From ENSIE: https://www.ensie.org/newsroom/news/ensie-2023-a-promising-year-for-wises
In 2023, ENSIE will continue its work, hoping to grow even more and to put Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) on the front of the EU agenda! The year seems to be promising, finishing with the Spanish Presidency of the EU, which already showcased its interest by putting the social economy on the agenda!
The Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP) will continue its implementation and the main achievement should be the Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on framework conditions for the social economy. Indeed, the proposal should be out mid-2023 and ENSIE will have to follow the latest stages and then its publication closely to ensure WISEs are considered. Other activities foreseen for 2023 are the revision of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), the development of the EU social economy gateway and the support to the development of social impact measurement. For the moment nothing has been announced on those topics, but ENSIE will closely follow the Commission’s work.
Second important topic on the EU agenda, the European Year of Skills. Announced in fall 2022, this will be crucial for ENSIE and for WISEs, as well as for of the network’s projects such as B-WISE. The first announcements such as the adoption of a “Skills and talent package” seem to be promising, but ENSIE will closely monitor the next steps and the activities proposed during the year to ensure that the most disadvantaged and the low-skilled are also taken into account.
Concerning other EU policies, ENSIE will continue its advocacy activities on the Green Deal, on the European Pilar of Social Rights (EPSR), on the digital transition, etc. ENSIE will also work on a Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership strategy to support the development of WISEs in these regions. ENSIE will continue its work, along with its members, on the European Semester to ensure WISEs are considered at national level. A study on WISEs and social innovation is also foreseen this year and, as every year, the Impact-WISEs study will take place and ENSIE will continue developing its Socially responsible public procurement platform along with its WISEs platform.
Supporting its members is always crucial for ENSIE, and the network will propose trainings, particularly on project development, propose dedicated support activities on the EPSR, the SEAP and social impact measurement and for the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership members, a dedicated session to support their access to finance.
Once again, in 2023, ENSIE will put raise awareness on the role of WISEs workers with the organisation of a WISEs workers campaign all along the year.
Finally, ENSIE will continue to work within its various projects: B-WISE will continue developing next year, with more deliverables to be published and a MOOC prepared. The Net-Works project is ending at the end of the year and hopefully, new WISEs networks will emerge from it. The Helpdesk SESK, WISEs4Youth, BREED and SocialTech4EU projects will grow and start proposing some concrete outputs that will be useful for WISEs, national WISEs networks and ENSIE. All along the year, the network will follow the opportunities to take part into new projects in order to, as always, promote WISEs and support their development all over Europe!
