Social enterprises, which trade for a social or environmental purpose, offer a business model to help achieve our shared objective for more equitable and sustainable development. Like other businesses, social enterprise creates revenues, jobs and profits but their main objective is to create social value and transform lives for the better. They are working towards an inclusive and circular economy and a more cohesive society.
While the number of social enterprises continues to increase, we believe their positive impact on the European society and beyond could develop much faster and at larger scale. The current direction of EU social enterprise policy seems unclear and didn’t feature much in the 2014-2019 Juncker Commission’s agenda. That needs to change if we want to harness the potential of enterprises with a social purpose in delivering our common goals.
The positive impact of social enterprises on the European society and beyond could develop much faster and at larger scale.
Therefore, we call upon the newly elected Members of the European Parliament to use their mandate to firstly, nudge consumers to buy social. Secondly, to put more focus on increased access to innovative finance and finally, to support cross-border learning opportunities for social entrepreneurs and their intermediaries. These and 4 other proposed actions are backed by 25 National Social Enterprise Support Networks from 20 European countries.
The agenda of the next European Commission is adopted in the coming months. To make sure that social entrepreneurship and social innovation return high on the EU agenda we count on you to share this joint political statement widely!
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