Peer Review on Social Economy,
Comments paper: Greece Croatia
2013,
(Zagreb, 29-30 October
2013)
Social Economy: The Greek Case
Konstantinos Geormas
Head of Social Economy
Registry,
Styliani Graikioti
Official, Social Economy
Registry
Hellenic Ministry of Labour,
Social Security and
Welfare
Introduction
Greece has been severely hit
from the current crisis. The need for fiscal consolidation has had significant
impacts both to the economy and the social situation. The GDP contracted by
6,4% in 2012 and is expected to contract by 4% the current year. Unemployment,
has risen sharply and employment rate has fallen to 55,3% in 2012. Recently,
Greece has shown some positive signs regarding fiscal consolidation and leading
conjunctural and financial market indicators are showing a tendency for
stabilization.
The historical high level of
unemployment, long-term unemployment and youth unemployment (up to 29 years)
constitute key factors for severe poverty and social exclusion. Along with that the number of households with very low
work intensity has increased dramatically, homelessness is on rise during the
last years and child poverty remains an important issue. In that context the main challenges in employment as
well as the social protection and social inclusion field for Greece in 2013 are
to speed up employment policies and to limit
the social impact of the crisis and of the fiscal consolidation measureς through the improvement and
effectiveness of social transfers.
Unemployment
The unemployment rate in
Greece exhibits strong increase since the last quarter of 2008 to date. More specifically the
unemployment rate of the age cohort > 15 years, based on data from the
Hellenic Statistical Authority, has climbed to 27,1% in the second quarter of 2013 compared to 23,6% in the second quarter of 2012.The
impact of the recession is stronger for people with low education level (43,5% no school at all), whereas the
unemployment rate for women is higher than the relevant of men.
The employment rate (cohort ages 20-64) exhibited significant decline since 2008 and
reached 55.3% in 2012, compared to 59.9% in 2011 and 66.5% in 2008[1].
It is important to notice that unemployment has affected the «breadwinners»,
that is men at the age of 35-55. This phenomenon is related with the
implications that crisis has had on economic activity.
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Unemployment by sex and age cohort
Second quarter
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2012
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2013
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Age
|
Men
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Women
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Total
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Men
|
Women
|
Total
|
|
Total
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20,8
|
27,3
|
23,6
|
24,1
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31,1
|
27,1
|
|
15-24
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46,8
|
62,1
|
53,9
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54,2
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65,1
|
59,0
|
|
25-29
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35,0
|
38,9
|
36,8
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41,7
|
47,6
|
44,4
|
|
30-44
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19,3
|
26,1
|
22,3
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21,8
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30,3
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25,5
|
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45-64
|
14,8
|
17,9
|
16,0
|
17,6
|
20,7
|
18,9
|
|
65+
|
3,6
|
5,6
|
4,2
|
13,5
|
5,5
|
11,3
|
Youth unemployment
The highest unemployment rate in Greece is observed among young people. It has to be noticed that youth
unemployment was among the highest in Europe even before the crisis started. The
unemployment rate for the age cohort 15-24 was 53,9% in the second
quarter of 2012, and 59,0% in 2013. High rates of unemployment are also observed among young people aged 25-29 years and
those aged 30-34 years.
Moreover, the situation for young women is worse than the relevant for young men. The unemployment
rate for women in the age
cohort 15-24 was 62.1% in the second quarter of 2012 (46.8% for men) compared to 65,1%
at the second quarter of 2013 (54.2% for men).
A main characteristic of youth
employment in Greece is the prolonged
transition period from education to the labor market. Based on Hellenic
Statistic Authority data, more than half (>50%) of young people up to the
age of 22 years, have no working
experience at all. Even up to the age of 25 years, 20% of
people surveyed have not gained any work experience.
