“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Europe is entering a decisive decade. Competitiveness, resilience, and prosperity are becoming central priorities, while the green and digital transitions, demographic change, and growing territorial inequalities are reshaping the economic landscape. Responding to these challenges requires economic models that combine innovation with inclusion and long-term sustainability.
For Diesis Network, responding to this new reality also requires evolution. By strengthening connections across organisations, sectors and territories, we aim to encourage innovation, inclusion and shared prosperity, ensuring the social economy continues to respond to Europe’s priorities.
It is in this context that the network’s new Board of Directors has been elected for the next four-year mandate. The new Board brings together 15 leaders from ten European countries. They come from organisations working across the social economy, the cooperative movement, social enterprise, social innovation, and impact-driven business. Together, they combine strategic vision with practical experience and share a common responsibility: helping to translate the network’s strategic direction into action.
The election took place during the Diesis Network General Assembly, held in Brussels as part of The Future of the Social Economy, the network’s recent three-day gathering. The event brought together more than 300 participants from 25 countries, including representatives of social economy organisations, European and national institutions, research organisations, practitioners and partners from across the Diesis community.
The renewal of the Board was connected to a broader reflection on the development of our network which now brings together 80 member organisations from 34 countries, collectively representing more than 200,000 organisations and approximately 1.5 million jobs. This growing reach gives Diesis a strong foundation to connect local experience with European and international debates, while remaining responsive to its members and contributing to public policy.
Turning strategy into impact
Our Action Plan 2025–2030 provides a common framework for the network’s work over the coming years. Its implementation depends not only on coordination at European level but also on the active involvement of members and the ability to connect organisations, sectors and territories around shared priorities.
Innovation, Inclusion and Prosperity provide the framework through which these priorities can be translated into action. Innovation here goes beyond technology to include new governance models, forms of collaboration and financing mechanisms; inclusion means keeping organisations connected to people and places; prosperity depends on combining economic sustainability with social purpose.
The Board will help translate this strategic framework into action by connecting members’ knowledge and experience, supporting collaboration, and ensuring that the network’s priorities remain grounded in practice.
The objective is not to create another layer of activity around members, but to unlock collaboration and make better use of their collective expertise.
Why ecosystems matter
Social economy organisations do not operate in isolation. Their development depends on the quality of the ecosystems around them: appropriate legal frameworks, access to finance, relevant skills, support services, research capacity, partnerships and opportunities to cooperate with public authorities, businesses and civil society.
We will continue working at local, regional, national, European and international levels, facilitating exchanges, sharing expertise and encouraging cooperation between organisations facing similar challenges at every level, from local to international.
A stronger social economy requires both established organisations and emerging initiatives. It also needs networks capable of connecting experience from the ground with institutions and decision-makers.
Through its members and partners, Diesis will continue contributing to this connection. The practical knowledge developed by cooperatives, social enterprises and other social economy actors can improve policies and programmes. At the same time, European and national frameworks must create the conditions for these organisations to develop, innovate and operate sustainably.
Redefining competitiveness
The social economy is active across a wide range of sectors. Its contribution is particularly relevant where economic development must be combined with social, environmental and territorial objectives.
Over the coming years, together with our members, we will focus on areas such as clean energy, affordable housing, sustainable tourism, rural and coastal development, skills and competences, and digital transformation.
Although these fields are different, they raise common questions. How can organisations remain economically sustainable while pursuing a social mission? How can they access the investment, technology and expertise required to innovate? How can innovation be introduced without weakening democratic governance, inclusion or local participation? And how can successful practices be adapted and transferred between territories?
At Diesis we think the answer is to create the conditions to learn from one another, develop joint responses, and make our experiences more visible.
Competitiveness in the social economy should not be understood simply as the ability to compete in existing markets. It also concerns the capacity to respond to changing needs, develop better products and services, attract skilled people, use resources effectively, and build organisations that remain viable over time.
Shaping better policies together
The new Board will also support the network in its dialogue with European institutions and other public authorities at national and local level.
Public policy directly shapes the conditions in which social economy organisations operate. Regulation, public procurement, state aid, access to finance, taxation, industrial policy, skills strategies and digital and environmental legislation can either facilitate their development or create additional barriers.
We will continue to bring evidence and experience from our members into these discussions. The purpose is not only to increase recognition of the social economy, but to ensure that its specific characteristics are taken into account when policies are designed and implemented.
Social economy organisations contribute to employment, service provision, local development, innovation, and social cohesion. They are also active in the industrial and technological transitions that will shape Europe’s economy. Their contribution should not be treated separately from debates on competitiveness, resilience and prosperity; it is an integral part of them.
Creating an enabling environment will require continued cooperation between public institutions, social economy organisations, financial actors, researchers, businesses, and civil society. Our mission is to connect these perspectives and support a better-informed exchange between policy and practice.
The next chapter starts now: building the future together
Across different legal systems, economic sectors and territorial contexts, members contribute diverse knowledge and experience. Some represent mature ecosystems, while others continue building support structures and seeking greater institutional recognition. Together, they provide the foundation for cooperation, peer learning, and practical innovation.
This diversity is one of the network’s main resources. It allows the network to compare approaches, identify common challenges and understand how European policies are experienced in practice across countries and regions.
The new Board begins its mandate with an established membership, a shared Action Plan, and a broad range of experience across countries and sectors. The next four years will be about strengthening the connections that enable innovation, inclusion and prosperity to grow across Europe’s social economy, turning shared knowledge into practical cooperation and lasting impact.