Home - Social Economy

Social Economy

In 1999 the federal government decided to give more support to the social economy sector. The task was delegated to a federal Minister.

Given the federal structure of Belgium it was obvious that the support to the social economic sector became a subject of consultation with the Regions and the Communities. On 4 July 2000, the deliberations ended with the signing of the Social Economy Cooperation Agreement 2000-2004 which includes both the joint and the individual agreements of the German-speaking Community.

An annual policy paper lists the broad federal policy lines on social economy. The 2004 policy paper distributes the federal policy on social economy over two action areas and nine challenges. The two action areas are: “The social economy, core business, provides several challenges” and “Socially responsible entrepreneurship, the image of the values, faced with several challenges”.

The political purpose of the policy conducted by the Secretary of State for Social Economy translates into the consolidation and expansion of these two action areas, on the one hand by strengthening and distributing the values of the social economy to a growing number of structures, initiatives and projects, and on the other hand by promoting the introduction of the values of Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship in the economic and business industry. The final goal may be clear: to consolidate the responsibility of the industry in the entire economy, whereby the whole of the economic web becomes a social economy.