Social Entrepreneurship[2]
There
a number of issues emerging regarding the development of social economy in
Greece.
a) Among civil society
there are a series of initiatives. It seems that the crisis in Greece has
opened up the need for new ways in order to address unemployment issues as well
as local development. It suffices to note that during the last month alone,
have been registered 80 social cooperative enterprises. In addition to this,
there have taken place a series of forums and conferences. Recently, a forum
organized by the Municipality of Athens has gathered at least 400 people.
b) As it was mentioned
before there are a number of organizations that have taken initiatives
regarding the promotion of social economy. The Municipality of Athens, as well
as the Municipality of Thessaloniki are among them. The General Confederation
of Greek Agricultural Associations has organized a series of events regarding
social enterprises especially for women farmers. The Technical Chamber of
Greece set up a number of workshops which resulted in a number of «virtual» social
enterprises by young engineers. Universities has taken initiatives regarding
social entrepreneurship in the context of
their Employment and Career Structures.
A significant development regarding the social economy
sector is the close cooperation of Social Cooperative Enterprises with
municipalities in order for the first to provide strongly needed services to
the latter in the area of social care, culture and the environment.
c) There is a tendency for foundations to discuss
initiatives regarding social entrepreneurship. We mention here the recent
international conference organized by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which
devoted a specialized table regarding the relation between philanthropy and
social entrepreneurship.
d) In the recent
Memorandum of Understanding there is a clear reference to the development of
social economy as a measure in order to enhance employability.
2. Brief note of recent policy
initiatives on social entrepreneurship on the institutional level
The Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Welfare in
cooperation with the European Commission, in the framework of the Technical
Steering Committee for social economy (consisting of international and Greek
experts and Greek public officers) that had the mandate to formulate an action
plan for the creation of a supportive eco-system for social economy in Greece
have resulted in a Strategy Plan for the Development of Social
Entrepreneurship.
The strategic vision of the Plan for the
Development of Social Entrepreneurship is to generate a significant impact on
the economical development at local, regional and national level ensuring at
the same time the social cohesion. The overall objective of the Strategy Plan
is the activation of an ecosystem that is going to help the development of
Social Enterprises.
At present the observed obstacles in Greek
reality are the lack of appropriate and accessible support services provided to
Social Enterprises, the lack of specialized programs of subsidizing the start-
up stage of Social Enterprises, the adverse financial environment for the
development of financial instruments, various complex administrative issues
relevant to the development of Social Entrepreneurship and small visibility of
the new legal entity of Social Enterprises as well as of the value of social
entrepreneurship.
The strategic vision of the plan is
intended to be accomplished through an integrated approach and certain
priorities targeting at:
·
The creation of a supporting
system for the development of Social Enterprises.
·
The provision of the necessary
start-up capital for Social Enterprises
·
The provision of financial aid
in the short and long run of the Social Enterprises operation.
·
The abolition of any
administrative and legal obstacles as well as the creation of a favorable environment for the
development of Social Enterprises, by creating an integrated legal framework
for public procurements for Social Enterprises.
·
The promotion of mutual
learning and capacity building of social entrepreneurs, national and regional
administrations.
·
The implementation of a
campaign informing the society on Social Entrepreneurship as well as the creation of information
platforms with the aim to sensitize the community on the issue of Social
Entrepreneurship with the ultimate purpose to generate local pacts between
social enterprises and the private and
public market.
·
The implementation of
transnational actions, using in the best way the European and International
expertise on the development of Social Entrepreneurship.
·
The creation of an observatory
aiming at comprehensively mapping Social
enterprises in Greece in order to identify good practices and collect reliable
data on social entrepreneurship.
The Strategy Plan for the
Development of Social Entrepreneurship is comprised by three action axes as
follows:
Action Axis 1. Support for the sector of Social Economy.
Action 1: Central Support
Mechanism.
Action 2: Observatory for
Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship.
Action 3: Regional Support
Mechanisms.
Action 4: Actions of the
Special Service for Social Inclusion and Social Economy (ΕΥΚΕΚΟ), as the
coordination public body for the development of for Social Economy.
Action Axis 2. Financial Support for Social Cooperative Enterprises
(koinSEp).
