After the election of the new European Parliament last spring, the newly elected MEPs will have to choose their Integroups for the next five years later this fall. The European Parliament’s Integroups are formed by MEPs from any political group and any committee, with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular subjects and promoting contact between Members and civil society.

ENSIE, with other members of Social Economy Europe and other interested networks are calling for the Social Economy Intergroup to be renewed in order to make Social Economy represented and heard at the European Parliament.

In order to achieve this goal, MEPs from different political groups need to express their interest in creating or renewing an Intergroup. We, and other members of Social Economy Europe, our umbrella organization, are gathering the interest of MEPs. At the end of September, Patrizia Toia (S&D, IT), a long-time supporter of social economy, Nicolas Schmit (S&D, LU), MEP and Commissioner-Designate for jobs and Dolors Montserrat (EPP, ES), Leopoldo López (EPP, ES), Sven Giegold (EFA, DE) and Monica Semedo (Renew, LU) sent a letter to the 751 MEPs to encourage them to reestablish the Social Economy Intergroup.

We need everyone to mobilize in order to renew this Intergroup, which is fundamental to raise awareness on the need for more social economy and the benefits of Work Integration Social Enterprises.

Since its creation, in 1990, the Social economy intergroup, worked as a platform for exchanges between MEPs and members of the civil society. It is an essential link in the democratic process of the EU. Its objectives are :

• to promote exchanges of views on EU policies and legislation linked to social economy issues,

• to provide regular opportunities for dialogue between MEPs, social economy experts, European Commission officials, civil society representatives and other relevant stakeholders,

• to bring together MEPs from all political parties and all member states,

• to ensure that the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers take into account the social economy and its actors whilst developing their policies.