Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 00:54
The social economy was the protagonist of the Council of Ministers on April 11, when two very relevant initiatives were approved for it. One of them is the Spanish Social Economy Strategy 2023-2027 and the other is the Draft Comprehensive Social Economy Law, which entails the reform of three very important laws for the social economy: Law 5/2011 on Social Economy, The Law 27/99 of Cooperatives and Law 44/2007, for the Regulation of the Regime of Insertion Companies.
Both projects have been worked on in close collaboration between the teams of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy and Cepes in recent months. The president of Cepes and Ucomur, Juan Antonio Pedreño, considers that “it is excellent news that the green light has been given to these initiatives, since they were expected and necessary to promote, modernize and improve the competitiveness of the companies that make up the social economy ». “The commitment of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, chaired by the second vice president, Yolanda Diaz, and that of her entire team have been key throughout this process, in which they have shown great confidence and ability to listen. in the needs of social economy companies”, adds the president of Cepes.
Pedreño points out that both projects “reflect the sentiment of the sector in its vast majority”, although, and with regard to the Draft Comprehensive Social Economy Law, he trusts that it will improve in the parliamentary process so that all demands are considered proposals by Cepes in these months.
The Spanish Social Economy Strategy 2023-2027 becomes the new roadmap for this business model. It gives continuity to the previous Strategy that had the objective of promoting the particularities of companies and entities of the social economy in the single market, as well as including and supporting them through programs, projects and funds and the innovative and sustainable development of a financial ecosystem appropriate.
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From the results of this analysis, 4 priority axes are identified, 30 lines of action that are specified in more than 112 actions: -
AXIS 1:
Visibility and institutional participation of the Social Economy, which contemplates 5 lines of action, 15 actions that are materialized in more than 20 actions. -
AXIS 2
Improving competitiveness, which includes five lines of action 17 actions that materialize in 30 actions. -
AXIS 3
Entrepreneurship and emerging sectors, which includes 3 lines of action, 8 actions that materialize in 19 actions. -
AXIS 4
Social and territorial sustainability, which contemplates 5 lines of action, 18 lines of action that materialize in more than 43 actions.
In the spirit that social economy companies can be a key element in helping to improve the recovery capacity of the Spanish economy, this Strategy has been approved, in which an in-depth analysis of the current economic environment and the economic and social situation of the social economy, which has served as a reference to identify the strategic axes, lines of action and actions that make up this new strategy.
Draft Comprehensive Social Economy Law
According to the president of the social economy employers’ association, Juan Antonio Pedreño, “this Law is intended to update the regulatory framework of three laws that needed to be urgently modified and addressed through their reform to adapt them to the new economic and social”. “The reform of three laws has made the work more complex, since there were many aspects that had to be changed and that affected various Ministries,” he adds.
In relation to Law 5/2011, of March 29, on the Social Economy, the progress, development and current moment of the social economy and its activity has led to the need to delve into the classification of the entities that make up the sector. In this area, CEPES has long claimed the need to incorporate some business formulas already recognized at a European level such as social enterprises.
In addition, the law required an analysis of the usefulness of the Catalog of Social Economy Entities that Law 5/2011, of March 29, urged to prepare and that twelve years after its approval is still pending.
In the same way, the very course and development of the social economy has brought about a contextual change in which the objectives of the dissemination and promotion activities of the social economy must be reconsidered.
With regard to the area of competence of the contribution of the self-employed of cooperatives, an important part of the proposals of the sector have been collected, pending the analysis of the conceptualization of the movable income of the self-employed cooperative members. The president of the social economy employers’ association points out that “this issue will continue to be worked on in the parliamentary process so that the final proposals are collected.”
As regards Law 27/1999, of July 16, on Cooperatives, efforts have been made to adapt and update the state cooperative legislation in order to include the necessary adjustments to optimize the effectiveness of its internal functioning in regard to to the forms of participation and the exercise of digital or telematic rights, to the cooperative principle of equality, or to specify the cases of administrative disqualification of entities that, under the appearance of cooperatives, pursue a result prohibited by the legal system or contrary to it.
Likewise, the reform intends to face the obstacles detected in recent years, at a particularly opportune moment, to reinforce its role in the generation and maintenance of quality employment.
According to Pedreño, “this law largely includes the proposals of the cooperative sector, although some aspects related to equality plans in cooperatives or tax reform and some other aspects of this corporate model have been left out, which will continue to be worked on to give them a solution.”
Finally, and with regard to Law 44/2007, of December 13, for the regulation of the regime of insertion companies, the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy has worked in close coordination with Faedei, a partner of Cepes, to improve the functioning of this type of societies that fight every day to eliminate inequality gaps.
Therefore, this reform improves and favors the operation of these companies, separating the concepts of exclusion and vulnerability of those who can be hired by insertion companies to tackle their social stigmatization. These concepts are exclusively linked to external factors, of an economic, social, relational, environmental or personal order to which people are exposed, leaving them in a disadvantaged position, which must be counteracted through an adequate insertion itinerary.
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