Obtain or renew "Social Economy Initiative" recognition

Cooperative societies recognised as social enterprises (ES), ASBLs and public centres for social welfare or groupings of public centres for social welfare that have a project with a social purpose by putting low-skilled workers to work.

Recognition as a "Social Economy Initiative" means that you can hire SINE workers and receive the increased subsidy provided under Art. 60§7.

Submit your application

You can apply for recognition or the renewal of recognition as a social economy initiative via the online form in "My Space". Click on the link at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions. 

Your application for renewal of recognition must be submitted between eight months (240 days) and six months (180 days) before the expiry of the current recognition.

Processing your application

Once we receive your application, we have 15 calendar days to check that it is complete. 

• If it is, we will send you an acknowledgement of receipt.
• If it is not, we will send you a notice stating the missing documents. You have 15 calendar days from receipt of this notice to send us any additional information. This period may be extended once by a maximum of 30 days. If the application is incomplete after this period, it will be closed without further action.

Once your file is complete, we analyse its admissibility.

The Minister or their delegate will make a decision within 30 days. The decision specifies whether recognition is granted or refused. We will send you the decision within 15 days of receiving it.

You can obtain recognition as a "Social Economy Initiative" if:

• Your organisation is a legal entity
• Whose main place of business is in Wallonia
• Incorporated in one of the following forms:
• Cooperative recognised as a social enterprise (ES) in accordance with Article 8:5 of the Companies and Associations Code (CSA) More information
• Non-profit association
• Public centre for social welfare (PCSW) or a grouping of public centres for social welfare

• Your organisation must respect the principles of the social economy, namely:
• the purpose of the service to the community or members other than profit;
• management autonomy;
• democratic decision-making processes;
• the primacy of people and labour over capital in the distribution of income.

• Your organisation is involved in the production of goods or provision of services, and supports an economic project with a social purpose, in particular through the socio-professional insertion of low-skilled workers.
• A low-skilled worker who, at the time of hiring, does not have a higher secondary education diploma and is registered as a job seeker.

• You offer appropriate technical, training and social support to these low-skilled workers

• Your organisation cannot be in breach of any legal or regulatory provisions pertaining to the running of the activity

• Your organisation cannot have any debts to the State, the French Community, the Region, FOREM, the Arbeitsamt der D.G., the Société wallonne d'économie sociale marchande (SOWECSOM), the National Social Security Office, a security fund for subsistence

• Your organisation must have an accounting function relating to the project or an accounting system that complies with the minimum standard chart of accounts

The persons entitled to work with the recognised social economy initiative cannot:

• Be legally prohibited from holding such positions
• Be held liable for the commitments or debts of a company that has gone bankrupt in the five years preceding the application for recognition or renewal
• Be deprived of their civil and political rights
• Have been convicted in the five years preceding the application for recognition or renewal for any offence committed in the fiscal or social domain, or in the field of legal or regulatory provisions relating to the running of the social economy initiative

When an organisation no longer meets any of the above conditions for recognition, recognition may be suspended or withdrawn.