Spain' , and aims to show the Executive different ways through which social economy companies actively contribute to the National Strategy against the Demographic Challenge and Social Economy and its inclusion in said strategy, whose general guidelines were approved by the Government in 2019.
In line with the three demographic issues raised by the Strategy –depopulation, aging and the effects of the floating population-, its objectives and the more than 80 measures it contains, CEPES proposes a series of specific actions that respond to each of these measures .
These actions collected by the employers' association aim to promote, among other aspects, the ecological and digital transition, innovation in the territory, sustainable tourism, energy and gender equality, as well as promoting entrepreneurship, promoting decentralization and care economy.
Teresa Ribera welcomed the CEPES proposals and assured that "it is an excellent and necessary document that contributes not only to addressing the demographic challenge, but also to generating employment and wealth in the territory." Likewise, he showed his willingness to present the document to the Autonomous Communities so that they serve as a guide in their policies in the face of the demographic challenge.
The president of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño , stated: “Faced with the challenges that our country faces in relation to the demographic challenge, the social economy contributes its decisive weight in rural Spain, since social economy companies frequently constitute the only existing business fabric in large areas of the environment. rural. These companies do not relocate, being the main source of creating entrepreneurial skills in rural areas, as well as maintaining employment and population in those areas. This means that many people can continue living in their places of origin and that spaces and resources of great social, ecological, historical and cultural value are not abandoned and degraded. For all these reasons, the social economy business model is an important ally in combating the effects of the Empty Spain”.
According to the CEPES study on the socio-economic impact of the values of the Social Economy, published in 2020, the social economy has a significant presence in intermediate cities and rural areas and its contribution to the creation of a business fabric and employment is significant. . As this study points out, it is located mainly in municipalities with fewer than 40,000 inhabitants (60.2% of the companies and 54.6% of their workers), making it the main business actor in these territories. In commercial companies, these percentages are reversed and both they and their workers are mostly located in urban areas.
