Navarra to have the first Social Economy Business School in Europe

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The initiative, promoted by the regional government together with the Association of Social Economy Enterprises of Navarre (ANEL) and six other EU regions, will provide the region with a pilot centre for this type of training at EU level. The project has a budget of approximately 1.8 million euros, 80% of which will be financed thanks to the Interreg Europe programme. Meanwhile, the Navarrese part will contribute 507,500 euros for a proposal “aligned with the Sustainable Strategy for Intelligent Specialisation (S4) that the region maintains”, according to its promoters.

The European project REESES (Reinforce Regional Social Economy Ecosystems and Stakeholders capacity), funded by the Interreg Europe programme, aims to improve the implementation of regional development policies in the field of regional social economy ecosystems and the capacity of its stakeholders. This includes strengthening cooperation and networking, as well as improving the competences of social economy actors, as a pathway to sustainable and inclusive quality employment in Europe in line with the European Social Economy Plan and the European Agenda for Regional Capacities.

The recent award of this project is the result of coordinated work in recent years between the Directorate General for External Action, the Directorate General for Social Economy and ANEL. It also involves as partners the Region of New Aquitaine, the Chamber of Social and Solidarity Economy of New Aquitaine, the Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Finland), the Regional Development Agency of Podravje – Maribor (Slovenia), the Government of the Region of Murcia, the Business Organisation representing Worker Cooperatives and the Social Economy of the Region of Murcia, ART-ER Regional Development Agency of Emilia Romagna (Italy) and the European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy (REVES) of which Navarra is a member.

Navarre was already a pioneer in 2018 when it included the Social Economy in its Sustainable Strategy for Smart Specialisation S4. At the same time, it is an active member of the European Network of Regions and Cities for the Social Economy (REVES); and it leads the European platform of the European Commission’s S4 Smart Specialisation Strategy on Social Economy. Along these lines, the participation of the Community of Navarre in the ETESS (Cross-border Social and Solidarity Economy Space) partnership of the Euroregion was recently approved, among other actions.

Source: navarra.es