How can social entrepreneurship be supported in the European Union and which role do financial instruments play in this context? Which are the key financial instruments that help facilitating access to funding for social businesses and how can they be further developed in the future?
These questions were at the core of the conference "Promoting Social Entrepreneurship in Europe" which took place in Brussels today.
On invitation of DG Internal Market and Services and DG Employment, Richard Pelly, EIF Chief Executive, participated in one of the panel discussion and shared EIF's ideas to support social businesses effectively.
The objective of the conference was to discuss the way to design an adequate policy-making to help develop social entrepreneurship in the European Union and thus materialise the Commission commitment taken under the Single Market Act on 13 April 2011 (with a special focus on lever 8: social entrepreneurship). The basis for discussion will be the Social Business Initiative («SBI»), which was adopted by the Commission on 25 October, part of a global package aiming at making the European enterprises more responsible. This SBI puts forward proposals to build the right ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in Europe.
Programme: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/social_business/docs/conference/18112011_programme_en.pdf
Here you will find the video of the conference: http://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/index.html
