Get to know our members!
At the height of the Covid pandemic, Social Economy Europe members raised their voices to send a message of solidarity and hope to all social economy enterprises and organisations, their members and workers and to all citizens.
Filipa Farelo (CASES), Sarah Goddard (AMICE), Sergiu Gurau (ENSIE), Aurora Prospero (FEBEA), Peru Sasia (FEBEA), Luigi Martignetti (REVES), Jérôme Saddier (ESS-France), Oscar Verlinden (EMN), Patrizia Bussi (ENSIE), Aurélie Chompret (IPSE), Miguel Angel Cabra (the European Foundation Centre) and Juan Antonio Pedreño (SEE and CEPES) took part in this video.
Listen to their messages, activities and proposals to support social economy actors and build a more democratic, sustainable, fair and resilient future. Join the social economy movement to build tomorrow’s economy!
SEE Membership
Type of member:
ADV Group is one of the largest social economy groups in Romania, as well as the driver of a social economy cluster.
ADV Group national headquarters are in Iasi and it is registered as a Romanian foundation, independent from state authorities, not conditioned by certain ideologies, doctrines or religions.
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AIM is the umbrella organisation of health mutuals and health insurance funds in Europe and in the world. Through its 57 members from 29 countries, AIM provides health coverage to 230 million people in the world and 160 million in Europe through compulsory and/or complementary health insurance and managing health and social facilities.
AIM strives to defend the access to healthcare for all through solidarity-based and non-for profit health insurance.
AIM’s mission is to provide a platform for members to exchange on common issues and to represent their interests and values in the European and international Institutions.
AIM was founded in 1950 based on mutuals’ values which are: solidarity; not-for-profit orientation; Universal Access to healthcare. Mutuals and health protection organisations believe that people are at the centre of the healthcare system. Nowadays mutual societies in Europe and some other mutual societies in the world fight to preserve and embody these ideas in health protection bodies.
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With 39,500 member companies, it represents over 90% of the Italian cooperative world in terms of people employed (1,150,000), turnover achieved (150 billion euro) and members (over 12 million).
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AMICE, the Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe, is the voice of the mutual and cooperative insurance. In the 28 EU Members States, the mutual and cooperative sector has a market share of over 30% representing close to EUR 400 billion in insurance premiums. With close to 90 direct members and representing about 700 more insurers indirectly through 5 national associations, AMICE speaks for a significant part of the insurance sector.
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The Alliance for Social Economy in Slovakia (ASES) is an association of social enterprises and other entities that support the social economy and especially social entrepreneurship in the Slovak Republic being a platform for the cooperation of everyone who contributes to the development of the social economy in Slovakia with their activities, as well as for common progress in all important areas that unite us.
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CASES is a Public Interest Cooperative that gathers the State and six representative organizations of the social economy sector, which are:
• ANIMAR: Portuguese Association for Local Development
• CONFECOOP: Portuguese Cooperative Confederation
• CONFAGRI: National Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives and Agricultural Credit of Portugal
• CNIS: National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions
• UMP: Union of Portuguese Misericórdias
• UMP: Union of Portuguese Mutuals
CASES’ mission is to promote the strengthening of the social economy sector, deepening the cooperation between the State and the member organizations in order to stimulate their potential to serve the socio-economic development of as well as the pursuit of policies in the volunteering area. CASES bases its activity on the following core values: cooperation and inter-cooperation; social and environmental responsibility; solidarity, democracy and transparency.
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CECOP is the European confederation of industrial and service cooperatives. Our members are national federations of cooperatives, and organisations that promote cooperatives. These members represent 25 members in 15 European countries. We give voice to 40,000 enterprises, employing 1.3 million workers – mainly three types of cooperatives:
• Worker cooperatives – democratically managed and owned by the workers, who share risks and responsibilities.
