inclusion. There are plans to announce around 15 calls by the end of - Through participating in coordinated expanding opportunities for development of all stakeholders in the field of social entrepreneurship in Croatia. SE The Swedish ESF programme underlines the role of civil society and social economy. The Swedish ESF operational programme has several entries for social economy. It mentions the development of the sector and its connection to traditional private sector. In the OP it is believed that the labour market can be enlarged and become more inclusive through the work-integrated social enterprises (WISEs) and other activities on voluntary basis. The focus on national level regarding the civil society and social economy is to give opportunities to the organisations in order to complement and strengthen public employment or social measures, i.e. through skills development. - Finding common for joint transnational calls of proposals. To put the effort rather into the common framework to get transnational projects rolling, than to start from scratch exchanging know-how and compare the situation for social economy in the different member states. - the projects have started, there will be time to monitor and evaluate and compare best practices and learn more for further development. - Sharing the outcomes from national pre-studies started in autumn 2015 building the platform for future national ESF projects. On the regional level there are additional 23 projects working in this field. Some of them are owned by the organisations themselves, if not the civil society and social economy are an integrated part of the project team. BEfr Investment priorities 8.1 and 8.5 = 44 million EUR (a bit more than 7% of all OP budget). 11 Social Economy projects with 2 million EUR ESF funding in Wallonia only. Main topics in OP regarding Social Economy: - coaching in setting up new social economy activities - capacity building - Share experiences - Enrich evaluations - Enrich peer reviews Good practices on incubators
Improve and develop organisational learning within SE sector Internationalization of social economy enterprises Strengthening sustainable supporting structures Skills development by employees and employers (public and SE) Enhancing social innovation in social economy enterprises Social impact measurement Less subsidies and more management support (business skills) Promote activities of social enterprises Promote consorzi, social franchising and new business models on a regional and local level Activate Italy in the Network (and harvest its knowledge) Sharing experiences, national/regional/local ‘mentoring’ networks for SE Certification criteria for progress and know how Sharing experience on social franchising, social impact measurement Promote SE federations / invite existing ones Show cooperation models, e.g. of SE with regular enterprise (contract contracted tasks etc.) Show examples of SE which are active in several EU countries CLUSTER: FINANCES/FUNDING CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES OBJECTIVES ROLE OF THE NETWORK
Innovative financial instruments Becoming sustainable (after project) Where to get the money (not EU-based) Funding: ESF, national, private, other EU (EUSEF, EaSI) Social Impact Banking products for social enterprises Sharing of innovative funding instruments Money in the OPs and knowledge available Match the right funding with the right phase of the life cycle of the social enterprise Identify the nature and the role of financial intermediaries and the process of selection The possibility of creation of tailor-made financial instruments Promote ethical banking Reform sector to be more (or completely) grant independent Promote social impact assessment by financial providers, promote the use of simplified cost options (within ESF) Support development of national/regional social finance ecosystem (in less developed countries) Identifying and implementing innovative financial instruments to support SE (diversion of available instruments) Identify missing links and challenges on EU/regional/national level Sharing info about financing intermediaries Identify alternative ways of financing Share info about ethical banking together companies from the same sector and / learning process Study the transferability of successful tools Share the knowledge of diversity of financial instruments supporting SE (peer review, good practices)
CLUSTER: LEGAL ASPECTS CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES OBJECTIVES ROLE OF THE NETWORK How to tackle legally social enterprise Restrictions in financial support due to state aid (de minimis) Lack of legal acts/ frameworks Achieving consensus for exact definition of social economy How NGO can become a social enterprise Simplification Already existing acts/laws (not to reinvent the wheel) Central and eastern EU countries sharing experience Ease of legislation (laws everywhere) Having a clear/simple definition of SE Identify important elements of legislation for SE Support achieving consensus for exact definition of social economy Supporting creation of law in SE (in areas lacking regulations) Overview of different legal frameworks Clear guidance for the officials in charge of registration of SE Share info from different countries incl. Eastern and Central European MS, but highlight also the context (legal definitions, legal forms, employment law etc.) Formulate recommendations and proposals Support achievement of consensus for the exact definition of social economy on a national and regional level Identifying lack of regulations in each country – peer review CLUSTER: ACCESS TO MARKET CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES OBJECTIVES ROLE OF THE NETWORK
How to get a better connection between SE and regular economy? (common understanding) Create market for social enterprises Demographic and local development (aging and brain drain) Take over after old owners Innovative and good products / solutions Inclusion into the value chains Social franchising Increase visibility of SE on old and new markets Promote public procurement to increase market opportunities for SE Promote collaboration between SE and private business / local authorities Fostering network of SE between countries with a mature sector and those without Strengthen the role of social enterprises via creating SE clusters Private business + SE in venture / social labelling/ value added chain Export /import Promote added value of SE to specific markets Network can specify on which market SE can be valuable Exchange of information / good practices on public procurement (incl. exchange on of the art concerning implementation of new directive) Push for/feed new guidance instruments/ legislation at all levels (national and EU) Make sure Spain, Italy and France participate in coordinated calls Identify specific parameters for coordinated call including points for SE clusters (project promoters) experience how SE tries to solve aging and brain drain Share info how SE can be part of big infrastructure projects
CLUSTER: POLICY DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES OBJECTIVES ROLE OF THE NETWORK Sustainable on proper policy level (personnel turnover) Bottom-up networking in relation with CLLD and ITIs Representation of social enterprises in the partnership schemes as official social partner Implement support system (of social economy initiatives) Promote transparency and good governance Not to invent the wheel again SE sector is not visible /public statistics Networks (SEN) Researches expertise on transnational level Current TN Social Economy Recognition of SE policy as a mainstream policy Develop the knowledge base within the civil service (statistics etc.) Invite representatives of SE sector to be part of official dialogue body Push for allocation of resources for the support of SE (perhaps in the form of participatory budget) Integrated approach on ministerial level Economic impact study of added value of SE Image building of the sector Stimulate of practices concerning partnership with other type of actors/ dialogue (e.g. trade unions cc. establishment of social dialogue structures in SE) Influence policy-makers Establish a process of dissemination of the results of he network on a regional and local level Exchange know-how and prepare recommendations for policy in social economy Shame-list countries (best/worst) and France must be in Connect SE federations to regional employers’ organisations. Build common understanding, CLUSTER: EMPLOYMENT POLICY CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES OBJECTIVES ROLE OF THE NETWORK