The European Social Economy Regions pilot (ESER) has been launched is aiming at awareness-raising campaign and setting up functional networks of social economy stakeholders at regional and local level with EU support. Pioneering regions and cities from 14 EU Member States organised social economy events in course of 2018 on various topics of their interest such as social innovation, digitalisation, social finance, social public procurement, tackling regional unemployment via social economy model etc. The 2019 edition of the European Social Economy Regions initiative has been launched in December 2018. The 2019 edition is extended and open to all COSME countries.

Social Economy can play a crucial role in the realization of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs by promoting inclusive and sustainable development through concrete social innovations and practices.
A focus on Social Economy necessarily redirects attention to regional and local levels. As most Social Economy initiatives are rooted in the local economy, Social Economy can play a major role in supporting inclusive and sustainable local development. Social Economy focuses attention on active citizenship and participatory democracy, which are essential to the implementation of the goals and for ensuring social inclusion and accountability.

While the effective scaling-up of Social Economy would contribute significantly to the implementation of all the SDGs, the realization of the overall 2030 Agenda depends crucially on SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, which defines key means of implementation. Social Economy is particularly relevant for attaining 10 targets related to domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, capacity building, innovation, policy coherence and monitoring and partnerships.

Regional Social Economy networks play an important role in diffusing knowledge about relevant social innovations and pave the way towards further development of social enterprises, social start-ups, SMEs, thus actively contributing to promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG8). At the same time, active regional and local social economy networks contribute to making cities inclusive, sustainable, resilient and safe (SDG11).

ESER beneficiaries – a broad variety of regional and local social economy stakeholders (SMEs, social enterprises, social start-ups, NGOs, cooperatives, associations), regional and local public authorities, universities, students, citizens from participating 32 pioneering regions and cities.

A targeted call for proposal “European Social Economy Missions” is currently under preparation within COSME 2019, providing necessary platforms for this inter-regional collaboration.

The European Social Economy Regions Pilot (ESER) has been launched in February 2018 to raise visibility and make awareness about social economy at regional and local level. The idea – to organise awareness –raising events by regional authorities and invite regional social economy stakeholders to build active networks – attracted 32 EU regions from 14 Member States. In course of 2018, 32 EU pioneering regions have been rolling-out the regional ESER events all over the Europe. COM contributed to regional events by providing the ESER visual identity and expert to present EU policies and initiatives in the field of social economy (there was not any financial support for implementation of the pilot). Two ESER concluding events took place in October – during the Global Social Economy Forum in Bilbao on 2nd of October and during the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels on 9th of October. In Bilbao, social economy stakeholders from Western Balkans and Eastern Neighbourhood countries (those covered in the recently published European Commission study on social economy in WB and EN) have been invited to participate in addition to the 32 pioneering EU regions to discuss external dimension of the initiative. The participants appreciated "going local approach" and "social economy awareness raising campaign" made by the European Commission. Given different historical/economy backgrounds, understanding of the social economy concept is different across the EU what is reflected in legislative/financial support and framework conditions which vary from one to another EU country. Meetings and debates with regional/local social economy stakeholders and regional authorities provided very useful inputs and ideas for co-creation and shaping future social economy policies/initiatives/projects at EU level. During the two concluding ESER events, a very clear demand for continuation of the initiative has been demonstrated, as well as a request for extension of the pilot beyond the EU borders. There is a lack of opportunities and supportive measures for inter-regional collaboration in social economy. Similar social/societal challenges to be tackled in different EU regions need a common ground/platform for sharing best practices and lessons learnt. Social Public Procurement, continuing awareness-raising (educational/branding perspective), supportive tools/platforms, internationalisation, multi-level governance, social economy clusters, smart specialisations –have been among the most frequent joint goals and objectives mentioned by the regional social economy stakeholders during the two concluding events in Bilbao and Brussels. A participatory format of the two concluding ESER events (fishbowl debate in Bilbao and PolicyLab session at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Brussels) provided a unique opportunity for the regional stakeholders to have their voice heard and contribute with valuable input/ideas for co-shaping the future social economy policies. "Co-construction" has been mentioned by the participants as the most important method of active involvement of regional and local stakeholders in discussion on future policy-making in the field of social economy. The two concluding events have been as well an important starting point for building the ESER community.

Following the 32 ESER regional events and two concluding workshops, an initialisation of the process of national law on social economy to be adopted has started in several MS.

Creation of functional local, regional and inter-regional links between social economy stakeholders is paving the way towards more efficient use of existing EU mechanisms (programmes) and financial instruments (funds) within the new EU programming period 2021-2027.
Gradual building of the European Social Economy Community allows sharing good practices and contributes to effective methods of problem solving using the existing knowledge and experience shared within the community.

Raising bottow-up demand for awareness-raising campaign on social economy at regional and local level.

Pro-active and constructive approach of regional and local public authorities and social economy stakeholders and their practical experience with social economy in different areas (framework conditions, access to finance, access to markets etc.) which enabled to table a set of important recommendations and ideas for future co-shaping of policies in the field of social economy.

Social Economy initiatives are rooted in the local economy. Social Economy can play a major role in supporting inclusive and sustainable local development. Social Economy focuses attention on active citizenship and participatory democracy, which are essential for ensuring social inclusion and accountability.

The ESER 2018 pilot has been implemented in 32 EU regions and cities. The 2019 call is extended and open to all COSME members and 3rd countries. There is a potential to extend the initiative even further in the years to come.

The results of the ESER 2018 pilot will be reflected in the COSME 2019 project “European Social Economy Missions” (currently under preparation) providing a platform for inter-regional collaboration in the field of social economy and in particular where joint objectives and societal challenges have been identified.

The European Social Economy Regions pilot (ESER) attracted 32 regions and cities across Europe. Pioneering regions and cities from 14 EU Member States organised social economy events in course of 2018 on various topics of their interest such as social innovation, digitalisation, social finance, social public procurement etc. Two ESER 2018 concluding events confirmed an increased interest of EU regions and cities in raising awareness on social economy and existing EU supportive schemes in this context. At the same time they provided the European Commission with a clear mandate to continue with the ESER initiative and to streamline it towards closer inter-regional collaboration. The 2019 edition of the European Social Economy Regions initiative has been launched in December 2018.

As a concrete follow-up of the ESER pilot, a dedicated COSME 2019 "Social Economy Missions" project is currently under preparation. The Social Economy Missions will bring together social economy stakeholders and public authorities from different EU regions and cities to discuss joint societal challenges. These inter-active discussions will pave the way towards inter-regional collaboration via joint projects within the new EU programming period 2021-2027. Thus, an active involvement of regions, cities and stakeholders to co-shaping policies and actions in the field of social economy via co-construction and co-creation methods has been demonstrated.

In addition, the initiative contributes to a gradual building the European Social Economy community.

https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/social-economy_en