·
During
the conference "Impact Economy and Public Sector", held this Thursday
at the Congress of Deputies, organized by SpainNAB, Harmon and Afi.
·
Public-private
collaboration, tax incentives and the need to create a regulatory framework were
some of the main conclusions of the day to boost the impact economy.
·
The
president of CEPES "The Social Economy is a business model that catalyzes
the transformation of the social and economic future of Spain and Europe".
·
The
Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2023 is
presented as an opportunity to make visible and promote the model.
·
The
Executive will allocate 400 million euros to the Social Impact Fund within the
framework of the Recovery and Resilience Funds
Madrid, 19 January 2023. - "The Social Economy is at the epicenter of
the impact economy2" This was highlighted by the president of the Spanish
Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES), Juan Antonio Pedreño,
during the event "Impact Economy and Public Sector", held this Thursday
at the Congress of Deputies, and organized by SpainNAB, Harmon and Afi.
The conference aimed to generate knowledge about how the public sector
is one of the protagonists of the
development of an impact economyor with a view to complying with the Sustainable
Development Goals, as drivers of change and social transformation.
During the event, these concepts were approached and real experiences
were transferred to the public dialogue table, with the intervention of
more than 30 speakers representing Public Administrations, the third sector
and the private sector.
In his speech at the Social Table, Pedreño stressed that "the
values of the Social Economy are the values defended by the Economy with
Impact", since it is a growing model
that "seeks a balance between competitiveness and social and environmental
resilience". "The social economy is a business model that catalyzes the
transformation of the social and economic future of Spain and Europe," he
added.
In addition, he pointed out that Spain is "leading" the social
economy in the world. In this regard, he stressed that Spain is the only
European country that has a program
within the Recovery and Resilience Plan dedicated to the social economy; as
well as the only one that has a Social Economy Strategy and an intermediate
body that manages the Operational Program for Social Inclusion and Social
Economy (POISES).
At European level, the social economy comprises 3
million companies and 14 million employees, representing 6.3% of employment. Given these
figures, the president of CEPES said that "we are in a very significant
moment, which is specified within the framework of the European Action Plan
for Social Economy".
This plan has two objectives. On the one hand, to make visible "more
and better" what the social economy represents and defends in Europe to
change scale, through growth – one of the objectives that has been set is to
represent 10% of European employment in 2030, that is, 22 million people. On
the other, build support for companies, through more than 50 measures of
different types, such as financial and legislative.
In addition, the president of CEPES reviewed the milestones of different
institutions that "have put the social economy at the center."
Thus, at the end of 2021, the European Parliament unanimously approved the
European Social Economy Action Plan; and different organizations such as the
ILO, the OECD, the UN, and even the Davos Forum are taking resolutions in favor
of the model.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS AND REGULATORY
FRAMEWORKS
The need for public-private collaboration and tax incentives to boost the
impact economy, as well as to create regulatory frameworks, were some of the
main conclusions of the day.
Thus, also during the Social Roundtable, the first vice president of
Grupo Social ONCE, Alberto Durán, pointed out the importance of the social
sector within the impact economy, since "it is the one that knows where
the needs are". On the other hand, he pointed out that the public sector
does not reach these needs, but can catalyze. Finally, he explained that within
the private sector there has to be a recognition of the capacity of the social
sector to reach where the public and private sectors do not reach, and insisted
on cooperation between the three sectors.
For his part, the manager of the Amica Association, Tomás Castillo, focused
on the need to legislate to create a framework of legal security that allows us
to "dare to transform". "People can´t wait, climate change can´t
wait and investment is needed for it," he concluded.
During the opening of the event, the president of the Congress of
Deputies, Meritxell Batet, highlighted how "rethinking the logic of
the market is a key element for the economy to be part of a better world".
During his speech, he pointed out how public-private collaboration is a matter
of "maximum topicality" and invited to "reflect and take
action" as soon as possible.
An example of the commitment he showed to the impact economy is that, in
reference to Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of December 14, 2022, which modifies the presentation of sustainability
information by companies, he said that "it should be the subject of debate
and reflection in Congress". This directive is mandatory for Member States
before 6 July 2024.
REPENSAR LA ECONOMÍA DE
IMPACTO
Throughout the day, the importance of rethinking the impact economy with
the impulse of the public sector was highlighted. Thus, the general director
of SpainNab, José Luis Ruiz de Munain, in reference to the 400 million
euros that the Executive will allocate to social impact, from the Recovery and
Resilience funds, said: "these funds are designed so that the transition
is green and digital, but it is very important that this transition is
fair, and therefore, that this
transition is also social."
For his part, the Secretary of State for Social Rights, Nacho Álvarez, stressed
that the public sector has to analyze the whole of the investment establishing
public administrations as a "beacon that guides innovation" and
pointed to the PERTES as the "missions of this public-private
collaboration to transform the challenges of our business fabric".
During this event, which aimed to be a first step to put the impact economy
on the public agenda, several examples of the public sector´s promotion of
the impact economy were cited, such as solidarity funds in France or
social innovation in Portugal.
To illustrate this catalytic power of public investment, the president
of Portugal Social Innovation, a public entity that seeks new solutions to
social and educational problems, Filipe Almeida, explained how in the last six years, through the entity he presides
over in his country, they have developed different financial instruments that
have allowed social innovation and the development of a social market. It is a
pioneering initiative in Europe that mobilizes EU funds to boost innovation and
social entrepreneurship in Portugal.
MANIFESTO #CAMINOALIMPACTO
On this day, SpainNAB, together with the mayor of Malaga, Paco de la Torre,
presented the SpainNAB #CaminoalImpacto Manifesto, aimed at "all people
and institutions of the investment, business, third sector, and Public
Administration community, who want to contribute their grain of sand to boost
the impact economy in Spain".
The launch of this manifesto is part of the celebration in Malaga of the
´GSG Global Impact Summit´ on October 2 and 3, 2023, coinciding with the
Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The objective of this congress is
to elevate the conversation about impact economics in front of public and private,
Spanish and European institutions. In addition to the manifesto, the president
of SPAINnab also announced the creation of a task force of public
administrations.
