The ESER initiative was launched in February 2018 to raise awareness about social economy at regional/local level and to build a network of social economy stakeholders.
Overview of the European social economy regions (ESER)
Since then, several calls for expression of interest took place that increased the number of participants in the network. Thanks to this initiative, we have created a community that counts over 100 members to date. See the full list of members under ‘more information’ below.
The ESER community organised regional and local events aimed at promoting the role of social economy in economic development and social cohesion in different European territories.
Since 2018, the community has also participated in online exchange and capacity-building events, joined workshops during the Global Social Economy Forum in Bilbao (2018) and the European Week of Cities and Regions, and got involved in ESER network meetings in Brussels.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, it was transformed into a series of virtual sessions based on clustered topics such as
- Social economy response to Covid-19
- Social economy canvas prototype
- Inter-regional cooperation for social economy
- The educational dimension of social economy
- Social economy and access to finance/markets and recovery strategies
The community was also an important contributor to the EU Social Economy Summit in Manheim in 2021 as well as the monthly ‘Road to Mannheim’ events. The ESER network has been regularly kept informed about the EU social economy developments and has been involved in the co-creation process of the transition pathway for the ‘proximity and social economy’ ecosystem.