New EU Social Economy Action Plan is a key enabler of lasting societal impact

Brussels, 9 December 2021 - The EU Social Economy Action Plan adopted today is a milestone in recognising the social economy’s crucial role in building a sustainable, fair and inclusive post-Covid future. EVPA, the investing for impact community in Europe, welcomes this Action Plan as a key enabler to achieve a just and green transition.

The Action Plan adopted by the European Commission proposes a set of measures aimed at creating the right conditions for the social economy to thrive and fulfil its potential to contribute to fair, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Plan will be an important driver to enhance social investment, and support social economy actors and social enterprises to start-up, scale-up, innovate and create jobs across the European Union.

“Social and impact investors are drivers of social innovation and entrepreneurship but we need to unleash their potential with an enabling policy framework”, said Roberta Bosurgi, EVPA CEO. “This Action Plan, if properly implemented, is an opportunity to mobilise more resources for societal impact at a time when they are sorely needed.”

The Action Plan is a step forward to ensure financial resources are directed where there is the biggest impact potential. The following priorities are included in the Plan and must also be part of its implementation:

• Improve access to financial resources for social investors and social enterprises, and strengthen the capacity of social investors to co-invest with public national and European institutions.
• Boost social innovation by enabling cross-border sharing of best practices and knowledge across EU countries, as investors are key players in stimulating social innovation and testing new impactful financial instruments.
• Harmonise regulations so that national authorities can collaborate to include tried and tested social innovations into government programmes and thereby allow these practices to be scaled.
• Use Impact Measurement and Management to better channel EU funding towards social economy organisations. This is a crucial tool to avoid green and social washing and can therefore also inform the future EU social taxonomy.

We now call on the European Commission to ensure that this Action Plan is translated into concrete actions across the EU member states and that social economy actors play an active role in this process.

For media enquiries and more information, please contact:

Georgina Siklossy, EVPA Communications and Partnerships Manager
Email: gsiklossy@evpa.ngo

Notes to editors:

1. EVPA is a strong community of around 300 member organisations from 30+ countries sharing the same vision and a common goal: creating lasting societal impact through the practice of investing for impact. We are a unique network at the intersection of business and purpose, driven by knowledge and focused on impact.
2. The EU Social Economy Action Plan is available here