The purpose of the three workshops, organised in May-June 2023, is to provide participants with specialised and practical knowledge on the application of state aid rules for the benefit of social economy entities.

The Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) is organising a series of three mutual learning workshops to increase the use of State aid possibilities for the social economy by filling the potential knowledge gaps of participants with a more thorough understanding of State aid law.

The workshops are designed for public officials from national, regional and local public administrations of all 27 Member States and countries associated to the EaSI strand of ESF+, who design aid schemes at their administration level, with a direct interest in social economy and social enterprises.

The series of workshops will entail a particular focus on the notion of State aid, the rationale for EU State aid control, as well as the procedural aspects and a panorama of the different compatible categories of aid.

The workshops will also explore the use of the “de minimis” Regulation, the Commission’s decision on SGEI for public compensation up to EUR 15 million, as well as the use of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) to support social economy entities.

Participants will delve into how State aid can help social economy entities access finance also by learning from concrete examples from other Members States.

Themes

The events will focus on the following themes:

• Fundamentals of State aid for the social economy - online workshop on 12 May 2023
• The General Block Exemption Regulation, its content and application. Specific focus on access to finance for the social economy - in-person workshop in Brussels, Belgium on 12-13 June 2023
• Leveraging State aid possibility related to services of general economic interest - online workshop on 29 June 2023

Pre-registration

Public officials are kindly invited to express their interest in participating in this series of mutual learning workshops by completing the pre-registration questionnaire by 28 March 2023.