New financing opportunities for rural Europe’s social economy were explained at the fi-compass workshop organised by the European Commission, on 10 September 2019, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Examples of social innovation and entrepreneurship financing under the European Social Fund (ESF) were presented from Portugal, Spain and Italy. Special attention was directed to success factors involved in using repayable EU funding as ‘impact investment’ tools providing social and environmental benefits. Further information on the presented case studies and presentations is available online.

Read more about social innovation in rural areas in this factsheet and the EAFRD Projects Brochure on ‘Digital and Social Innovation in Rural Services’ produced by ENRD.