october 2017
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With a total investment of 1,760,926.77 euros, the grants will be allocated to social economy organisations, in particular co-operatives and worker-owned companies, in seven Spanish regions.
CEPES and the European Social Fund give the green light to the creation of 146 businesses and 823 jobs CEPES, the Spanish Social Economy Enterprise Confederation, has approved 20 projects with a budget of 1.7 million euros, in its capacity as the Intermediary Body for the Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Social Economy of the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020. The projects that have been approved will create 146 new businesses and 823 jobs within the social economy and also promote increased professionalism in human resources and the administration of social economy entities, in particular co-operatives and worker-owned companies, as well as fostering entrepreneurship within formal educational processes. The grants approved by CEPES will be granted in seven Spanish regions (Galicia, Asturias, Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha, Murcia, the Canary Islands and Extremadura), and will benefit a total of 2,604 participants, 329 of whom are people with disability or other groups at risk of social exclusion. The projects approved as part of the OPSISE 8.3.1 Strategic Objective funding round, represent an investment of 1.7 million euros, of which CEPES will be providing 1.4 million, through ESF funding.
The grants approved by CEPES will also help deliver 154 training or awareness-raising initiatives to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurship. Of these, 67 are training courses with a commitment to hire workers or improve their working conditions and stability. 49 public-private partnerships will also be established. What is OPSISE?
The Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Social Economy (OPSISE) for the period 2014-2020, co-funded by the European Social Fund, is one of the instruments that the Spanish government has devised in order to contribute to achieving the targets set by the European 2020 Strategy, in particular those connected with integrating growth. OPSISE states that “the promotion of integrating growth involves, among other elements, strengthening the fight against poverty, social exclusion and discrimination, so as to guarantee equal opportunities in access to the job market, and to benefit from the potential of the social economy for economic recovery”, and therefore the promotion of the social economy is one of the cornerstones of the operational programme.
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Meeting with Ariel Guarco, ICA presidential candidate In early September, Dr Carlos Zarco and Jose Pérez, Managing Director and Deputy Director, respectively, of the Espriu Foundation, represented the Foundation at a meeting held at the headquarters of CEPES with Ariel Guarco, President of the Argentinian Co-operative Confederation. Mr Guarco, who has submitted his candidacy to be President of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), is on a tour of a number of European countries to meet with the organisations that represent the cooperative movement. His first port of call was in Spain, at a meeting attended not only by representatives of the Espriu Foundation, but also figures from CEPES, the Confederation of Co-operatives of the Basque Country, and the Confederation of Workers’ Co-operatives. Ariel Guarco, to the left of the CEPES President Juan Antonio Pedreño, during the meeting attended by Dr Zarco and Jose Pérez (pictured on the right).