France Active
De l’émergence au développement, France Active donne aux entrepreneurs les moyens de s’engager sur leur territoire.
ID: 661251131144-06
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Aleksandar Nikolic (Member of the European Parliament)
8 Jan 2025 · Rencontre France Active Guadeloupe
Response to Social Economy Action Plan
21 Apr 2021
The following is submitted on behalf of the France Active network. France Active aims at supporting starting or scaling social enterprises and socially committed enterprises. It provides them with the funding and advice that are best suited to their needs and offers access to a unique network of business and social stakeholders. In 2020, France Active raised €410 million to support 30,000 entrepreneurs and to enable the creation or safeguarding of 58,000 jobs in France.
France Active welcomes the EU action plan for social economy (SE) and its ambition to create enabling conditions for SE to fulfil its potential to contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth and a fair recovery while achieving the green and digital transitions.
The SE is a leader in the transformation towards sustainable and inclusive development. This is more apparent today than ever, as SE organisations propose solutions that respond to the challenges and expectations raised by the Covid-19 crisis: local solidarity, social care, relocation of supply sustainable food chains, social and monetary recognition of jobs useful to society, respect for ecosystems and biodiversity, redistribution of value and decision-making.
EU policies should thus reserve a central place for the SE, in recognition of its exemplarity and relevance as a solution for future economic and social development. EU policies have to allow the development of the SE, supporting it in a way that considers its specific financial, legal and quality requirements.
The SE is based on particular business models and funding mechanisms, with most of its actors operating with non-profit or limited profitability models. Collective support and cooperation between social finance, European and national funding tools designed to address the needs of SE organisations have to consider these specificities.
Financial solutions proposed at the regional, national and European level rely primarily on debt. These are important aids, but insufficient alone. Social enterprises have limited capacity to enhance high-level short-term profitability (at least without undermining their social/environmental impact). They need support through funding and investment, to strengthen their equity. Subsidies and current funding must be secured, and future funding guaranteed. Support must be far-sighted to preserve the long-term social and environmental impacts of SE organisations. Practically, programmes such as InvestEU should propose dedicated policies with limited costs and adjusted tools for SE organisations and social finance organisations.
Along with funding, social entrepreneurs require non-financial support to structure their economic models and financial strategies, especially for innovative projects or during complex stages of development (early-stage, recovery stage, etc.). Financial and non-financial support must be adjusted and reinforced to help entrepreneurs structure their project, assess difficulties and identify solutions to their development.
As the EU action plan for SE aims at encouraging SE organisations and social enterprises to scale-up, the EU should allow for the support of not only small or medium social organisations and social enterprises, but also big ones. No matter their annual turnover or annual balance sheet total, all sizes of social enterprises should get the support they need to play their role in job creation as well as in inclusive and sustainable growth.
Regarding social innovation, the EU action plan for SE should promote the diversity of ways to replicate relevant social innovations, with a view to better address the social and environmental challenges Europe is facing.
Finally, social finance must be promoted and developed at the EU level. This system has proven its effectiveness in France in supporting social entrepreneurs through its capacity to bring together various stakeholders and its comprehensive knowledge of the SE.
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