The role of Social Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP) as a strategic lever for social economy enterprises (SEEs) is a core theme for Diesis actions to facilitate access to market and promote sustainable and inclusive economic development.
After the great success achieved by the WeBuySocialEU initiative – which organised a EU-wide campaign and training events in 15 member States – on May 22nd 2025, Diesis took part in the International Expert Seminar on the Development of Social Economy in Poland and Europe, organised by the Polish Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy in Warsaw. As the main social economy event of the Polish Presidency of the EU, the conference was attended by representatives of public institutions, non-governmental organisations, social economy entities and experts from Poland and abroad.
After the opening by Katarzyna Nowakowska, Polish Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, during the first session Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux (Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission), presented the key actions and achievements of the European Action Plan for the Social Economy, while Polish representatives discussed the experiences of the Polish support system for the sector.
The programme of the seminar included three thematic panels in which key issues for the development of social economy enterprises were discussed:
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- Public procurement as a tool for supporting social economy enterprises,
- Tax issues, including VAT in the activities of social enterprises,
- Financial instruments available for the sector – both domestic and European.
The access of social economy enterprises to public markets still remains very challenging due to political, legal and structural barriers. Contracting authorities do not know SEEs and the products and services they can offer. Nevertheless, tailored training, knowledge sharing, and mutual learning can empower public authorities to integrate social criteria into their purchasing strategies, while supporting social economy entities to better understand and engage in procurement processes. During the seminar, Diesis Network presented several good practices of tools and support organisations able to concretely improve the presence of social economy enterprises in public markets. As an example, during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, 15% of the markets were assigned to social economy enterprises, while Belgium, for more than a decade, has instituted Social Clauses facilitators with the double role of supporting public buyers to prepare tender documents integrating social clauses and help SEEs to answer to public bids.
A significant opportunity for social economy enterprises to access public procurement markets is represented by reserved contracts. According to Art. 20 of the EU Public Procurement Directive, “Member States may reserve the right to participate in public procurement procedures to sheltered workshops and economic operators whose main aim is the social and professional integration of disabled or disadvantaged persons or may provide for such contracts to be performed in the context of sheltered employment programmes, provided that at least 30% of the employees of those workshops, economic operators or programmes are disabled or disadvantaged workers”. Moreover, Art 77 of the Directive states that “Member States may provide that contracting authorities may reserve the right for organisations to participate in procedures for the award of public contracts” for certain health, social and cultural services. In this way, it is possible to value the provision of these services, which in some Member States represent a long tradition and a feature of the welfare system.
Challenges and opportunities offered by reserved contracts was the topic of a webinar organised by the GPP Helpdesk on June 11th. During the webinar, attended by more than 200 participants, Diesis Network presented examples of resources available to contracting authorities to use reserved contracts to implement their green and SRPP strategies and plans. The webinar shed light on ways that public procurement can serve as a vehicle for social change and how reserved contracts can be used to foster collaboration between contracting authorities and social economy actors.
