2015 nahm der Rat Schlussfolgerungen zur „Förderung der Sozialwirtschaft als treibende Kraft der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Entwicklung in Europa“ an. In den Schlussfolgerungen des Rates wird hervorgehoben, dass die Sozialwirtschaft, die sich aus einer Vielzahl von Unternehmensformen wie Genossenschaften, Gesellschaften auf Gegenseitigkeit, Verbänden, Stiftungen und sozialwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen zusammensetzt, spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei der Verwirklichung verschiedener Ziele der EU, einschließlich eines intelligenten, nachhaltigen und integrativen Wachstums, der Schaffung angemessener Arbeitsplätze, des sozialen Zusammenhalts und der sozialen Innovation.
Es gibt zwei Millionen sozialwirtschaftliche Unternehmen in Europa, in denen mehr als 14,5 Millionen Menschen beschäftigt sind und die 8% zum BIP der EU beitragen. Wie im Bericht des Parlaments über eine europäische Säule der sozialen Rechte (1) hervorgehoben wird, ist die Sozialwirtschaft ein gutes Beispiel im Hinblick auf die Schaffung hochwertiger Arbeitsplätze, die Förderung der sozialen Inklusion und die Förderung einer partizipativen Wirtschaft.
2016 wurde die Kommission im Bericht des Parlaments über die Binnenmarktstrategie (2), in der von 10 Mitgliedstaaten unterzeichneten Erklärung von Bratislava zur Sozialwirtschaft und im Bericht der Sachverständigengruppe der Kommission für soziales Unternehmertum (GECES) aufgefordert, einen Europäischen Aktionsplan für die Sozialwirtschaft aufzustellen. Im Mai 2017 nahmen neun Mitgliedstaaten die Erklärung von Madrid zur Sozialwirtschaft an, in der die Kommission aufgefordert wurde, in ihr Arbeitsprogramm für 2018 einen mit angemessenen Finanzmitteln ausgestatteten Europäischen Aktionsplan für die Jahre 2018 bis 2020 zur Förderung der sozialwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen in Europa und zur stärkeren Förderung der sozialen Innovation aufzunehmen. In seiner Stellungnahme zur Start-up- und Scale-up-Initiative (3) forderte der Europäische Wirtschafts- und Sozialausschuss (EWSA) die Kommission auf, alle bestehenden und neuen Initiativen zur Förderung der sozialwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen durch die Vorlage einer Mitteilung mit einem Aktionsplan für die Sozialwirtschaft zu bündeln.
– Wie kommt die Kommission diesen Forderungen des Parlaments, des Rates und mehrerer Mitgliedstaaten nach einer stärkeren Förderung sozialwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen nach?
– Plant die Kommission im Einklang mit diesen Forderungen die Aufstellung eines europäischen Aktionsplans für die Sozialwirtschaft?
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Mündliche Antwort der Kommission
Madam President, I wish to thank all the Members for their questions on the social economy. Clearly, this is a key issue for all of us. First, the Commission agrees with Parliament on the importance of the social economy for Europe. Delivering on a more social and fair Europe is a key priority for the Commission. Earlier this year we launched a reflection paper on Europe’s social dimension and the pillar of social rights. This has started a process with citizens, social partners and the European institutions and governments to find responses to the challenges our societies and citizens face. These challenges require innovative social and economic models to deliver more growth and well—being in Europe. The social economy is a core part of this move. It combines solidarity with innovative answers to societal challenges. It answers the growing demand among European entrepreneurs and consumers for a new way of doing business responsibly and sustainably.
Social economy is not another economy; it is part of the wider economy. It makes sense to invest in it, so we want to see the sector succeed.
We have been working with you and other stakeholders to promote the growth of the sector. Over the last years we have taken several measures and our 2011 Social Business Initiative. We have encouraged Member States to develop favourable conditions for the social economy and social enterprises to grow. For instance, the social economy and social enterprises are priorities of the European Social Fund.
We also recognise that there is untapped potential and barriers which hamper the development of the sector in many countries, so we are continuing to develop and implement new measures. The expert group on social entrepreneurship issued some recommendations and we are taking forward a number of them such as increasing visibility, making funds more easily available or enforcing and reinforcing the legal environment.
We have carefully analysed the different proposals presented in different EU political documents and intergovernmental declarations. As a result, we decided to launch a number of new actions to stimulate the development of the social economy. We announced these in our Start—up and Scale—up initiative last year. It would be important for any future initiative after 2018, such as a Social Business Initiative II, to be based on the evaluation of the situation after the current Start-up and Scale-up initiative has been fully implemented.
Our actions rest on five pillars: access to finance, access to markets, development of better framework conditions, new technologies and social innovation and the international dimension of social economic actors. We have made good progress but there are still a number of measures that we announced and that need to be implemented. We are currently working on finalising all this work so that the remaining measures will be implemented next year at the latest.
Given all this work, we think that it would be premature to launch an additional action plan for the social economy at this stage. We want to first deliver what we have promised and then let us see if more needs to be done. We are relying on the support of our informal task force on social economy and social enterprises, involving a number of Commission services.
Honourable Members, once again we fully agree with you on the importance of the social economy for Europe. The Commission adopted this week the Public Procurement Package and it will help also to boost social economy and social enterprises. We will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure that the voice of the social economy is heard across the whole of Europe. We want to see more enterprises and more innovations change lives.
Madam President, honourable Members, thank you for your contributions to this important debate and also thank you Mr Nilsson for this question. If you allow me to be a little bit personal, I myself worked five years for the municipal office and I recognise very strongly that it is very important to develop the social economy at the local level – and not only at the local level – and to open the possibilities for people to start up entrepreneurial activities and keep them going.
I stressed at the beginning in the opening remarks that we, as the Commission, have fully recognised the importance of the European social model and of our social market economy. We recognise that the social economy is an instrument that brings solidarity and innovative answers to societal challenges that we face, and I also repeat again that the Commission has launched a number of new actions for the social economy as part of the 2016 communication on ‘Europe’s next leaders: the Startup and Scaleup Initiative’.
Let me stress again that we are focusing on five main pillars and actions, including: access to finance, access to markets, developing framework conditions and also using and developing new technologies and innovations. We will follow closely the developments of the social economy and social enterprises in Europe. We are committed to provide the appropriate policy for the social economy to help Europe achieve a more cohesive and inclusive society.