On 12 and 13 February 2024, the European Social Economy Meeting will take place in Liège! This event, dedicated to the inclusive, green and digital transitions, is a unique opportunity for the social economy to bring together practitioners, scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders to discuss innovative, resilient and inspiring economic models for a more social and sustainable Europe.
By placing people at the centre of its approach to undertaking differently, the social economy offers an economic development model based on cooperation and local roots. With its multi-faceted solutions, agility and constant innovation, the social economy has been able to adapt to crises of all kinds, and today, as in the past, it is developing high-performance, inclusive and sustainable economic activities that serve the collective interest.
The strength of the social economy comes from its democratic governance, which involves the participation of all players – workers, users, beneficiaries and other stakeholders – in the management of the enterprise/organisation, and from its close relationship with its local area, in line with the ever-changing needs of the population. This democratic influence enables citizens to exercise their rights, take part in collective action and contribute to social debates.
This is what these 2 days of the European Meeting in Liège aim to show, with a very varied program:
- three plenary sessions dedicated to each of the transitions,
- six workshops presenting a variety of good practices and referring to the reality on the ground in Europe and around the world (on the 3 transitions, but also on story-telling, on scaling-up project, and finally on social innovation),
- four round tables analyzing how the political objectives can be put into practice (one devoted to urban environments with the example of Brussels, the others on State-aid, on the mainstreaming of the social economy, and finally the accessibility of funding and investment).
Visits to social economy enterprises will also be organized to discover examples in the Liège region and in Flanders. These examples will also be illustrated and presented in the Social Economy Village.
There will also be networking opportunities and a dedicated evening “After-work drink at the heart of Social Economy”!
For more information, please visit the website: https://socialeconomy2024.eu/en/
