Until the mid-2000s in Italy, social enterprise was carried out in the form of social cooperatives (Law 381/1991). This specific legal status was recognized to companies that mainly managed social and educational services or other types of activities aiming to include disadvantaged people in the labor market. The importance of social cooperatives, both in terms of the number and volume of investments, together with the growing role of social enterprise in Europe, has recently required a strong legislative act, which has in fact reformed the whole subject. The Law on Social Enterprise (Law 24 March 2006, n ° 155) therefore governs the different types of companies, the requirements to open and manage a social enterprise and the fields of application. It is important to underline that in Italy the Law does not create a new legal form. All the companies might be social enterprises depending on their ownership or organizational structure.
Art. 1, para. 1, Law 24 March 2006, n° 155, states: «All private organisations, (…), which carry out a stable and main economic and organized activity with the aim of production or exchange of goods and services of social utility for the common interest, and which meet the requirements of article 2, 3 and 4, can be considered as social enterprises’’. Continuing with the main provision of the law, the Art. 7 provides a list of requirements to be recognized as a social enterprise: a) being a private organisation b) performing an entrepreneurial activity of production of social utility goods and services’) acting for the common interest and not for profit. Concluding, in order to be defined as a social enterprise, an organisation needs to simultaneously hold all the aforementioned attributes.
How to build a social enterprise in Italy
According to the Italian legal framework, the law has introduced one of the most relevant changes affecting the regulation of SEs in the Country. The Status of Social Enterprise is recognized beyond the legal form of the SEs. This means that SEs need to be a private legal entity and its main economic activity must be organized in order to produce or exchange goods or services for social benefit. The areas where social enterprises can operate include:
Social assistance;
Social and health care;
Education;
Protection of the environment;
Enhancement of cultural heritage;
- Social tourism and instrumental services to SEs.
Further, for the Italian social economic system the social enterprises are divided into two Types. There are in fact two more types of social cooperatives which can supply social, health or educational services entitled Type A and Type B. Type A are social cooperatives which can supply social, healthcare educational services while TypeBar social cooperatives which promote integration of disadvantaged groups into the labor market. The difference with the status of SEs is that social cooperatives can receive tax benefits such as exemptions from the payment of income tax rates, exemption of income tax, reduced tax rates, exemption from national insurance contributions and reduced value added tax. This kind of enterprises have also a preferential treatment on public procurement.
Supporting social enterprise in Italy
Funding opportunities for social enterprises are provided at local, regional, national, and European level. Locally, each Municipality generally provide specific calls for services in the social field. Going to the regional and national levels, the Government – through the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy – has partnered with the European Commission to operate initiatives to support SEs through the European Social Funds. This kind of support finds practice into the Operational Programs, at national and also regional level (National Operational Program on Social Inclusion and Regional Operational Program – one for each Italian region). These programs aimed at implementing new systems and models for social intervention, including the support to social economy initiatives that can help to overcome the fragmentation in the provision of health and social services.
Conclusion
The Italian economic system made up by social enterprises includes organizations and entities operating in different fields that promote Italian community solidarity and pluralism, in a context of autonomy and cooperation with governmental authorities. The role and the importance of the social enterprises is relevant, and it is growing, especially starting from this crucial period for our health and safety.
