On 9 December 2020 the first BRESE online interregional meeting took place organised by Rzeszow Regional Development Agency. 
Around 40 representatives of governmental institution, academia, business agencies, and other organisations followed the meeting.

The participants were welcomed by the project partners from Rzeszow and the lead partner Euregio Rhine-Waal. Following, the project partners and external experts, on behalf of the project partners, presented the key results of their regional analyses. Although coming from different regional contexts, all analyses highlighted the difficult access to finance and the lack of awareness as some of the most pressing challenges that Social Enterprises have to face.

In the second part of the meeting, good practices from Podkarpackie Region were presented: the Social Economy Support Centre (OWES), an institution which received official accreditation from the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and supports emerging and already operating social enterprises; and PSONI Koło in Jarosław, the Polish Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities, which is very active in labor sector and operates successfully the social franchise K-Lumet Ecological Firelighter. 

Despite small technical issues, the first interregional online meeting was a great success. Presentations and a summary of the meeting will be available on our website soon. 

Our next BRESE online interregional meeting will take place in February 2021, organised by our partner the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia. More information will be available here soon.