Georges Mischo, Luxembourg's Minister of Labour; Credit: MT

Luxembourg's Ministry of Labour recently presented the new social entrepreneur guide and announced a national strategy for the social economy and social innovation.

During a press conference last week, Luxembourg's Minister of Labour, Georges Mischo, said: "Our country faces many challenges that at the same time offer a great opportunity: social entrepreneurs create innovative economic solutions that meet social and societal needs in order to leave no one behind."

He expressed particular satisfaction with recent developments in the social and solidarity economy, both at national and international level, and gave an overview of current and future work, which includes:

- a national competence centre for the social economy and social innovation: the incubator for societal impact companies, the Social Business Incubator, is joining forces with Germany, Estonia and the Netherlands as part of a European consortium to expand its range of services and training in the coming years. The aim is to create a first national competence centre for the social economy and social innovation;

- participation in the new international group, the Government Council for Social Innovation: about 30 government representatives, including those from Luxembourg, joined forces on the sidelines of the G20 summit to enable high-level exchange and collaboration with the aim of launching a global dynamic around social innovation;

- Social Entrepreneur's Guide: this new brochure ("Comment se lancer? Le guide de l'entrepreneur social") contains information aimed at helping budding social entrepreneurs to succeed, namely data and information on the social economy as well as tips for creating a social enterprise in Luxembourg and applying for approval as a societal impact company;

- a national strategy for the social economy and social innovation: from November 2024, public and private stakeholders, professional chambers and organisations representing the various stakeholders in the social and solidarity economy will be consulted to ensure the success of efforts to develop a national strategy for the social economy and social innovation. The first results are expected for 2026;

- reform of the legal framework for the social economy and social innovation: in order to respond to recent developments and with the aim of creating an environment conducive to the development of all stakeholders in the social and solidarity economy, an overhaul is deemed necessary to make the legal framework "attractive, simple and transparent".

Moreover, Minister Mischo announced that the first edition of the Luxembourg Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award is taking place at the Cercle Cité in Luxembourg-Ville on Tuesday 17 December 2024 from 18:30.