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SPEECH/11/779
Mr. László ANDOR
EU Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and
Inclusion
"Using social business to improve the
European economy"
Social Business Initiative Conference
Brussels, 18 November 2011
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the end of a long day, it is time to conclude and have a look forward.
We have had a set of very encouraging discussions, marked also by excellent
contributions by President Barroso, Professor Yunus and several Ministers.
The motto of the Social Business Initiative, reflected in the title of the Commission’s
Communication, is “Creating a favourable eco-system for social enterprises”.
You might have wondered why we talk about an eco-system. Well, an ecosystem is
a concept used in biology to denote a community of organisms interacting with each
other and with their environment: This interaction involves exchange of energy and
flows of matter.
Since a few years, this ecological metaphor is used to explain how a firm is
embedded in, and interacting with, its business environment – and its environment
in a broader sense.
The metaphor helps to understand how firms co-evolve with other companies, and
how companies develop mutually beneficial relationships with customers, lead
producers, suppliers, stakeholders, governments, and even competitors.
Let me use this metaphor to reflect on what we heard and discussed today.
Essentially, we share the view that the eco-systems of social enterprises are
different from the ones of traditional SMEs, and that their eco-systems reflect their
specificities.
These specificities are, in particular: the social mission; the way social enterprises
operate and are managed; and their embeddedness in social innovation networks
and initiatives.
But these eco-systems also show certain weaknesses that prevent social
enterprises from fully exploiting the benefits of symbiosis.
This is where the role of the responsible gardener comes into the picture.
Gardeners that are enablers rather than movers, shakers or shapers. Gardeners
that understand the dynamics of the eco-system, and the interlinkages between its
organisms.
They do not try to change the basic rules of evolution, but rather seek to strengthen
the endogeneous mechanisms and forces that govern the eco-system.
Principles that guide the work of responsible gardeners would be:
• First, to strengthen those organisms of the eco-system that already have a
positive role, rather than replace their function. For example, to minimize
damages caused by parasites, use other animals; and to facilitate pollination,
cultivate bees.
At EU level we would say: Work in partnership with stakeholders and
governments, and respect the principle of subsidiarity.
• Second, be specific and adjust gardening to the seasons and the local climate
and weather, and do not apply a "one-size-fits-all approach" for irrigation or
fertilising.
In other words, align public support to the actions of other promoters and civic
society actors, and meet the specific needs of the different stages in the life cycle
of social enterprises.
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Third, establish a community of practitioners and learners amongst the gardeners to
speed up and intensify exchange of good practice in nurturing sustainable ecosystems.
There is a clear added value of acting at EU level to stimulate the development
and sharing of best practice. The Union can help social entrepreneurship to
develop where it is not developed, strengthen it where it already works and
mobilise additional actors.
• And finally, stimulate the linkages between the various organisms of the ecosystem, notably between the drivers of evolution and change.
For the world of social business this would translate into simple procedures and
easy ways of identifying and recognizing social enterprise, and also in strengthening
synergetic links of social businesses with civic and community organisations that
promote social innovation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Social Business Initiative is about creating and strengthening sustainable ecosystems for social enterprise.
This Conference has been a first step in working with stakeholders and
governments, and encouraging and empowering them to join the Commission's
initiative.
• The first session focused on the metabolism and energy exchange of the social
enterprise with other organisms of its eco-system, and with its larger context.
More specifically, discussion showed that:
- After the crisis, going back to business as usual is not an option: we need social
innovation.
- Social businesses are a great source of social innovation. And a lot of young
people are attracted by the idea that social impact and business are compatible.
But more than that, they also prove this in their business activities.
- Social business has a big role to play in the fight against poverty and in helping
the society to address other major challenges, such as demographic ageing.
- In order to tap the innovation potential of social businesses, we have to change
our system:
- Social business should enter the curricula of schools and universities, and should
be supported through entrepreneurship training programmes;
- But more broadly, public bodies have to assume an active role in building trust
and keeping a long-term, structural view on economy and the society.
The Commission is trying to do just this by bringing out the idea of a social market
economy and by supporting the pluralism of business models in Europe.
• The second session discussed how to improve the availability of water and
fertilizer for social business to develop and grow.
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It highlighted the role of the public sector in providing long-term support,
including through financial instruments, to catalyze private and charitable
funding for social entrepreneurship.
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But social enterprises need "patient funding". Innovation support needs to allow
some space for failure – but at the same time it is also crucial to complement
financial instruments with capacity building and sharing of best practices so that
the failures are minimized. We need to work both on the supply and on the
demand side.
-
We also need to establish new collaboration networks between the public and
private sectors and civil society. We need to "break the walls" and make use of
the specific strengths of all players.
• The focus of the third session was on planting and incubating, nurturing and
pollination.
A number of proposals were made of how the tasks of encouraging and
empowering governments, stakeholders and social entrepreneurs can best be
organized.
The Commission will build on this by starting a dialogue, in the coming months, with
national and regional governments on how best to use the Structural Funds for
developing support services, infrastructures and networks to facilitate the start-up
and development of social businesses.
• And finally, the fourth session looked at the regulatory environment and at how to
create a level playing field between social and other enterprises. The Tunisian
example, presented by Minister Ayed, shows us that when policy-makers are
committed to tacking the challenge, regulatory improvements can be delivered
rapidly.
- It confirmed that a social enterprise is defined mainly by its social mission. But it
stressed the value of having European statutes for certain forms of social
enterprises and a framework for social investment funds.
- It also emphasized the need for practical simplifications in the application of state
aid rules at the national and local levels.
- And it highlighted the potential of public procurement. This is of course a key
demand-side instrument where the public sector can stimulate social impact.
The Commission is working on ways of strengthening quality focus in
procurement rules.
Reviewing the day, I think that this Conference has achieved its objectives:
 First, by bringing together political and economic leaders in Europe, we have
raised awareness on the social value generated by social enterprises, and
the contribution they make to the Europe 2020 strategy. It is of course
important to continue awareness raising, also at national level.
 Second, by explaining the rationale and actions of the Social Business
Initiative, we demonstrated how promoting social enterprises fits and
contributes the wider policy frameworks of social innovation, the single
market, and employment and social inclusion.
 And, most importantly, by providing space for discussion with representatives
from member states and regions, stakeholders and social enterprises, we
started action to implement the Social Business Initiative at all levels.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
When we designed the Conference, I had not expected such a great interest, and
such a broad range of institutions and organizations to be present. This encourages
us to keep the ball rolling, and to quickly follow-up the issues raised today in the
future work of the Commission.
It is now up to the Commission to implement the actions under the Social Business
Initiative in partnership with the Member States. This process will be followed,
monitored and supported by a multi-stakeholder group on social business which will
be made up of Member State representatives, local authorities, social
entrepreneurs' organisations, the banking and finance sector and the academia.
The Social Business Initiative is an invitation to national and regional governments
and stakeholders to develop eco-systems for social enterprise, to strengthen efforts
at national and regional levels, and to make best use of the structural funds and
other available sources of support.
The way to respond to this invitation is to develop comprehensive strategies to
support social entrepreneurship.
The key elements are capacity building, networking, mobilising private and public
funds and integrating social enterprises in pacts for employment and social
inclusion initiatives.
I thank you very much for your active participation today and I look forward to our
joint work which, I hope, will lead to a rich harvest.
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