ADVOCACY

FEBEA represents its members at the institutions of the European Union and other financial and political organisations. It carries out advocacy activities to promote and raise awareness on the role of ethical finance. As such, it is regularly consulted on matters that concern the sector.

 

EU PROGRAMMES AND INITIATIVES

FEBEA monitors programmes and initiatives launched by the European Commission in order to identify all funding opportunities that may be of interest to its members, ethical finance and social economy organisations, and advises them in the application procedures and in their relations with relevant institutions.

FEBEA is working also on European sectorial initiatives such as:

 

FEBEA also follows the initiatives related to the creation and development of financial tools at the European level dedicated to social economy, and in particular:

  • EaSI Guarantee Instrument funded from the EaSI Programme and specifically dedicated to microfinance and social entrepreneurship;
  • EaSI Capacity Building Investments Window – the objective of this instrument is to build up the institutional capacity of selected financial intermediaries that have not yet reached sustainability or are in need of risk capital to sustain their growth and development;
  • EGF – Pan European Guarantee Fund.

FEBEA supports its members in the application procedure and in establishing long term partnerships with the EU Commission, the EIB Group and other implementing partners.

FEBEA is following the development of the upcoming INVESTEU and ESF+ programmes.

 

EU COMMITTEES

  • GECES: GROUP OF EXPERTS OF THE COMMISSION ON SOCIAL ECONOMY

    2015 saw the President of FEBEA successfully apply to becoming part of GECES, the Group of Experts of the Commission on Social Economy. The group (GECES) was set up to advise the Commission on the development of social entrepreneurship and social economy in Europe. FEBEA’s Vice-President Wlodzimierz Grudzinski is appointed as expert for the financial sector.

  • EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SOCIAL ECONOMY INTERGROUP

    The European Parliament Social Economy Intergroup was created in 1990 and has been continuously active since then. It serves to ensure a permanent dialogue between all European Institutions, Member States and the Social Economy sector, and is of vital importance to mainstream the social economy perspective into the legislative and non-legislative work of the European Parliament.
    FEBEA has supported the renewal of the Group and participates regularly to its public hearings.

  • EESC: EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE

    In 2015 the Federation has been mentioned in the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on the “Role of cooperative and savings banks in territorial cohesion – Proposals for an adapted financial regulation framework”, drafted by Mr. Trias Pinto. FEBEA was among the organisations that were consulted for the drafting the Opinion, and, thanks also to the contributions offered by some of its members, was specifically mentioned in the text (art. 7.5), as a reference actor for ethical and transparent financing in Europe, in particular in the field of social economy.