On 7 February 2025 the European Economic and Social Committee hosted the presentation of “Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy”, a report by EURICSE and CIRIEC supported by the European Commission. It was produced under the 2021 Action Plan for the Social Economy and covers cooperatives, mutual societies, associations, foundations and social enterprises. One finding stands out for anyone who works with definitions: only about 246,000 of the organisations covered are social enterprises. Fewer than 43,000 of them are “ex lege” social enterprises, meaning they operate under a national legal framework, while more than 203,000 are de facto social enterprises. In other words, more than four in five organisations that behave like social enterprises carry no formal label, which complicates both measurement and access to support. The report is meant to give policymakers harder data on the sector’s economic weight, as part of raising its recognition. The takeaway for national debates, including in smaller member states, is that legal recognition and real activity do not always coincide.