The European Commission has published a mid-term review of its Action Plan for the Social Economy, outlining progress since 2021 based on €2.8 billion of investments, and listing further steps it says are needed across the EU.
The action plan’s implementation is “well underway”, the Commission declared in a statement on Monday.
In the past five years, 21 EU member states have adopted or are preparing national or regional social economy strategies, and 12 have reformed their social economy laws, it added.
More than €1.62 billion in EU funding and €1.2 billion in InvestEU guarantees have been allocated to support the EU social economy between 2021 and 2027.
InvestEU is an EU programme that uses guarantees to help unlock investment.
Priorities set out for the next phase
The report lists priorities including clearer state aid rules, stronger frameworks for private social investment, better data collection across member states, and a toolkit to support regional and local social economy policies, the Commission said.
State aid rules set out when governments can support organisations financially without breaching EU competition rules.
A Special Eurobarometer survey in October 2025 found that half of Europeans had engaged with social economy organisations in the previous five years, and 75% considered the social economy important for society.
The review also says social economy organisations still face uneven access to support, markets and finance.
