The EU Social Economy Report That Shows Europe's Most Underrated Economic Sector

A new EU Commission working document shows Europe's social economy employs 13.6 million people. Here is what this sector actually is and why it matters for the energy and housing crises.

The European Commission's Working Document on progress in boosting Europe's social economy — released in the March 2026 legislative package — provides the most comprehensive current picture of an economic sector that is simultaneously one of Europe's largest employers and one of its least publicly understood.

The social economy encompasses cooperatives, mutual societies, non-profit associations, foundations, and social enterprises — legal forms of economic organisation that prioritise social purpose alongside or instead of profit maximisation. The Commission's data shows this sector employing approximately 13.6 million people across the EU — more than the automotive industry and comparable in size to retail — with particular concentration in healthcare, social services, education, and food supply.

The energy crisis of 2026 has given the social economy specific relevance. Energy cooperatives — groups of households and businesses that collectively own and operate renewable energy generation, sharing both the investment cost and the generation benefit — have seen membership enquiries surge in the same pattern as commercial solar and heat pump sales. The cooperative model spreads the upfront investment cost across many members, potentially making renewable energy investment accessible to households that cannot individually afford a full solar installation.

The housing crisis dimension is similar. Housing cooperatives and social housing organisations — which together constitute a significant proportion of Europe's non-market housing stock — provide the kind of affordable tenure that markets left to themselves do not produce in sufficient volume. The Commission's document notes that social economy organisations are among the few entities expanding affordable housing provision across EU member states, at a moment when the European Parliament has just called for housing to be treated as a fundamental right.

The political challenge for social economy expansion is not primarily about its effectiveness — the evidence base for social economy models in energy, housing, and care services is substantial. It is about public awareness and about the regulatory and financing environments that either support or impede social economy organisations' ability to compete with conventional market actors for the contracts, financing, and policy frameworks that determine which organisations grow.