A catalogue of demands for promoting social, green and democratic economic practices

More than 60 institutions are among the initial signatories of the Social Economy Declaration. The aim is to strengthen the economic model that focuses on the common good, solidarity and democracy. The declaration contains nearly 100 demands addressed to policymakers and was handed to representatives of the political parties in parliament on 20 September 2023. The project was coordinated by RCE Graz-Styria.

The European Commission put forward an action plan in 2021 for promoting and strengthening the Social Economy, as a framework for national action plans. "The declaration is meant to support the development of an Austrian action plan and strategies to strengthen the Social Economy," says Andreas Exner from RCE Graz-Styria.

The Social Economy Declaration calls for, amongst other things:

• Directing more public procurement towards Social Economy organisations and enterprises

• Improving legal certainty, particularly with regard to non-profit status

• Creating precise data foundations on the Social Economy in Austria

• Including the Social Economy in national recovery and resilience plans – making use of available EU funding

• Implementing the Association Conversion Act: to enable a straightforward switch to the legal form of a cooperative

• Funding innovation spaces – for good, meaningful work and social security (including beyond paid employment)

• Instruments for multi-year or permanent support for people disadvantaged in the labour market

• Supporting the development of cross-cutting cooperation structures within the Social Economy

• Placing the criterion of democracy/participation at the heart of Social Economy development and support measures

• Support for those who want to transform into Social Economy organisations or enterprises (e.g. during generational transitions)

• Skills development and awareness-raising at all levels: universities, universities of applied sciences, vocational training, public administration – establishing competence centres

• Broad and inclusive co-determination by employees and users of the Social Economy in political initiatives relating to the Social Economy

The idea for the declaration emerged in the context of the 1st Austrian Social Economy Conference 2022. A draft was prepared with the involvement of the co-organising institutions. In a wide-ranging consultation process from mid-May to the end of June 2023, further organisations submitted comments. Where possible, these were incorporated by the editorial team into the final version of the Social Economy Declaration. The comments are available to read.

You can download the Social Economy Declaration in full here (PDF, 2.0 MB)