• Social cooperatives – which respond to the needs of communities by providing social, cultural, educational and environmental services. These are also known as ‘services of general interest’. Some of them contribute to the integration of disadvantaged and marginalised people, by providing work.
• Cooperatives of self-employed producers/workers such as freelancers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, journalists, masons, graphic designers, consultants, doctors, lawyers etc. These cooperatives help overcome isolation and improve security, by sharing resources, benefits and things like marketing or accountancy services, workspace and equipment.
CECOP works to create a supportive environment for cooperatives, so that they can operate to their full strength and fulfil their mission of providing sustainable jobs and high quality services to communities. Our aim is to build a stronger and fairer Europe, working through cooperatives to bring democracy and solidarity to the workplace, sustainable economic growth, and social cohesion.
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The Spanish Confederation of Social Economy Enterprises (CEPES), established in 1992, is an employers’ confederation whose inter-industry nature makes it the Spanish Social Economy representative organisation, becoming a platform for institutional dialogue with the public authorities.
As the organisation that brings together the different economic activities that exist under the concept of Social Economy in Spain, CEPES members are the national or regional organisations and specific social economy business groups that represent the interests of Co-operatives, Worker-owned Societies, Mutual Benefit Societies, Social Integration Enterprises, Special Employment Centres for disabled people, Fishermen’s Guilds and the Associations of disabled people, with more than 200 support structures at territorial level.
CEPES represents 42.140 social economy enterprises that employ 2.2 million direct and indirect jobs and accounts for the 10% national GDP.
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CONCERTES is the representative platform for Social Economy in Wallonia Brussels. ConcertES ensures the mission of representing the social economy, members, cooperators, workers, investors and other stakeholders mobilised by social economy enterprises.
As a unique interlocutor with regional and federal authorities, ConcertES offers an innovative and stimulating space for reflection for its member federations. The latter can thus discuss their projects and concerns and find a common position for action.
The association achieves its goals by coordinating the consultation between the representative organizations of the social economy. ConcertES represents and defends the Social Economy based on mandates of federations and networks of social economy enterprises with the Walloon Government and any other authority public, regional, federal, community or local government for which it has been mandated.
ConcertES provides analyses and studies on the social economy. ConcertES has developed, in partnership with academics of the Centre d’Economie Sociale, Ciriec and the CIRTES, the Observatoire de l’Economie sociale that provides statistics on social economy in Belgium.
ConcertES coordinates the information website www.economiesociale.be
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Coompanion is the national umbrella organization in Sweden. which promotes cooperative entrepreneurship – entrepreneurship that takes place on equal terms, where ownership and governance take place democratically and where sustainability from both a social, economic and environmental perspective is safeguarded.
Coompanion is present throughout Sweden, with 25 independent regional cooperatives that are owned and managed locally. Together they have around 1000 members in the form of organizations, cooperatives, social enterprises, study associations and public actors, who work for more and better cooperatives in Sweden.
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CEDAG was founded in 1989 to provide a voice for the associative sector in Europe. Its name has evolved over its twenty-six-year history to better reflect the objectives of its membership, and it is now known as the European Council for Non-Profit Organizations.
Non-profit organizations make a huge impact in improving the lives of citizens across Europe in diverse fields (protection of the environment, cultural activities, health and consumer protection, antidiscrimination, youth and sport, etc.) and contribute to the European GDP, job creation and innovation.
CEDAG’s main mission is to defend and promote the interests of non-profit organizations in decision making at the European level, and to support its civil society at national level with information and advice, and activities to strengthen the community of non-profit organizations across countries. As a result, a major focus of our work is advocating for civil dialogue to be established and practiced by public authorities across Europe.
CEDAG is an independent, organization and is not affiliated to any political party or ideology, trade union, religious belief or any public or private body. CEDAG’s vocation is to respond to the needs of civil society. Its membership covers a majority of EU Member States and extends beyond the EU.
