Responding to calls from the Community of Practice on Policy, Euclid Network is launching a coordinated campaign to engage with policy makers across Europe at this critical moment where the future of the EU’s budget is being decided.
A recent exchange of Euclid Network’s members from across Europe has provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities currently shaping social enterprise and the wider social economy. Members from across Ireland, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Romania, Scotland and Denmark came with one clear message: we must act now. The coming months will be critical for ensuring that social economy and social enterprise are fully embedded in future public policies, financing frameworks and economic strategies.
From recognition to economic development
Several countries are currently reviewing or developing their national social economy strategies – in large part thanks to the success of recent EU policies to support and embed the social economy at the national level. New developments include France’s publication of its new national strategy, Romania’s launch of its own process and Denmark’s retreat from plans to abolish its social enterprise registration scheme in favour of a consideration of how this framework could be improved. Beyond Europe, Scotland is also moving to a broader approach, away from a dedicated social enterprise strategy towards a broader social economy framework.
While we recognise the need to act, several key questions remain including what concrete value does recognition of social enterprises create? How are they recognised? And how is their positive contribution to social and environmental objectives measured? The shared process for recognising social enterprises across the EU must be clearly set out, connecting this recognition with access to markets, finance, public procurement, specialist business support and public policies. This ambition for the social economy and social enterprises must be included within the MFF if it is to be realised in the coming seven year period.
In Luxembourg, these discussions strongly resonated with the work underway around the Societal Impact Company (SIS) ecosystem: strengthening evidence, demonstrating societal and economic value, improving the legal and financial framework and ensuring that Luxembourg’s social enterprises are part of the European conversations that will shape the next generation of policies and funding.
The EU budget: beyond “social spending”
Euclid Network’s Community of Practice has produced a common position on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The key message is that social enterprises should not be confined to a narrow social policy envelope. Rather their horizontal relevance to EU priorities needs to be recognised. Social enterprises contribute directly to major European priorities including competitiveness, resilience, strategic autonomy, employment, territorial development, circular economy and innovation. The challenge may therefore be less about preserving a specific budget for the social economy than about ensuring that social enterprises (and other social economy entities) are eligible, visible and considered as competitive across the major European investment programmes.
Governance matters as much as funding
The Finnish and Romanian experiences highlighted another important lesson: social economy representatives need to be involved before funding programmes are designed, not once priorities and eligibility criteria have already been decided. National and regional social economy organisations therefore have an important role to play in identifying the ministries, managing authorities, MEPs and policy makers who are actually shaping future programmes.
Euclid Network will be building on our collective position paper in an advocacy campaign, combining communication activities with more targeted engagement of policymakers. The Community of Practice made one point particularly clear: visibility matters, but access to the right decision-makers at the right moment matters even more.
Data, local ecosystems and social innovation
Other discussions highlighted the importance of building robust evidence about the sector. Ireland has recently completed its national social enterprise census, identifying 4335 social enterprises, while Euclid Network is preparing to publish the European Social Enterprise Monitor 2026 which covers 38 countries. Euclid Network is also collecting examples of effective local and regional approaches to supporting social enterprise across Europe, further supporting the development of local ecosystems for social impact.
“The next MFF will determine not only what Europe finances, but what kind of economy Europe chooses to build”
Read Euclid Network’s position paper get in touch with your public representatives! National authorities are the ones who are negotiating the budget and who will make the final decision. Now is the time to have your voice heard!
📅 Upcoming milestones mentioned during the discussion
🇪🇺 September 2026 Resumption of intensive MFF negotiations and advocacy activities in Brussels and at national level
🇧🇪 October 2026 Social Innovation Forum 2026 in Brussels, with discussions around involving supportive MEPs and European institutional stakeholders
🇮🇪 November 2026 — Irish Council Presidency event on social enterprises
