Major national conference backs EU4Youth recommendations on social entrepreneurship in Ukraine

A national conference in Kyiv on 11 March approved a set of legal suggestions on social entrepreneurship in Ukraine developed by the EU4Youth project. The recommendations will now be submitted to Parliament.

The hybrid conference was organised by the EU4Youth project on ‘Unlocking the potential of young social entrepreneurs in Moldova and Ukraine’ (EUnlocking). Its aim was to discuss the final concept of legal changes with a large audience of relevant stakeholders.

Over the past three months, social entrepreneurs, experts, representatives of governmental institutions and local authorities, civil society actors, and students have discussed the legal suggestions proposed by the EUnlocking project, and provided their recommendations on the most relevant and effective legal norms for social entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The project’s information campaign on the legal initiatives reached over 200,000 people.

From 21 December 2020 to 20 January 2021, the EUnlocking project conducted public hearings in all 24 oblasts of Ukraine, bringing together over 1,500 people.

The final draft concept of legal suggestions includes three stages of changes:

• registration issues and status for social enterprise,
• public reporting on the results and contribution of social business,
• support for social enterprises, especially tax benefits.

An overwhelming 96% of participants in the public hearings backed the legal initiative, its logic and components.

“We got extraordinary support from the participants of this legislative initiative process,” said Ivan Kamenko, Chairman of Egalite International NGO. We appreciate every person’s participation and important feedback, which helped to polish the recommendations and make them as relevant and mature as possible. On 11 March, we finalised the process and accepted the Resolution that confirms the recommendations are ready to be presented to Parliament.”

At the Kyiv conference, over 140 participants representing the Parliament of Ukraine, government agencies, local authorities, social enterprises, international organisations and non-governmental institutions, accepted the Resolution on legal suggestions on social entrepreneurship in Ukraine. After the conference, the Project’s legal working group refined the recommendations and prepared them for submission to the Ukrainian Parliament on 17 March.

The EUnlocking project helps to foster the social entrepreneurial potential of young people in Moldova and Ukraine by establishing a favourable ecosystem for social enterprises, as well as by inspiring and supporting more young social entrepreneurs to develop and sustain their innovative solutions to the promotion of social inclusion and environmental sustainability across both countries.

Find out more

Please find the economic and legal study on social entrepreneurship in Ukraine in English here.