🔙 On 30 June, our Director, Sarah de Heusch, took part in the conference “State Reform and the Social Economy”, organised by our member Confederação Portuguesa de Economia Social.
💭 She reflected on the mid-term implementation of the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP), highlighting key achievements, including:
✔️ A common definition of the social economy
✔️ The Council Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions, which has already supported social economy legislation in 21 EU Member States
✔️ Improved access to finance for social economy actors
⚠️ She also underlined the challenges ahead:
❗️ The upcoming negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)
❗️ The growing international uncertainty, which reinforces the need to prioritise European policies on democracy, strategic autonomy and an economy that serves the needs of local communities
❗️ Europe’s approach to defence, which should not be limited to military capabilities but must also be built on social cohesion and resilience
📢 While the SEAP has successfully placed the social economy on the EU political agenda, the next step is to ensure that the SE is recognised not only as a social actor, but also as a key economic actor across strategic sectors from industry and agriculture to digital, housing, energy, care, education, tourism and culture.
Many thanks to CPES for the invitation!
