In Plovdiv, Vice President Iliana Yotova opened the eighth edition of the European Forum for Social Entrepreneurship.

This was done in the presence of Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Bisser Petkov, members of the European Commission and others.

      ,,Today, we are often talking about human values ​​like justice, empathy, solidarity, equal rights and opportunities. People committed to the cause of Social Entrepreneurship enable people from vulnerable groups and people with disabilities to develop and show their potential. We need to bring back our social sensitivity and commitment, as well as the responsible role of the state for social enterprises'', Iliyana Yotova said at the opening.

She added that social entrepreneurship must go into education so that tomorrow young people can make our social economy successful and attractive.

The Vice-President also said that today 11 million Europeans are engaged in social entrepreneurship, and these people have the potential to take Europe out of crises and make our country's development even more convincing.

    ,,The social economy has a role to play in the realization of the European pillar of social rights, such as access to the labor market, fair employment and working conditions, and social protection and inclusion'', said Social Minister Biser Petkov.

He added that through the adoption of the two laws on people with disabilities and social enterprises, vulnerable groups in society and people with disabilities can participate fully in the economic and social life of the country through their inclusion in social enterprises.

Minister Petkov expressed hope that through the social entrepreneurship the status of the disadvantaged people could be improved.
    

   The main objective of the European Social Entrepreneurship Forum is to create a dialogue between institutions, business and citizens and to raise public awareness of the essence of social entrepreneurship.

The eighth edition of the forum features over 110 social economy enterprises from seven countries presenting an extremely rich assortment of goods. And this means that the Social Economy is moving to a higher level.