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Diesis Network supports the development of the social economy, social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Europe through the implementation of knowledge-based activities, such as training, project design, consultancy and advisory services, technical assistance and research. Diesis is one of the widest EU networks specialised in supporting social economy and social enterprise development covering 21 countries through major national federations and national support networks associating more than 90,000 organisations and 1.2 million workers. Diesis is quoted by the European Parliament as a good practice example of fostering the institutional and social visibility of the social economy.
Diesis Network works in partnership with European thematic networks and platforms such as ETUC, REVES, Social Economy Europe and EMES. It is also a member of CECOP, ESSFI and Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC). Diesis also joined the recently created UNTFSSE, the United Nations Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy. Moreover, Diesis provides expertise to the ESF Social Economy Thematic Network, which assists Member States on the transnational aspects of the ESF.
Diesis Network takes part in the European Migration Forum, organised by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, a platform for dialogue between civil society and the European institutions on issues relating to migration, asylum and the integration of third-country nationals.
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ENSIE – the European Network of Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE) was established in 2001 in Belgium. It gathers today 27 national and regional networks coming from 19 countries from the EU as well as Serbia and Moldova.
Overall it represents more than 3150 Work Integration Social enterprises (WISEs) and about 270 000 workers.
WISEs are enterprises which adhere to three main principles: the social and professional integration of individuals, who due to their exclusion and their relegation to a marginal role in society have fallen victim to increasing social and professional handicaps; staying at the core of the economic system, frequently one of the major factors in the phenomenon of exclusion; and developing a strong pedagogical dimension.
ENSIE’s main goal is to represent, maintain and develop networks and federations of WISEs. At the European level, we aim at the recognition of the importance of the WISEs sector in fulfilling EU goals such as the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Sustainable Development goals.
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EMN – the European Microfinance Network is a member-based not-for-profit organisation based in Brussels, which promotes microfinance as a tool to fight social and financial exclusion in Europe through self-employment and the creation of microenterprises.
It is the network’s mission to facilitate capacity building and to advocate on behalf of the sector.
EMN’s core membership is made up of microfinance practitioners. These are social purpose organisations delivering financial services to the underserved or facilitating access to such services.
The work of the network is also supported by partners and corporate members; organisations such as national networks, academia, service providers to the sector or banks that are involved in European microfinance issues and that support the development of microfinance in Europe.
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ESS-France was officially created on 24th October 2014, following the enacting of the French Law n°2014-856 of 31st July 2014 on the social and solidarity economy, which mentions it in art. 5. Although the Law mentions it, it did not create it.
In fact, ESS France was born thanks to the will of its 7 founding members, which are:
(1) AAM – l’Association des Assureurs Mutualistes – promotes the interests of mutual insurers at national, european and international level; (2) CFF – le Centre français des Fonds et Fondations – the French Foundation Center – is the leading membership association for endowment funds and foundations in France; (3) CNCRESS – le Conseil National des Chambres Régionales de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire – the National Council of the Regional Chambers of the Social and Solidarity Economy – aims to respond to the need of CRESS for regional structuring and to voice their views at the national level; (4) Coop FR – is the representative organisation of the French co-operative movement; (5) La Fédération Nationale de la Mutualité Française – is the voice of mutuals and mutual unions in France; (6) Le Mouvement associatif – is the national representation of French associations; (7) Le Mouves – Mouvement des entrepreneurs sociaux – Social Enterprise France – federates and advances social entrepreneurs and raises public awareness of social entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, ESS-France is also formed of the following nine members: FINANSOL – is an association whose purpose is to promote solidarity in saving and finance; La Fédération des entreprises d’insertion – represents Intergration enterprises and company temporary work insertions in France; La FEHAP – Fédération des établissements hospitaliers et d’aide à la personne privés non lucratifs – is the referent federation of the health, social and medical-social fields of the private non-profit sector; Le CJDES – Centre des Jeunes, des Dirigeants, des acteurs de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire – is an association of women and men from all the components of the social and solidarity economy wishing to network and act for the spread of values and principles of the social and solidarity economy.
