The EU co-financed call for proposals will support one consortium partnership of up to four social economy organisations (the applicant and up to three consortium partners), which will ensure the establishment and operation of an umbrella advocacy organisation for the promotion and support of the social economy sector, with a focus on social entrepreneurship. This will, among other things, contribute to increasing the competitiveness of social enterprises in the market, promoting social entrepreneurship and social economy business models that support more effective solutions to economic, environmental, social and other problems/challenges and the development of coherent policies and actions in the field of social entrepreneurship and social economy. By the end of the project, 157 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including cooperatives and social enterprises, i.e. social economy organisations, will receive support, namely 141 in the cohesion region Vzhodna Slovenija and 16 in the cohesion region Zahodna Slovenija.

The call for proposals for setting up an advocacy organisation in the field of social economy is implemented within the framework of Slovenia’s Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027, under priority Skills and Responsive Labour Market priority and pursues the specific objective Improving access to employment and activation measures for all jobseekers, in particular young people, especially through the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, for long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups on the labour market, and for inactive people, as well as through the promotion of self-employment and the social economy.

The call for proposals is worth 900,000 euros, with the European Social Fund Plus contributing the bulk of the funding, 687,235.23 euros.

The call for proposals will be published by the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia next Friday, 15 November 2024.