The Employment Status and Assistance Infrastructure for European Social Economy
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Cho Eunsang 
Published: June 2018

The purposes of this paper are as follows. First, what is the current employment status of social economy in Europe. Second, what is the infrastructure that supports social economy in Europe? Third, how to increase employment of Korean social economy? The employment ratio of social economy in Europe ranges from 2-3% in case of Greece and Czech to more than 10% for the netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden. The ratio in Italy is the highest, which is 9.74%. It is followed by France (9.02%), and U.K. (5.64%). U.K. supports policy, legal framework and budgets in order to develop social enterprises, mainly based on the third sector. There are charities, an unincorporated business, an unincorporated trust, an unlimited partnership, co-operativs, corporations and joint-stock company under the social economy in U.K. so that U.K. is considered to be a well established country in terms of social enterprise policies. The social enterprises of U.K. are encouraged through exemption from value-added tax, community investment tax credit or community tax relief, capital finance and tax break through a consortium of social enterprises and development trust associations, contract with public sectors, and nurturing culture of social enterprise.
In the social economy of France, there are producer cooperatives, public interest cooperatives, and entrepreneur preparation cooperatives. Social enterprises are encouraged through minimum wages, employment subsidy for the disadvantaged, and assistance in case of start-up of social enterprises. The institutional framework for social enterprises was established through anti-alienation Law, community interests cooperative Law, and Labor Law, Economic Initiative Law. Since then, personal expenses, tax exemptions, fund assistance, VET program and service voucher has been provided to support social enterprises.
In Italy, welfare system has been less developed and social service has been provided by family and private network, which was very similar to Korea. However, the third sector has been developed since 1970s, and social enterprises have been evolved with governmental intervention. Italy is the first country to legalize the social enterprise through Social Cooperative Law. In Italy, the organic assistance system has been mobilized through a variety of means. These include providing consulting services such as VET based on a consortium consisting of cities and provinces, guaranteeing participation of a variety of stakeholders, and giving tax benefits and help center for social enterprises in order to provide incentives for pursuing social goals. In Italy, the institutional framework has been established through Social Cooperative Law, which was first legalized in Europe, and labor cost assistance, tax exemption, subsidy assistance, financing assistance have been provided.
Looking at the impacts of social enterprise-related policies, it was found that they have influenced to some extent in France and Italy. European social funds have greatly impacted in U.K., Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Greece and Finland. Furthermore, it was found that LEADER initiative based on agricultural society has also critical influences in Germany, Czech Republic, Greece and Finland.