Walk into one of Catalonia’s fourteen Ateneus Cooperatius (Cooperative Hubs) and you may find the beginnings of a social and solidarity economy success story that did not exist a few months earlier.
It could be a bicycle-repair collective, an elder-care co-operative or a neighbourhood energy initiative. An idea enters the door, and what comes out is a pathway towards a viable enterprise, with support on planning, finance and local connections.
This is only a fraction of the infrastructure that now supports Catalonia’s social and solidarity economy ecosystem.
Since 2016, the Cooperative Hubs have channelled close to EUR 48 million into local economies, helped create 1,129 cooperatives and other SSE entities, reached more than 150,000 participants and supported around 5,190 job placements.
While the numbers are significant, more important is what lies behind them: building local capacity to turn social economy ideas into economic activity.
Annual Governance Assembly of the Xarxa d’Ateneus Cooperatius (XAC), 2025. Source: Government of Catalonia, Directorate-General for the SSE and Cooperativism.
From recognition to delivery
The SSE is gaining recognition as part of resilient, inclusive economies. As a recent COGITO article highlighted, the social-economy already creates millions of jobs, delivers essential services and contributes to local economic resilience.
Across Europe, governments are developing strategies and action plans, while the European Commission’s Social Economy Action Plan has helped put the sector higher on the policy agenda.
Spain has recently strengthened this framework through its Integral Law for the Promotion of the Social Economy, while Catalonia is developing its own law, expected by the end of 2026.
This momentum matters. Legal recognition can give SSE organisations visibility and strengthen public action.
But laws do not, on their own, create cooperatives, build local networks or help people turn an idea into a sustainable business.
Catalonia’s experience shows policy frameworks need local ecosystems capable of putting them into practice.
Three priorities stand out.
Develop skills, institutions and networks
Starting a cooperative requires more than a good idea. Entrepreneurs need business knowledge, financial skills and relationships with municipalities and other local organisations.
This is where the Ateneus Cooperatius play a role. The fourteen hubs provide tailored support from inception to organisation.
Their governance model brings public institutions, cooperatives and civil-society organisations together, creating connections that individual organisations cannot build alone.
The Projectes Singulars (Singular Projects) programme reinforces this pipeline by supporting innovative SSE entrepreneurship.
Make neighbourhoods part of the economic strategy
Catalonia has extended this approach beyond individual enterprises.
The Comunalitats Urbanes (Urban Communities) programme treats neighbourhoods as places where economic development can be organised collectively. It supports shared services, local supply chains and common resources, including community kitchens, time banks and local energy initiatives.
Twenty-seven community networks are now active. Since 2022, two funding rounds have mobilised more than EUR 17.1 million through 272 entities, reaching almost 120,000 people and supporting the creation of 1,724 jobs.
The shift to a community-level approach matters, as a single successful cooperative can leave a neighbourhood’s underlying fragilities – such as thin local demand, disconnected civic groups or missing shared infrastructure – untouched.
Anchoring several initiatives around the same commons, however, changes this situation making the prominent economic unit not merely the firm, but the shared space in which cooperatives, workers and communities interact.
Build for the long term
Local ecosystems take time to develop. That makes continuity of support as important as innovation.
Since 2016, Catalonia’s SSE policies, including the Ateneus Cooperatius, Projectes Singulars and Comunalitats Urbanes, have represented more than EUR 200 million in public investment, supporting almost 11,900 jobs and 1,520 new cooperatives and other SSE entities.
Scale matters, but so does stability. Multi-year funding gives hubs and networks time to build relationships and expertise, reduces paperwork and optimises procedures.
Moreover, measurement can help policymakers understand what works and where resources are most effective, which explains why Catalonia is developing systematic approaches to evaluating its SSE policies.
Nonetheless, public funding cannot carry the ecosystem indefinitely. Diversifying finance, including through blended finance and stronger links with private capital, could reduce dependence on funding cycles and give organisations more options to grow.
The priority is to ultimately build an ecosystem that can endure and become more financially and socially resilient.
Legislation as means to an end
Catalonia’s forthcoming SSE law is the next step. The legal recognition stemming from the co-creation of all stakeholders involved – government, communities, CSOs and organisations representing the SSE sector – does strengthen the economic model and clarify public policy.
But its impact will depend on what happens beyond the law.
Catalonia’s experience offers a perspective for governments seeking to strengthen the SSE in their regions, building the ecosystem alongside the framework.
That translates into investing in organisations that develop skills; connecting enterprises with communities and institutions; giving initiatives time to mature; measuring what works; and creating pathways towards diverse finance.
SSE initiatives grow when policy creates conditions for people, organisations and places to work together while sustaining them long enough for local capacity to take root.
The challenge is hence not to choose between legislation and investment, but to connect them in ways that give communities the chance to shape their own economic systems.
Helena Rodríguez Mellado is a policy officer at the DG for Social and Solidarity Economy and Cooperativism of the Government of Catalonia, where she contributes to the design and implementation of public policies to strengthen the Catalan SSE ecosystem. She holds an MSc in International Social and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she graduated with Distinction and was awarded the Loch Exhibition Prize and the Titmuss Prize. Alongside her public sector role, Helena is actively engaged in civil society as Co-Head of Joves pel Futur, the Catalan delegation of Talento Para El Futuro, fostering youth engagement in public policies across local and international arenas and leading the Spanish Youth Network for the Social Economy. Her work spans SSE, social policy and international development, with a particular interest in how public institutions and civil society can jointly advance more inclusive, resilient, and democratic societies.