Action 5: Support for the pre
start-up of KoinSEp.
Action 6: Vouchers for the
support of KoinSEp with “incubator” type services (start-up support).
Action 7: Vocational training for KoinSEp members and
employees.
Action 8: Grants for the
purchase of cooperative shares by KoinSEp employees.
Action 9: Support grants to
KoinSEp for the creation of new employment positions.
Action Axis 3. Financial instruments for the support of KoinSEp.
Action 10: Complementary
refundable grants.
Action 11: Preparatory actions
for the creation of a Micro Finance Institution.
The budget of the
implementation of the aforementioned actions amounts to 60.000.000 € and
is co-financed by ESF[3].
3. Data from the Social Economy Registry
At present, there are 274 Social Cooperative Enterprises
(KoiNSEP) in the registry, and most of which are of collective and productive
purpose. The KoinSEp have 2.627
members.
Their distribution among the
three main categories is:
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Category
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Number of KoinSEp
|
|
Social Integration KoinSEp
|
6
|
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Social care KoinSEp
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52
|
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KoinSEp with a collective and productive purpose
|
216
|
The number of the 216 KoinSEp of a collective and productive purpose
is unevenly distributed in the Greek territory. Namely, 87 KoinSEp are in the region of Attica (the wider area
close to Athens), 28 are in the region of
Central Macedonia, 23 in the
region of Peloponnese,19 in the island region of South Aegean, 17 in the
region of Thessaly, 13 in the region of Eastern
Macedonia, 7 in the region of Crete, 6 in the islands of Northern Aegean, 6 in
the region of Western Greece, 4 Central Greece, 3 in the region Epirus, 2 in Ionian
islands and 2 in Western Macedonia[4].
The greatest number of Social
Cooperative Enterprises is observed in the third category of KoinSEp, 216
out of 274, showing that social entrepreneurship doesn’t consist the hope of vulnerable groups to find the way out
of unemployment but mainly the hope of
the general unemployed population, in this current period of the Greek economic crisis. It is
also of interest that Social Integration KoinSEp are only 6. We believe that
this is due to the fact that such Social Enterprises need more effort and
expertise in order to set them up. It is worth mentioned that in such
cooperatives at least 40% of their employees have to belong to a vulnerable
group.
According to our experience
the people that come to register fall into the 29-50 age category. Second
category are the young people. This fact is closely related with the
corresponding unemployment percentages.
3. Brief summary of policy initiatives on youth employment and
entrepreneurship
Combating the high youth
unemployment levels constitutes a main priority for European Union institutions
and Member States. The need to tackle the problem of high youth unemployment in
Greece requires immediate coordinated actions and initiatives, capitalizing on
young people's creativity and innovative ideas. A cohesive operational Action
Plan has been elaborated and has been implemented to strengthen youth
employment and entrepreneurship.
The basic categories of
interventions regard the reinforcement of apprenticeship and traineeship
systems, the establishment of systematic transition programs from education to
employment, in order to support the acquisition of first working experience and
to promote entrepreneurship.
Counseling and mentoring
services are the basic tools for supporting young people in their transition to
the working or business environment.
The main 6 priority axes of the Action plan are the following:
1.
Creating jobs for young people
according to their qualifications.
2.
Strengthening Vocational
Education training and education systems with emphasis on the combination of
training and work experience along with further investment in work
placements.
3.
Establishing systematic
programs for the transition from education to work (school-to-work programs) to
support the acquisition of the first work experience (combined with mentoring,
counseling, training and employment) tailored to the specific profile and needs
of young people.
4.
Increasing support of
counseling and guidance with emphasis on young unemployed. Strengthening the
school career guidance and counseling for entrepreneurship in higher education.
5.
Strengthening youth
entrepreneurship, focus on new / innovative products, services and
entrepreneurship fields.
6.
Investing in measures aimed at
reducing school dropout.
