Create and Hoxton Apprentice shut down. Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen is in trouble. These are not just restaurants serving good quality food but social enterprises that train homeless and young ex-offenders to get in the job market.
Social enterprises tackled social problems without depending on public funding but the economic crisis is killing them one by one. Running a business is a challenge and training vulnerable groups add extra costs making the enterprise’s sustainability almost impossible in such a economic climate.
When I read the last communication on social investments of the European Commission I got annoyed. It’s the usual preaching to national governments backed by neither money nor legislation. But what made me furious was receiving the press releases of Brussels-based lobby groups cheering up.
Hey Brussels, wake up. Nobody needs your lessons in real Europe, we need concrete solutions. If you don’t have anything valuable to offer please shut up!
The communication of Commissioner Andor follows another one on entrepreneurship launched by Commissioner Tajani two weeks ago and there would many others to add to the list but I won’t bore you. They are all the same: ‘Do this, do that… Sorry I don’t have any money’.
I understand the Commission has limited resources, therefore they should be used strategically. We need a strong Commission but with less Commissioners, less communications. We need more strategic and better funded programmes.
The social investment policy is already covered by the Social Innovation Agenda and Social Business Initiative. President Barroso, and Commissioners Barnier, Tajani, Andor, Geoghegan-Quinn and Hahn have been involved at a certain point, although I’m not sure they even agree on the meaning of the words. Besides the language issue, the only concrete programme is a fund still sitting in Luxemburg. The Commission and European Invest Bank haven’t found an agreement on definition of social enterprise.
Do we really need all these policy makers stepping on each other’s toes and little action on the ground? Let’s rewind the EU and start from what matters to people. Social enterprises are shutting down, so we need a programme to to keep them afloat until the storm is over and strengthen their capacity to overcome future crises. Am I wrong?
BTW For the first time I realised how civil society is corrupted by Brussels as I recently read in a blog: A sick European civil society.
