France : french presidential campaign and social economy

CEGES is the formal representation of the social economy in France. This legal stucture has increased along the years the voice of social entreprises, cooperatives and mutual institutions. 800 000 entities are registered as members of the ?Conseil des entreprises, employeurs et groupements de l?économie sociale?. On the first of March 2007, CEGES asked for the creation of a special Ministry ? placed under the rule of the First Minister -, sending this proposal to all the presidential candidates. It has to be remembered that the left-wing past government has established such a ministerial representation ? which then has been deleted by the right-wing one, already on duty. The chance to see a Junior Minister, in charge of the social economy as a whole, in the forthcoming months, does not depend exclusively from the results of the vote. If the majority of the French regions favour such an initiative, all the presidential candidates did not tackle really this issue during their today campaign speeches. However, the social dimension of the challenges to be overcome in France and in the EU in the next two years calls for some rethinking.