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Eurodiaconia is a European network of churches and Christian NGOs providing social and healthcare services and advocating social justice. Together our membership represents the needs and unique experiences of 52 national and regional organisations in 32 countries.
Diakonia is Greek for service and in the biblical sense, this means service for and with people in need. Diaconal work, Christian faith-motivated work for social justice and provision of social care, has a very long history and has traditionally emanated from the Church. However, recent years have seen the emergence of independent or church-related NGOs working in the same tradition. In 1995, several such diaconal organisations in Europe agreed to form a network that would concern itself with the issues and policies of the European Union and its impact on the work of diaconal organisations.
Eurodiaconia was duly formed and registered as an NGO in Strasbourg, France, in 1997. In 2008, the legal entity was transferred and registered in Belgium as an Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (e.g not-for-profit international association).
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FEBEA is the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks and Financiers, founded in Brussels in 2001 as a non-profit association.
FEBEA gathers financial institutions whose aim is to finance social and solidarity-based economy. Today it federates 28 members (banks and other types of financial organisations) based across 15 European countries, serving more than 700,000 people between customers and shareholders, employing more than 3,000 workers and with aggregated total assets amounting to over 30 billion €. In order to reach its goal of developing ethical and solidarity-based finance in Europe, FEBEA supports its members by facilitating the exchange of information and best practices and the co-operation between national networks and practitioners of the social economy and ethical finance in Europe.
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Forum Nazionale Terzo Settore (FTS) is the main representative subject of the Italian Third Sector. It was founded on 19th June 1997 and it is a recognized “social partner” legitimated by the Government.
In October 2017 the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy recognized it as “the most representative association of the Third Sector entities” in Italy. With this recognition the FTS has become the main representative in the relation with institutions at a national, regional and local level and has gained a full and autonomous political capacity and subjectivity.
The FTS has an important representative weight in the country. It represents 86 national networks, which operate in the domain of voluntary work, associationism, social cooperation, international cooperation, ethics finance and fair trade in Italy. It gathers 150.000 territorial organizations, which represent half of the national third sector. More than 3.000.000 voluntary workers More than 500.000 workers
Forum Nazionale Terzo Settore enjoys an high level of confidence among Italians (78,8% – Eurispes data). It also plays an important role in affirming important themes like social cohesion, citizen and democratic participation to the public life in our country.
Type of member:
Since 1989, Ipse has consistently reaffirmed its determination to support the European construction of a social protection system based on solidarity and non-profit making, by promoting social dialogue to this end.
In its thirty years of existence, Ipse has built up a network of qualified experts, think tanks, media, deputies, institutions, social protection operators, structures of the social economy and social partners in order to best honour its ambitions.
Through both its events – European Meetings, Professional Symposia, Study Trips, Synergy Workshops – and publications, Ipse has distinguished itself as a place for debate, exchanges and proposals on the various developments affecting the field of complementary and mutual social protection. Ipse believes that social economy as well as social and civil dialogue are undeniable assets in strengthening social Europe.
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The Microfinance Centre (MFC) is a social finance network that promotes fairness, inclusion, equality and responsible service. It unites over 100 organisations across 36 countries of Europe, Central Asia, who together deliver responsible microfinance services to almost 2,000,000 low-income clients. Their mission is to empower people and communities through sustainable social finance.
Together with its members – microfinance, financial cooperative systems, social finance banks, social investors, academic institutions, national and international support organizations and networks – MFC seeks to make financial services work effectively for people, communities and the planet by embracing sustainability good practices and standards, sharing knowledge, advocacy and networking in the region of Europe and Central Asia
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PASE KALO is the Panhellenic Confederation of Social Economy Unions, representing the social economy in Greece.
PASE KALO represents 1,468 of the 1,808 legally registered SE Entities (enterprises and organizations) of SE in Greece.
