In November 2022, the European Commission published the Transition Pathway for Proximity and Social Economy. The pathway identifies 14 action areas and 30 specific actions.
Since the publication of the pathway, the implementation phase has started. During this phase, the Commission calls on stakeholders to make a pledge and express their engagement to contribute to the identified action area. You can find more information about pledges in the subsection below.
We are calling for pledges among public and private actors and stakeholders in the EU proximity and social economy ecosystem to encourage a green and digital transition.
Please respond by 1 June 2025.
See the 'Pledges' link above for details on previous pledges.
See the section on 'Pledges for co-implementation of the transition pathway' below for more context and details.
| Green Transition | Digital Transition |
Reinforcing business-to-business collaboration for greener and circular value chains | New business models — the platform economy |
Creating financial incentives and supportive regulation for green and circular social economy business models | Data maturity and data-driven business models |
Certification, labelling and self-regulation | Public and private tech partnerships and support |
Innovation as an enabler for green transition and business development in the social economy | Data sharing, data management and a code of conduct |
Greening infrastructures and business operations | Supporting Digital Social Innovation (DSI) & Tech for Good entrepreneurship |
Local Green Deals, green business communities and citizens' initiatives | Access to technology |
Addressing capacity and skills gap | Boosting digital skills by - and in the social economy |
New: updated list of pledges with latest stakeholder contributions (February 2024)
Join the call for pledges on proximity and social economy now and let us know your strategies, projects and initiatives in the form of a ‘pledge’!
The next deadline to submit your pledge is 1 December 2024.
Do you need assistance? Check out this presentation on why and how to make a pledge. It will help you identify and design your pledge.
For more info and support, please contact GROW-SOCIAL-ENTERPRISE
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (GROW-SOCIAL-ENTERPRISE[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
The transition pathway was launched on 14 November 2022 during a launch event in Brussels.
See a video on the proximity and social economy transition pathway event
See the transition pathway for proximity and social economy document now available in 22 EU languages.
In December 2024, we launched the EU Proximity and Social Economy Platform, an online community connecting stakeholders in the proximity and social economy sectors across all EU countries. Developed by the Commission and sector representatives, the platform supports collaboration, sharing of innovations, and access to funding, training, and resources. It aims to strengthen local resilience, foster sustainable practices, and drive competitiveness in line with Europe's economic and environmental goals.
The blueprint for transition pathways, proposed by the EU Industrial Forum, is the guiding tool for the co-creation process of this transition pathway and is used to understand the challenges and opportunities of the twin transition in the different industrial ecosystems.
On this basis, we organised a series of 12 consultation meetings and workshops with stakeholders between April and June 2022.
Over 400 ecosystem stakeholders participated in these workshops, including EU country experts, regions and cities delegates (European Social Economy Regions network, Intelligent Cities Challenge), and other networks such as the New European Bauhaus community and the Enterprise Europe Network. EU institutions were informed and consulted during the co-creation process. The EU Industrial Forum was also consulted and received regular updates.
Stakeholder input collected during the co-creation process helped us to identify 14 action areas and 30 concrete actions for the transition pathway.
Between December 2021 and March 2022, the Commission sought stakeholders’ input to the questions raised in this staff working document and called for the first pledges for action.
The online EU survey elicited responses and initial pledges from 79 stakeholders.
The responses were essential to identify the transition pathway’s key areas and topics of focus.
We started the transition pathway co-creation process for the ‘proximity and social economy’, one of the 14 industrial ecosystems, on 9 December 2021 with the publication of the European Action Plan on Social Economy.
Commission services prepared a staff working document, attached to the action plan, to outline possible scenarios for a transition pathway towards a more resilient, green and digital ecosystem.
More information
- EU Industrial Strategy update
- Action plan on the social economy
- Contact: grow-social-enterpriseec [dot] europa [dot] eu (grow-social-enterprise[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)