The democratic process is nowadays challenged, everywhere. This generates   substantive restrictions to enjoyment of fundamental rights by many parts of European population.

Social inclusion of the most vulnerable persons in our European societies is more and more at stake. Multi-dimensional factors of exclusion hit persons and groups. New categories of excluded arise, instead of decreasing.

The welfare systems need to be able to constantly adapt to changing contexts and to accommodate innovative models. This should be done based on multi-sectorial and multi-actor partnerships, with the binome public authorities/social economy as a core driving force.

Chronic environmental and climate emergencies feed new forms of social exclusion. Use of resources is unevenly distributed and unsustainable, from both a social and environmental point of view. Social economy has proven to be able to provide solutions for resilient societies.

Societies are facing important demographic changes that generate great imbalances and possible conflicts in the use of resources between active and inactive persons, or elderly and the younger generations, to provide just few examples.

The labour market is less and less capable of evolving in an inclusive way, while the alternative approach represented by the social economy remains largely unknown, unrecognised and unused.

Digitalisation and affirmation of AI is affecting societal and employment paths in an unprecedented manner. The potential of the social economy to provide a most appropriate framework for a sustainable and ethic use of these tools, including alternative ways for data collection and management, remains untapped.

·         Promoting partnership, between regional and local authorities and social and solidarity economy organisations.

·         Fostering social justice and sustainable development, for a fully realised green societal path and respect of people and the planet.

·         Pursuing social inclusion and human-centred values, including equity and justice, human dignity and wellbeing, cultural diversity and identity.

·         Improving capacities and competences of local social economy and public authorities in order to empower them to act.

·         Support the development and wide dissemination of the culture of social economy.

·         Support the development of the social economy throughout Europe and beyond, in dialogue with experiences from all continents.

·         Support cooperation between and within different levels of government to promote the social economy, including through subsidiarity. 

·         Support co-designing of appropriate impact measurement approaches