Loans, grants, advice and agreements to kickstart the social and solidarity economy

A new package of measures worth 7.5 million euros is intended to reactivate the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and local neighbourhood economies, helping to maintain the 60,000 jobs and 4,500 companies and organisations in this sector.

02/06/2020 19:09 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

The measures are designed for periods of six months or twelve months and aimed at the companies, projects and organisations hit hardest by the Covid-19 crisis, mainly through loans and subsidies.

Credit lines

Four million euros has been earmarked to extend credit lines for SSE projects and will be managed via ethical banking entities such as Coop57 and Fiare Banca Ètica. An additional 500,000 euros in budgetary carryover from previous agreements means the overall credit to be made available will be 4.5 million euros.

Subsidies

The programme ‘Enfortim l’ESS’ will make one million euros available in subsidies for the SSE. Applications for these subsidies must be made between 2 June and 2 July.

The programme ‘Impulsem el que fas’ is also set to offer 1,760,000 euros for local neighbourhood economies. Applications for these funds must be made in the same period.

Advice

Barcelona Activa has created the service ‘Aixequem l’ESS’ to provide support and advice for companies and entities who need it and help them, with assistance from experts, to design a new economic reactivation plan to respond to the Covid-19 crisis.

At the same time, the intention is to develop an agreement with Coòpolis to advise cooperatives in the city in relation to plans on contingency and socio-economic reactivation, with a contribution of 45,000 euros.

Cooperation with associations and federations

Cooperation agreements have been reached with four organisations representing the social and sustainable economy: the Federació de Cooperatives de Treball de Catalunya, the Federació de Cooperatives d’Habitatge de Catalunya, the Confederació del Tercer Sector Social de Catalunya and the Xarxa d’Economia Solidària. The agreements mean 150,000 euros in direct aid to promote measures and contingency plans for over two thousand associated entities.

Detailed information on all action and measures can be found here.

 

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