On 26 November, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia approved the Decree on the Strategy for the Development of the Social Economy for the period 2025–2035, a document that sets out measures to promote the sector over a ten-year period, a time frame unprecedented to date for a Social Economy Development Strategy.
The strategy defines four strategic objectives: increased visibility of the social economy and social entrepreneurship; greater opportunities for the development, operation and strengthening of social economy organisations and social enterprises; an effective support environment for the social economy and social entrepreneurship; and professionalised social economy organisations.
Through these objectives, the Slovenian Strategy seeks to strengthen promotional activities for social economy organisations and awareness of their social impact, establish conditions for the creation of incentives for their operation, and expand opportunities for the inclusion of social economy organisations in public policy-making.
The strategy also aims to increase the professionalisation of the social economy, both by promoting an enabling environment for the development of training and social economy business models, and by encouraging employment in these organisations.
The strategy sets out specific measures to be implemented by each ministry, all pursuing the common objective of increasing the number of people employed in social economy organisations. This will also increase their contribution to addressing social challenges. The social economy in the EU employs around 6.3% of the working population, while in Slovenia this figure is half that level.
To contribute effectively to this common objective, the Strategy defines operational objectives and indicators to achieve the strategic goals. It also identifies priority areas of activity and the methods for monitoring and measuring the progress of the Strategy.
The approval of the Slovenian strategy comes in addition to the recent approval in Slovenia of the “Employee Ownership Cooperatives Act”, designed to enable workers to acquire shares in a capital company through an intermediary legal entity, the ownership cooperative, with the aim of ensuring stable and long-term worker participation in the ownership of the companies in which they work.
More information is available on the Social Entrepreneurship Portal of the Government of Slovenia:
https://www.gov.si/teme/socialno-podjetnistvo/
Download the Strategy (original document in Slovenian):
https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MGTS/Dokumenti/Strateski-svet-za-SE/Strategija-razvoja-socialne-ekonomije-za-obdobje-20252035.docx
