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In the last months, the European Economic and Social Council adopted two interesting opinions from SSE point of view, that we hope will be promptly translated into action.

The first opinion, was reported by Alain Coheur, Social Economy Europe Vice-President and was on “Towards an appropriate European legal framework for social economy enterprises”. According to the report, this framework should take into account the characteristics of social economy such as democratic governance or the reinvestment of profits and surpluses. The opinion calls not only for the creation of a legal framework at the European level but also in the Member States. This framework would be based, in particular on the new concept of “limited lucrativity”, which would define all companies that are likely to make profit, but which do not aim to distribute it to their owners, their purpose being solidarity or general interest. It therefore calls for a study to be launched on this concept in order to define it more precisely, based on concrete examples. Finally, it calls for easier access for Social Economy Enterprises to public procurement and for improved freedom of establishment.

The second opinion, more technical, was on “Blockchain and distributed ledger technology as an ideal infrastructure for Social Economy” by Giuseppe Guerini, CECOP President. The report calls for the promotion of civil society organisations at the Observatory Forum of EU blockchains set up by the European Commission. Those organisations can be the guardian in the development of those new technologies so that they will be accessible to all, based on open governance and transparency. In addition, operational applications of blockchain technologies can significantly improve the performance of SSE organisations for their benefits and more specifically that of their end users.

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