Under the proposed Action Plan
a cumulative budget of 608.326.537 € has been re-allocated (stemming from
OP revisions) and will be channeled to a total of 349.499 beneficiaries
in the age cohort 18-35.
The implementation of most of
the actions of the Action plan for young people has already started.
In short, we could mention the
implementation of some indicative actions such as:
· The voucher for the entrance
of unemployed young people up to the age of
29 to the labor market, including an integrated raft of interventions by granting a voucher for:
training in combination with guidance / educational mentoring, in-service
training / Working experience of five (5) months, grant to businesses that will
convert in-service training to a work contract, covering also the employer's
contributions for a year. The budget of the program is 174.900.000 € while the beneficiaries amount to 45.000 young people.
·
Of similar nature is the voucher for the entrance of young people in
enterprises in the tourism sector.
4. Programs for the employment of disadvantaged groups that are currently
implemented in Greece are as follows:
A. Local Actions for the social inclusion of
vulnerable groups
The aim of the Local Actions
co-funded by ESF (with a budget of 140.000.000
€) is the mobilization of local public and private
bodies towards the job placement of unemployed vulnerable groups.
The Actions implemented by Development Partnerships
have an integrated character including various activities such as vocational
training, on the job training, business plan creation, counseling on legal and
other issues, with the aim to give the beneficiaries the chance to create
a business, to acquire the prerequisites
to be subsidized by different programs, to develop skills in order to cover the
demanded needs of the enterprises. The social enterprises expected to be
established as a result of the intervention will be approximately 600.
B. Public Works Program
The objectives of the specific
program is the financial support of families that have no working members and
simultaneously the conservation of the contact of the family members with the labor
market as well as the satisfaction of societal needs and the improvement of civil
services.
The budget of the program is 216.000.000 € (co financed by ESF
and ERDF) and targets 50.000 unemployed
people who are apart from the members of families with no working members,
young unemployed aged 18-29, long term
unemployed and unemployed university graduates. The aforementioned
beneficiaries are placed in jobs in the public services (schools, Local
Authority Bodies, Courts e.t.c) for 5
months.
C. Programs ran by ΟΑED (MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT ORGANISATION)
a. Grants of 28.000
€ are given to new entrepreneurs
(having started their business activity from 01/09/20109 and on) who are
disabled, ex offenders and ex drug users. The grants are given over a period of
three years. The total budget of the program is 22.400.000 €, with 800 beneficiaries.
b. Grants, with a ceiling of
2.500 €, are given to new entrepreneurs with the aim to improve the
working conditions of disabled people. The budget of the program is 125.000 € with 50 beneficiaries-disabled people.
c. A three–year program,
funded by the state budget, addressing
primarily to employers of small enterprises with up to 50 employees. The
program is refunding all social
insurance payments for employing
unemployed disadvantaged people (disabled people, delinquent teenagers, ex offenders, ex drug
users). The employers have the obligation to further employ the disadvantaged
employees for a period of 12 months after the three-year grant. The total
budget of the program is 27.500.000 € with 2.300 beneficiaries.
d. Grant programme for enterprises
to recruit unemployed graduates from
Higher Educational Institutes, aiming to create full employment jobs in
private enterprises and private sector employers in general, through the
recruitment of unemployed persons up to the age of 35 who are holders of a first degree, post-graduate
title or a PhD of Greek AEI/TEI or an equivalent title from a Faculty abroad.
The budget of the program, funded by ESF,
is 37.500.000 € and the
beneficiaries of the program will be 2.500
unemployed young people.
The National network of
immediate social interventions with the objective to offer integrated services to homeless people
who find themselves in poverty, or are threatened by poverty. Said services
will be offered through the creation of at least 200 'Social Structures of
Immediate Poverty Relief'. A two-year financing is provided for their operation
and staffing. Such structures will be staffed by young unemployed, up to the
age of 30 years. The beneficiaries of the program are unemployed young persons
who shall staff new or/and existing social structures while homeless and persons
in poverty state or running the risk of poverty shall enjoy the services of
these social structures. The budget of the program, funded by ESF, amounts to 40.000.000 € and the number of the
beneficiaries is 1.200 unemployed
young people.