Despite the many barriers, the number of social economy enterprises in Greece has increased by 41.36% from 2019 to 2022 (1,279 in 2019 – 1,808 in 2022).
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Philea nurtures a diverse and inclusive ecosystem of foundations, philanthropic organisations and networks working for the common good. We help our members to get inspired, act together and achieve greater impact by sharing data and knowledge, exchanging best practices, connecting around common themes, engaging in policy work, and more.
Philea focuses on the following Cross-cutting Themes
- Climate: We are now well into the 10-year countdown to slow the warming of our planet. In this decisive decade, actions taken by markets, governments and citizens will determine liveability on our planet for the next century.
- Democracy: Democracies across the world have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years ‒ from narrowing civic space, to curtailment of freedom and equality, to the spread of misinformation.
- Equality: Philea members have pointed to striving for equality as an urgent issue that must be addressed by philanthropy now and in the coming years. Rising economic inequality has exacerbated virtually all of the problems philanthropy works on.
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REVES is the unique European network that brings together local authorities and social economy organisations from 15 EU Member States. The network has been created in 1996. REVES members act together in order to promote social and solidarity economy, for a fairer, inclusive, participative and responsible society. In this context, partnership between local authorities and social economy is considered a driving force to build sustainable local communities and contribute, at the same time, to strengthen solidarity and responsible citizenship also at EU level.
REVES activities are based on 3 pillars:
1. Exchange of good (and bad) practice/Training (e.g. European Structural and Investment Funds and Community-Led Local development in urban and rural areas; Public Procurement and Alternatives to Public Procurement; Social Economy and Education; Platform Cooperativism & social economy in the digital era; Youth; Integration of Migrants…)
2. Experimentation/Joint project development (example: Territorial Social Responsibility; new methodologies to pool private and public funding for the social economy; linking energy efficiency and social action; transmission of enterprises to worker cooperatives…)
3. Dialogue with European and national policy-makers (e.g. Participation in the European Commission’s GECES expert group and the European Commission’s ESIF-SD Expert Group, etc.)
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Together with 25 partners – civil society organisations representing many different areas: capacity building, civic engagement, social innovation, or digital inclusion, TecSoup Europe helps nonprofits including grass-roots, small, local organisations in 53 European countries build their capacity.
The network creates a space for an exchange of ideas and best practices between partners, as well as new cross-border collaborations.
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Ireland’s national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. The Wheel is a registered charity in Ireland and are unique in our role as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anything related to the charity and nonprofit sector.
The Wheel wants to see a thriving community and voluntary sector at the heart of a fair and just Ireland.
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Social Economy Ukraine was founded in 2022 with the aim to build a network of social economy stakeholders to solve the crucial social issues in Ukraine, especially those caused by war.
Social Economy Ukraine is a national network that unites Ukrainian entrepreneurs and organizations with social impact and represents their interests before state authorities and at the international level. Social Economy Ukraine is partner of EU institutions, European networks and associations in implementing the Social Economy Action Plan (SEAP) – a strategy for developing the social economy on the territory of the European Union. The organization has got the support of the European Commission and the Social Economy Europe network. Thus, by implementing the recommendations of SEAP in Ukraine, they are part of the European integration process and are on a course for rapprochement and strengthening of cooperation with EU enterprises and organizations.
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Szowes is the West Pomeranian network of Social Economy support centers gathering four Social Economy Support Centers covering the area of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship with their impact.
It is a partnership of Koszalin Regional Development Agency SA, Science for the Environment Foundation, “4C Centrum Ekonomii Społecznej” Sp. z o. o., Fundacja pod Aniołem, Assets Plus Emilia Kowalska, Foundation of Social and Economic Initiatives KOMES.
The mission of SZOWES is to promote the idea of the social economy and social entrepreneurship and to support local development through comprehensive support and strengthening the potential of social economy entities (PES).
