Article by Reas, Red de Redes, Estado español

 

From REAS, Red de Redes we welcome the new Government’s commitment to the Social Economy of which we are part, and we value very positively the milestone of the creation of a new Secretariat of State, which will be linked, together with the Ministry of Labour and New Forms of Employment, to the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, led by the Second Vice-President Yolanda Díaz. In this new organisational chart, the Social Economy will have one of the four directorates-general (together with Corporate Social Responsibility), gaining greater autonomy compared to the previous legislature, where it shared management with Self-Employment, which is now broken down into another directorate separately.

Within the framework of these changes, we would like to thank the previous Director General of Social Economy, Maravillas Espín, for her dedication and commitment as well as her contribution to the consolidation of an inclusive, transformative and long-term narrative on the Social Economy. We are especially grateful for the support given to the network, materialized with special emphasis on its interest in the development of tools such as the Social Audit (Balance Social), an instrument of business transparency that has had the support of the General Management in a very visible way in recent years.

More broadly, we value the new Spanish Social Economy Strategy, the creation of a Special Commissioner for the Social Economy who, among other actions, has promoted the creation of a space for Women Leaders of the Social Economy, as well as the approval of the Plan for the Promotion of the Social Economy within the framework of the PERTE for the Social Economy and Care. In this sense, from REAS Network of Networks we consider it a priority that the calls for aid can be accessible to the entire fabric of the Social and Solidarity Economy.

At the international level, we would like to highlight the leadership of the Government of Spain in the approval of the United Nations Resolution “Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development” and recently, the approval in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the EU of the Recommendation of the Council of the EU on the development of framework conditions for the Social Economy.

We also welcome the new Secretary of State for Social Economy, Amparo Merino, Professor of Labour Law and expert within the Third Group of the Economic and Social Counci to whom we presented the Proposals for a Solidarity, Feminist and Ecological Economy (in Spanish) that we develop for the General Elections, which includes 33 public policy measures for social inclusion and cohesion, the sustainability of life and the promotion of an economy at the service of people and the common good.

We highlight some keys that we have collected in this programmatic document and that we consider from REAS Red de Redes should be a priority for inclusion in the Political Agenda:

  • Approval of a Comprehensive Law on Social Economy to incorporate in its articles the inclusion of energy cooperatives and housing cooperatives as a new type of cooperatives; consider only the Social Initiative Special Employment Centres within the Social Economy Law, as they are those that comply with the guiding principles set out in Article 4 of Law 5/2011 on the Social Economy; that specifies that the entities of work integration should be non-profit and that 100% of the profits should be reinvested; to include specific articles for the recognition and regulation of Fair Trade, based on the need for its protection against other commercial practices.
  • Improved application of the criteria and tools for responsible public procurement allowed by the Public Sector Contracts Law 9/2017 through the implementation of social and environmental clauses and market reserves.
  • Regulatory development of Law 7/2022, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy.
  • Promotion of the participation of the Social and Solidarity Economy, especially non-profit cooperatives and community associative spaces in the management of public services for the care of people, avoiding their commercialization.

From REAS Network of Networks we make ourselves available to the new Secretary of State, to work together in the promotion of fairer and more sustainable economic and social frameworks, hoping that the new body will give itself the importance of the challenges we face and that it will also be sensitive to the proposals that the Social and Solidarity Economy has been putting into practice for decades. articulating experiences supported by a broad social base of innovative economic and social agents.

In addition, from the network we hope that the formation of the new government and the composition of the rest of the ministries will mean a greater weight of the Social and Solidarity Economy in the definition of government policies – at the legislative, executive and budgetary levels. In particular, the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 and the Ministry of Equality are promoting initiatives that strengthen the role of the feminist and community economy, as well as the role of the SSE in achieving true sustainable development that puts life at the centre.