D. Integrated interventions for the support of Female entrepreneurship
The program includes two sub
actions: a) Integrated intervention for the support of woman entrepreneurship
for women aged 18-35 and b) Integrated intervention for the support of woman
entrepreneurship for women aged 36-64. The programme targets women who are
unemployed, who have been dismissed during the last three years and have been
looking for a job, who have shut down their own business during the last three
years, who are threatened by unemployment, who have a self insurance with an income below the
lowest income poverty limit as this is defined by the Hellenic Statistics
Organization.
Grants, with a ceiling of 32.000 €, are given in order to cover
business operational expenses, employer insurance payments, counselor’s services to create as well as monitor the
business plan, coaching and mentoring services, training expenses of the
entrepreneur as well as training expenses of the newly employed in the
enterprise, wage expenses for the newly employed people in the enterprise.
The total budget of the
program co financed by ESF 77.000.000
Euros through the National Contingency Reserve.
Strengthening youth entrepreneurship, with the aim to boost
business initiatives placing emphasis on high added value goods and services,
integrating innovative ideas and environmentally friendly productive processes. The program focuses mainly on the sectors of economy that can
possibly turn Greek entrepreneurship towards a substantial extrovert growth and it includes grants to the unemployed to set up a new
business. The beneficiaries are young
people aged 18 to 35 years wishing to set up their own business. The budget of
the program, funded by ERDF, amounts to 60.000.000
€ and the number of the beneficiaries is 1.600 unemployed young people.
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5 Issues for the debate
In many ways, the Greek
experience is similar to the Croatian one. Regarding both employment rates as
well unemployment the numbers indicate a striking similarity. There are also
similar approaches regarding the development of social entrepreneurship.
The situation is rather
complex for in a resource constrained environment, there is the need to
increase expenses in policies that promote employment as well as social
cohesion. It is in this environment that European Funds play a crucial role for
the promotion of employment and social cohesion policies.
In Greece, there are a series
of policies and programmes now underway regarding unemployment and social
cohesion, but we need some time in order to see how labour market will respond
to them. For the time being, programmes that are known as “social/public works”
are the ones that seem to have immediate results.
It seems that on the civil
society level, and in the labour market, the capacities in order to respond to
the aforementioned programmes are lacking. This points up to the fact that
there is a need a long term effort in order to build such capacities. Employment
programmes, as well as programmes that deal with social entrepreneurship, need
a multifaceted approach. That means that these programmes have to deal
simultaneously with subsidies, training, counseling, and mentoring. There is
the need for support structures on the local level. This because of the fact
that there is a need to build step by step skills that promote employability as
well as structures that support the inclusion into the labour market.
Despite the fact that there is
an urgent need for immediate results, the design of such programmes has always
to take into account a global perspective, an intergrated approach, that will
promote not only individual capacities (employability) but capacities on the
societal/labour market level. And this, besides the efforts of the central
administration, can be achieved with the mobilization of all relevant
stakeholders (local authorities, social partners, local civil society etc).
[1] Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Welfare , Action Plan: Targeted interventions to
enhance youth employment and entrepreneurship, 2012
[2] For a detailed presentation of developments on the
Greek social economy sector please refer also to Peer Review on Social economy,
Comments paper: Greece, France 2012, (Paris, 10-11 December 2012), Social Economy: The Greek Case,
Dionyssis Balourdos (National Centre for Social Research), Konstantinos Geormas
(Head of Social Economy Registry, Hellenic Minstry of Labour, Social Security
and Welfare)
[3] Ministry of Labor, Social
Security and Welfare, “Action Plan for the development of Social
Entrepreneurship sector”, February 2013
[4] Source: Department for Social
Economy Register, Directorate for Social Protection, Ministry of Labour, Social
Security and Welfare.
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