En 2021 se presentó el Plan de Acción Europeo para la Economía Social en el que la Comisión viene trabajando junto a los representantes del sector y otros agentes sociales. Asimismo, la Unión Europea está desarrollando diferentes acciones que apuestan por el uso intensivo del conocimiento en las actividades económicas sin descuidar valores sociales como la sostenibilidad e igualdad de oportunidades, lo que aconseja aunar cambio tecnológico con progreso social, incrementando los procesos de emprendimiento basados en la economía social como soporte organizativo. Por otro lado, hay que ampliar la orientación que suele acompañar a las llamadas de las spin-off, start-up y EBT’s basadas en la generación, transferencia y explotación de conocimiento, hacia fórmulas que no se basen exclusivamente en el capital. En este contexto, el objetivo de esta contribución es identificar las barreras específicas que, además de las genéricas que suelen afectar a todo proceso de emprendimiento, también se presentan en el emprendimiento mediante spin-off o start-up con figuras propias de la economía social, como son las cooperativas y sociedades laborales.

All agri‐food cooperatives share common interests, irrespective of their geographical borders, which should encourage them to undertake inter‐cooperation processes as well as to set up transnational cooperatives. This paper has two objectives. The first is to analyze Spanish and Portuguese cooperative regulations and the Statute for a European Cooperative Society to define how to embark on these processes in the two countries while also pinpointing the conflicts that may arise from the different regulations. Secondly, it seeks to ascertain which Spanish and Portuguese cooperatives have had experience in this field and to characterize them through a multiple‐case study, including the rationale for the processes, the advantages and the constraints. The results have revealed five cross‐border cooperation categories and show that the Statute for a European Cooperative Society has not had the expected success at the EU level, due to its complexity. However, in general, the lack of expected cross‐border cooperative experiences is not due to legal, language or management issues. It is for different reasons. Firstly, cooperatives think that they can achieve the same objectives through inter‐cooperative agreements. Secondly, government policies protect the regional nature of their cooperatives, rather than encouraging them to expand their business and therefore their capacity to respond to current challenges.