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." The Neighbourhood Program focuses on supporting neighborhood civic activities.Projectsinclude: training courses promoting a healthy life, playgrounds, etc." The Women's Program supports activities initiated by women activists and focuses on improvingwomen's lives.Projects include training classes in women s health and pregnancy, health promotionof gypsy children, promotion of gypsy culture, vocational courses for gypsy women etc." The General Program promotes projects that meet the main condition of improving the quality oflife in their community.Examples are: help to people with mental disabilities, maintenance ofderelict blocks of flats among gipsy communities, art classes for disabled children, etc." The Environmental Program promotes projects such as educational courses for children on theenvironment, cleaning up of mountain streams, eco-camps for children, etc.23 Basic statistics" Foundation s endowment: 300,000 EURO (in 2000)" Annual operating budget: 25 000 EURO" Annual number of project grants: 130 (in 2000)" Maximum amount for a grant: 250 EURO" Grantees:local NGOs: 40%informal civic initiatives: 33%schools: 16%specialized institutions:8%local authorities: 3%Contact dataAddress: Strieborne Namestie, 297401 Banska Bystrica, SlovakiaTel: 088 415 6059Website: www.changenet.sk/nzmbb24 4.How to define the social economy?by Bruno RoelantsA simplistic, but not altogether untrue way to put it would be: Nobody knows exactly what it is, buteverybody knows that it exists .Although, as we will see, the social economy has not yet been 100%defined, it has already gained official recognition at the EU level and in several EU member States, aswe saw in section 2.The concept found its origin in France, where it gained government recognition inthe early 1980s.It has since then gradually extended to other EU member states: Belgium, Spain, Italy,Portugal, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and the UK.As discussed in section 2, the recognition of the social economy necessarily brings about the gradualestablishment of norms and standards, including, first of all, the definition of the sector.The EuropeanCommission consultation document Cooperatives in Enterprise Europe 28, already mentioned in section 2,provides clues as to who the social economy actors are.The recent dates of this document (November2001) and of 3 out of the 4 definitions examined hereunder (February/March 2002) are clearindications that the process of establishing the norms and standards of the social economy in the EUhas just entered a critical stage.Such normative process, like any of its kind, will have a direct impact onEU-level and national-level policy making for those socio-economic actors that are supposed to beincluded in the concept.Therefore, for those actors, it is essential to know:" Whether they fall under the recognised and normalised social economy category, on the basis of theexisting definitions below;" If that is the case, whether they are able and willing to participate in the establishment of the normsand standards of the social economy.The four definitions of the social economy examined below have been established respectively by 1) agroup of French persons belonging to organisations linked to the origin of the concept (FONDA); 2)the EU level apex committee grouping the 4 types of organisations that recognise themselves as beingpart of the social economy, namely cooperatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations (CEP-CMAF); 3) the EU Committee of Regions (CoR); and 4) the European Commission.The table below compares the 4 definitions according to a series of parameters.We will then try to findthe common and differing points, so as to have an idea of what the social economy is about.28See reference in footnote 19.25 4.1.Analytical Table of the Main Definitions of Social EconomyFONDA CEP-CMAF COR EU COMMISSION5.02.02 14.02
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