The Social Economy Intergroup of the European Parliament held a public hearing in Brussels on 29^th March to discuss the theme of social business.

Mario Mauro MEP (IT, PPE) is a member of the intergroup and he opened the meeting with the comment that a reform of the economic system is needed to protect “our European values”. The European social model is universally approved, he said, because it is based on freedom, equality etc. Values such as non-discrimination, solidarity, and opportunity and dignity for young and old people should be to the fore in any economic system we pursue. Member states must also play their role in defending this. He repeated that in order to achieve economic growth, competitiveness and jobs it is needed that the EU play a more important role in policy planning – different national models should be harmonised through the Open Method of Cordination, according to Mr Mauro. 

Sophie Auconie MEP (FR, PPE) made a presentation of a report on proposed European investment fund for social enterprise. She claimed the social economy has never been so important, and she was happy that the European commission is now taking a more pro-active approach to promoting it.

On 27th March CEDAG member the Union of social profit enterprises (UNIPSO), organised a stakeholders meeting in Brussels within the project Promoting employers’ social services organisations in social dialogue (PESSIS).

The purpose of the PESSIS project, funded by the European Programme Industrial relations and Social dialogue, is to promote the participation of employers’ social services organisations in social dialogue in the national as well as in the European context.

The first step towards this long-term goal is a mapping on the organisation and the functioning of social dialogue in the eleven countries covered by the project partnership (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, UK). The information and best practices gathered will feed into national reports which will then compiled into one European report by a European Researcher and assessed during the final Conference planned for June 2012.

On 16 March the Social Platform held an ad hoc meeting to discuss the draft report produced by Steinruck MEP of the Employment Committee, on the draft regulation for EUPSCI. The results of the discussions in this meeting have been sent to the Platform’s steering group which will meet on March 29th, and will propose an official platform response to the draft report.

The proposed EUPSCI is part of the European Commission’s proposals for the 2014-2020 EU budget - known as the multi annual financial framework, MAFF. It brings together two pre-existing programmes - “Progress” and EURES, and adds a new third strand, the micro finance initiative to support entrepreneurship. Progress is the largest component in terms of monetary investment, and is used to provide stable financing to civil society initiatives, while EURES is the EU’s attempt to promote workers mobility across international borders within the EU. The entire proposed budget for the EUPSCI is just under 1bn € over 7 years.

The final event in the series of workshops entitled open dialogue between institutions chances and challenges, was organised on 14th March in Brussels, as an opportunity to discuss the progress and the challenges still lying ahead in terms of civil dialogue.

Considering the progress made, some mechanisms of dialogue and new legal provisions (Lisbon Treat art.11) are in place today which represent an improvement to preceding conditions. Without detracting from the importance of these steps, a stronger and more coordinated effort is needed on the part of institutions and civil society if we are to reach the objective of an open transparent and regular dialogue.