Co-operatives took home prizes in three of five categories at the Social Economy Awards, held in Murcia last month.
Winners were announced at a gala ceremony on 17 September, as part of Social Economy Europe’s 2025 European Summit. Since 2021, the awards have recognised social economy initiatives that embody the values of people over profit, democratic governance, and the reinvesting of profits to pursue social objectives.
Social Economy Europe (SEE) received 140 nominations from social economy initiatives in 35 European countries, across the categories of education, local government, housing, energy and integration.
In the category of Social Economy Training & Education, Asociación de Empresas de Economía Social de Navarra won first prize for its EdukaCoop education initiative. Based in Navarre, Spain, EdukaCoop works to integrate co-op values and social economy principles into schools and universities through experiential learning and partnerships. It has worked with 2,500 students to date.
Related: Europe’s social economy plan at risk, warns midterm review
Third place went to the İzmir Another School is Possible (Asia) education co-op. Founded in Turkey in 2014, Asia offers a child-centred, democratic, and rights-based alternative to traditional education, rooted in the Başka Bir Okul Mümkün movement. Activities include a co-operative-run school, sliding-scale tuition, and national and international outreach.
Co-ops also cleaned up in the housing category, with Sostre Cívic in first place, Community Land Trust Brussels in second, and Wogebe (Wohnungsgenossenschaft Am Beutelweg eG) housing co-op in third.
Sostre Cívic is a non-profit co-op based in Catalonia, which manages over 550 homes and serves 2,100 members. It was established in 2004 to tackle the region’s housing crisis by offering a sustainable, community-based alternative to the speculative real estate market.
The award “comes at a key moment for the sector,” said Sostre, “and consolidates the co-operative as a European benchmark in the development of a co-operative, affordable, and sustainable model for access to housing”.
Related: Catalan housing co-op Sostre Cívic wins Responsible Housing Award
CLT Brussels, mainland Europe’s first community land trust, was founded in 2012 as a response to the city’s housing crisis. It houses 500 residents and has more projects under development.
Wogebe was founded in Trier, Germany, over 30 years ago to improve living conditions for disadvantaged residents in the Trier-Nord area. SEE described the co-op’s transformation of the once-deprived Thyrsusstraße neighbourhood as “a testament to decades of collective effort without gentrification”.
In the clean energy category, Brupower, Brussels’ first citizen energy co-op, was awarded third place. Serving over 500 members, Brupower has raised EUR €700,000 in citizen equity, installed over 300 kWp of solar capacity, and launched Brussels’ first solar neighbourhood on social housing. Hosted by SEE, the Social Economy European Summit took place during Social Economy Week (16-18 September 2025), convening stakeholders from across the European social economy ecosystem.
SEE represents 4.3 million social economy enterprises and organisations across Europe, and has played a strategic role in shaping EU policy and fostering dialogue between social economy actors and European institutions for the past 25 years.
