Social enterprise and their eco-system: A European mapping report of Romania

This report is part of the study “Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe” and it provides an overview of the social enterprise landscape in Romania based on available information as of December 2018.

Since 2006, Romania has shown an incremental interest in understanding and promoting social enterprises as facilitators of economic and social development. This report explores the puzzling landscape of social enterprise in Romania, comprising both ex lege and de facto social enterprises. From a historical perspective, social enterprises in Romania have multiple roots, which reach back to the traditions of cooperatives and mutual aid societies. Key actors, such as associations and foundations, also contributed to the development of social enterprise. The need for income-generating activities that enhance social missions pushed associations and foundations towards their institutionalisation as social enterprises. Conversely, the contribution of the “old cooperative” sector has remained relatively modest, making it one of the most disengaged stakeholders of the new social entrepreneurship reform. Romania’s accession to the EU opened the road to a new policy approach regarding social economy, social entrepreneurship and the development of social enterprises, where mutual aid societies, associations, foundations and cooperatives play a role in addressing key societal challenges and encountering unmet needs arising in local communities…