For the first time ever both the President of the European Economic and Social Committee Luca Jahier and the President of the European Committee of the Regions Karl-Heinz Lambertz jointly opened an event on social economy and fully supported the idea of a Social Economy Action Plan for the upcoming parliamentary cycle.

On top of the leadership of Social Economy Europe, Juan Antonio Pedreno and Alain Coheur, the event was attended by European Commission’s officials and honourable members of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Social Economy. All speakers agreed on the important role the social economy plays in Europe: 8% of GDP, millions of jobs, social inclusion.

For this reason, a European Action Plan is needed more than ever and a roadmap was already presented to Commissioner Katainen earlier in January. The good work achieved by the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Social Economy was acknowledged by both partners and MEPs from a broad political spectrum and the confirmation of the Intergroup for the next legislature is being flagged as a priority for both Social Economy Europe and CECOP.

Members of Social Economy Europe since November 2018, CECOP contributed to the debate with a speech by the President Giuseppe Guerini.

CECOP’s President insisted on the social economy’s enterprises capacity to generate shared value. “While the distribution of value among workers is nowadays ever lower, social economy enterprises guarantee that the future of work will actually be the future of workers”.