The week’s signature event was the high-level conference, ‘Implementing the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP),’ held on Wednesday 17 September at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium and Congress Centre. It brought together key actors from across the social economy ecosystem to assess the implementation of the SEAP and explore future policy directions.

The programme focused on taking stock of the EU’s Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP) and moving from commitments to delivery: speakers from EU institutions, Member States, and regional and local authorities compared lessons from national and regional strategies, discussed funding and enabling frameworks, and highlighted how the Council Recommendation on developing social-economy framework conditions is being implemented across Europe. The event positioned SEAP’s mid-term phase as an opportunity to tighten framework conditions, improve access to finance and capacity-building, and raise the visibility and recognition of social-economy actors ahead of the 2030 horizon. High-level speakers participated in the conference: Yolanda Díaz, Second Vice-President and Minister of Labour and Social Economy of Spain explained that “The social economy is fundamental to the European project. We need more social Europe than ever.” and Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness of the European Commission affirmed that “SE is rooted in local communities—close to citizens’ hearts. I am your partner. Let’s work intensively in the year ahead to boost the sector. The social economy brings a model of political resilience, to reconnect citizens with politicians, with political directions and the EU as a whole.”, amongst many others. 

SEE President Juan Antonio Pedreño called for the full implementation of all measures set out in the Action Plan and the 2023 Council Recommendation in all Member States in order to guarantee stable legal and financial frameworks, with ambitious budget lines in all countries. He stressed the need to keep the social economy at the core of the EU’s industrial policy and to embed it in the European Semester so it helps shape major socio-economic decisions and continued investment in capacity building for social economy entrepreneurs and the promotion of collective entrepreneurship, alongside stronger legal and political recognition for all strands of the social economy—especially in strategic fields such as housing, energy, care, food, and social and technological innovation. 

He also made 4 recommendations to the next MFF: Firstly, SEE calls for robust and independent FSE+ and ERDF. Secondly, it calls for the explicit inclusion of the social economy (SE) as a priority in the Financial Framework architecture and the National Reform Programmes. Furthermore, the funding architecture of the next MFF must recognise the social economy as a key actor, with its various strands made accessible to social economy actors. Lastly, the InvestEU programme must be strengthened; in particular, the social investment and skills window should be made more transparent and accessible to social economy actors, by offering tailored financing.

He thanked attendees for their commitment to building not just the future of the social economy, but Europe’s future, reminding us that “Alone we are invisible but together we are invincible”

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