About Us – REVES Network

Our

Principles and Values

The representatives of cities and regions and social economy organisations, members of REVES, commit themselves to:

establish a stable partnership, long term collaboration and a common co-ordination and planning of local development policies between local authorities and the social economy;
create and develop a new culture of social entrepreneurship, question the prevailing economic models and propose alternative socio-economic approaches;
develop TSR as a process of social global responsibility based on sustainable development and participative popular democracy;
apply gender equality, promote diversity through inclusion, fight against every kind of discrimination, racism and precarious conditions;
develop innovative models so as to strengthen partnership and good governance between local authorities and social economy;
identify common objectives and values for partnership and synergies with other networks;

work actively with the European Commission, the European Parliament, the EESC, the Committee of the Regions and the Members States in order to promote REVES values and activities and to create favourable legal and fiscal frameworks for the development of social economy in Europe;
seek a balanced development and dissemination of social economy values throughout Europe and its neighbours, targeted at all territories and all groups;
promote the exchange of good experiences between members and the commitment to excellence;
actively participate and contribute to the life/the activities of the network.

Download THE CHARTER

1996-2022

Some highlights of our history

1996

The REVES Charter is signed in Östersund (SE). In the picture: Jens Nilsson, President of the City Council of Östersund and first President of REVES, and Gianni Pensabene, Deputy Mayor of Regio di Calabria (IT)

1996

New local plural welfare

REVES completes its first research-action on a “New local plural welfare”, based on partnership between social economy and local authorities

1999

Translating European Employment Strategy into Local Action

“Translating European Employment Strategy into Local Action” becomes the first interactive instrument for local action-planning developed by REVES and its members

2000

Partnerships

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) of the European Union adopts its first opinion on Partnerships between Local and Regional Authorities and Social Economy Organisations – the opinion had been drafted with the support of REVES experts

2002

TSR Methodology

REVES starts the elaboration of the TSR methodology (Territorial Social Responsibility) for participatory democratic governance

2002

2004

REVES and the OECD LEED Programme start working together on a number of topics linked to local development and social economy. Main highlights in this still ongoing cooperation are the elaboration of the “Inclusive Entrepreneurship Tool” or the international exchange realized in the framework of the “Legal Ecosystems for Social Economy- Peer Learning Partnership”, co-led by CEPES and REVES.

2004

REVES Charter

The REVES Charter is updated to the new challenges

2006

Social Economy Europe

The former CEP-CMAF becomes “Social Economy Europe” – REVES is among its co-founders

2008

TSR methodology

The TSR methodology is applied for the definition of territorial quality standards in social services of general interest and tested in different EU Member States

2010

REVES excellence award

The bi-annual “REVES excellence award” starts gathering experiences relating to partnership between local/regional authorities and social economy partnership from all over Europe. The jury includes representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the OECD/LEED programme and ILO.

2013

European Commission’s expert group

GECES, the European Commission’s expert group on Social Economy and Social Enterprise is founded – REVES is represented through its Co-President Jan Olsson (in the period 2018-2024 by REVES President Ana Umbelino who is also co-rapporteur of the latest GECES report on clusters of social and ecological innovation)

2014