European Commission

11 Sep
by sofia
Forums: 
General discussion

Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=629&langId=en&callId=520&furtherCalls=yes

 

Countries: Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey

Application language: Applicants are encouraged to submit their project proposal in English in order to facilitate the treatment of the proposals and speed up the evaluation process. It should be noted, however, that proposals in all official languages of the EU will be accepted. In this case, applications should be accompanied by an executive summary in English (see section 12, checklist point 2). 

Deadline: 29 September 2017

Grant size: The indicative amount available for the annual operating grant for 2018, as defined in the 2018 Annual Work Programme of the EaSI Programme, can be found under section 7.1.1. 

The EU grant requested should indicatively be a) between EUR 100.000 and EUR 1.000.000, for area 1 and b) between EUR 100.000 and EUR 600.000, for area 2. Co-financing req 20%

 

DESCRIPTION

This Call for proposals aims to establish four-year Framework Partnership Agreements (2018- 2021) to provide for long-term cooperation between the European Commission and European level networks/non-governmental organisations active in the promotion of one of the following areas: 

[Applicants must choose only one]

 

Area 1: Promotion of social inclusion and poverty reduction in the European Union 

As outlined in the agenda for "Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change"4 and confirmed repeatedly by various Annual Growth Surveys (AGS)5, modernising social protection systems and supporting the development of adequate social inclusion and protection schemes throughout Europe is, and will continue to be, among the key priorities in the area of social policies in the foreseeable future. Social protection systems should be modernised to efficiently respond to risks throughout the lifecycle, to confront poverty and social exclusion, while remaining fiscally sustainable in view of the upcoming demographic challenges and preserving incentives to work. 

Focus also has to be put on the monitoring of social progress, the impact of reforms over time and the reinforcement of the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as clearly established in the recently adopted initiative on the European Pillar of Social Rights. 

 

Area 2: Promotion of access to finance in the European Union: microfinance and social enterprise finance (demand and supply side of microfinance and social enterprise finance markets)

The Commission is intensifying its efforts to promote access to microfinance and as such is responsible for multiple related activities including the provision of funding under the EaSI Financial Instruments and the EaSI Technical Assistance to microcredit providers. The Code of Good Conduct developed by the Commission aims at setting out good practice guidelines to raise the quality standards of the European microfinance sector. 

Social enterprises develop innovative approaches, models or practices for resolving societal challenges in an entrepreneurial way to promote inclusive, socially fair and environmentally sustainable economic development and social change. Their economic operations cover a broad spectrum of activities (including, in particular, social and economic integration of the disadvantaged and excluded, social assistance and care services of general interest, education and training, community development, reducing emissions and waste, or producing renewable energy).

 

The objective of the call is to promote and create the ground for collaboration with the European Commission and other stakeholders in supporting the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the related European policy initiatives in the fields covered by the EaSI Programme. 

More specifically, the activities of the applicant should contribute to the following priorities, which are common to Areas 1 and 2: 

  • Supporting the Commission in its outreaching activities and its mission at EU, national and local level in order to ensure awareness and an easier implementation of EU policies in the two areas covered by the call.
  • Reinforcing the capacity of the selected EU networks active in relevant area covered by the call to support EU objectives and Europe 2020 priorities.
  • Providing the Commission with input for policy design in the two areas of the call.
  • Enabling the networks to integrate cross-cutting issues (e.g. gender, poverty, disability, non-discrimination and job-creation) in their day-to-day work.
  • Reinforcing the cooperation with other EU level networks, with national, regional and local authorities and with and between the national social stakeholders.

NOTE: Due to a technical problem, the application forms "4-year strategic plan 2018-2021" and "Annual work programme 2018" (as referred both in the call for proposal, see section 12 "Instructions for the presentation of the application and required documents" and points 7 and 8 of the check list) and made available in the SWIM application) are not the correct versions. The correct templates for the "Strategic Plan 2018-2021" and "Annual work programme 2018" can be found in link above. After having been filled, these application forms must be uploaded in SWIM, instead of the templates currently available.

Applicants for Area 1 are not concerned by the present corrigendum and can continue to use the existing templates available in the SWIM application.

Applicants for area 2 are informed that in any case, the use of a wrong template will not invalidate their application.

 

ELIGIBILITY

Legal entities properly established and registered in the following countries are eligible as applicant: 

  • Member States of the European Union
  • Iceland and Norway, in accordance with the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement 
  • Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey 

To be eligible, applicant organisations must be European-level organisations: 

  • which are properly constituted and registered legal entities established in one of the EaSI participating countries for at least three years, for area 1;
  • which are properly constituted and registered legal entities established in one of the EaSI participating countries, for area 2;
  • which are non-governmental, non-profit-making, and independent of industry, commercial and business or other conflicting interests, whose members are mainly non- profit organisations;
  • whose mission falls under the objectives and scope of the relevant priorities of this call for proposals

Submitted proposals must contain the following: 

  1. a four-year strategic plan including an overview of the four-year budget outlining the estimated costs necessary to implement the strategic plan 2018-2021 and; 
  2. the annual work programme for 2018 together with the corresponding detailed budget. 

The selection process will be carried out in two phases: 

  1. phase: the Commission will assess all the 4-year strategic plans for 2018-2021, and select a number of EU-level networks which will be invited to sign a 4-year framework partnership agreement.
  2. phase: the Commission will assess the annual work programme for 2018 and corresponding annual budget only of those organisations selected in the first phase (see above). If approved, and subject to the availability of budgetary credits, the organisation will sign an annual specific grant agreement with the Commission. 

For more information: empl-vp-2017-015@ec.europa.eu 
Download documents relevant to this call: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=629&langId=en&callId=520&furth...