In its latest episode of the Real Economy magazine, Euronews travels to Sweden to discover the role of social enterprises, which are entities that put social and environmental purposes first, reinvesting most of their profit back into the organisation.

Euronews goes to Sweden to focus on the story of Matilda Holgersson, who lives in Gothenburg. After a burnout she works for a food production and events cooperative, which offers her the opportunity to bounce back.

"The positive aspect of working in a cooperative is that you help each other and there is a lot of understanding of each other’s needs," she reveals.

In the harbour of Gothenburg, one social enterprise is providing services to individuals and industries, but also serves as a work-rehabilitation cooperative.

"We cannot go to the banks and ask for a loan or similar. So we have many different projects, EU fundings and different fundings within Sweden that we can apply for”, says Mari Odenbjörk, CEO of the sales organisation Social Trade.

Public policies role in promoting social entreprises

Euronews speaks also to the Italian social economy expert, Giulia Galera, who says that "public policies are absolutely very important in terms of creating an enabling environment where social enterprises can emerge, develop and scale."

According to her the EU Action Plan makes a very important step forward, because it recognises that the social economy is active not only in niche sectors like the welfare sector, but in all industrial ecosystems.

Background

Social economy organisations span a diverse range of sectors and forms, from care services to recycling; from cooperatives to social enterprises.

There are 2.8 million social economy entities in Europe that employ 13.6 million people which offer solutions to key challenges in our societies

The EU Action Plan on the social economy was adopted in December 2021 with the aim of "mobilising the full potential of the social economy."