Note for the attention members of the
Social Economy Intergroup of the EP
Re: Social and Solidarity Economy in Greece
Madame, Monsieur
The situation in the field of Social Economy in Greece is dramatic. Below we briefly describe the main problems we face, and we are at your disposal for further information and documentation regarding our comments.
1. Refusal of institutional dialogue: The Minister of Labor and Social Security refuses to have a contact with us and does not respond to our letters and requests for a meeting as from December 2019 on issues that concern the sector.
2. Social Cooperative Enterprises are excluded from the special purpose allowance granted to enterprises due to COVID-19 (Ministerial Decision 39162 EX 2020, Government Gazette B ‘1457 / 16-04-2020).
3. The Law 4430/2016 on social and solidarity economy became an inactive legislation. In fact concerning :
- Article 2: on “Social Impact Measurement Tool” no ministerial decision was ever taken in order to implement this provision.
- Article 5: on the National Fund for Entrepreneurship and Development it is to be said that we were never eligible and allowed to receive such funds and there is an extremely complicated procedure to obtain funding from programs of the Employment Agency of Workforce.
- Article 6 Exceptional difficulty in concluding program contracts with local authorities
- Article 10 on the creation of a Social Economy Fund was never put into force
- Article 12 and 13 the consultative committees remain inactive
- Article 34 there are no financial resources and financial incentives
- Article 36 and 37: the Special Secretariat for Social and Solidarity Economy was abolished
3. Insufficient Funding. In the Action Plan for the Development of an Ecosystem for the Social and Solidarity Economy for the years 2017-2023, various actions have been foreseen that concern the promotion of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Economy. However out of the projected resources of € 161,837,554 which only 1,396,882 (0,86%) have been committed. Our members did not have access to any form of financing, loan, guarantee, etc.
4. There is no National Strategic Plan. From 2011 until today, the 2 relevant announcements have never been realised.
5. Lack of Training across Greece: there are only 11 institutional support centers, with limited resources and no centralized plan for a training program.
6. Lack of understanding of the particularities and very low visibility of Social Economy Entreprises by the Public Administration
Thank you for your attention
Thomas SOPILIDIS Athens 29/5/2020
President
Social Coops Union DYNAMIKI
tel +30 210 3001574 : +306932 302009
w: www.socialcoop.gr
proedros@socialcoop.gr
