Brussels time
The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) aims to support member states and regions to improve employment and education opportunities, to enhance social inclusion and to tackle poverty.
This call for proposals is financed under the Employment and Social Innovation("EaSI") strand of the ESF+ which is a European-level financing instrument. It provides financial support to achieve high employment levels, fair social protection, a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the future world of work, as well as inclusive and cohesive societies aiming to eradicate poverty.
This call for proposals aims to support relevant actors in the field of tackling undeclared work such as ministries, enforcement authorities, social partners, etc. to develop innovative initiatives.
The main objective of this call for proposals is to complement and add value to the work of the European Platform tackling undeclared work. This call is to co-finance actions fostering joint activities and cross-border projects of enforcement authorities and other relevant players improving their technical capacity in the field of preventing and deterrence of undeclared work in line with the Platform’s vision of transforming undeclared into declared work by using a holistic approach, where national governments join up strategy and operations and cooperate with social partners and other stakeholders to employ the full range of direct and indirect policy measures. This will further enhance on-going cooperation between Member States enforcement authorities.
Therefore, the call for proposals aims to support relevant actors in the field of tackling undeclared work such as ministries, enforcement authorities, social partners, etc. to develop innovative initiatives which shall contribute to enhancing the implementation, application, knowledge and better enforcement of EU and national law in the area of undeclared work, including through cross-border cooperation, thus supporting the transformation of undeclared work into declared work. The knowledge gained from these projects should also help building up evidence-based knowledge for better policy design.
The types of activities which can be funded under this call for proposals must address at least one of the areas of action identified below:
a) Common training courses for staff involved in enforcement activities: developing new or improving existing training programmes between officials of competent public authorities and/or between relevant social partners and stakeholders in the context of contributing to enhancing the implementation, application, knowledge and better enforcement of EU and national law in the area of undeclared work. Activities can include trainings focusing on common themes and challenges (e.g. how to address bogus self-employment) and how they are tackled by different national authorities, exchanges in the field (e.g. agriculture and construction sectors) or trainings focusing on how to foster cooperation/improve working relations between different national and other EU/EEA enforcement agencies. Activities supported should produce an output; a potential output of this type of activities could be a handbook of best enforcement practices used my member states to tackle undeclared work.
b) Joint inspections and exchange of staff of enforcement authorities: developing new or improving existing exchanges and peer learning between officials of competent public authorities in order to better cooperate across borders, and to develop tools that facilitate the work and to support capacity building. Activities can include: study visits to the authorities of the Member States, including a presentation of their coordinating work between agencies in addressing undeclared work at national level, field exchanges – exchange of staff for a limited period of time to enable exchange of information/best practices etc.
c) Provision of technical assistance and/or support to implementation of measures/practice as identified by the European Platform tackling UDW to other EU/EEA enforcement bodies to contribute to capacity building, implementation of good practices, etc.
d) Information exchange systems: developing cross-border information exchange systems with the aim to facilitate administrative cooperation between enforcement bodies. Cross-border information exchange systems supported under this priority must add value to existing practices such as EESSI, IMI module on posting of workers, etc.).
e) Collaborative work in form of sharing of information and mutual learning between enforcement authorities: developing or upgrading online platforms for the collection and dissemination of quality, user-friendly, and specific information targeted at tackling undeclared work, preventing bogus self-employment and facilitating the transition from undeclared work to formal work.
f) Joint awareness raising campaigns/sector specific campaigns/regional cross-border campaigns: awareness raising campaigns targeted at workers and/or employers should aim at changing norms, values and beliefs regarding the acceptability of participating in undeclared work or bogus self-employment, so that these are in conformity with laws and regulations, at informing on risks and costs of undeclared work, capturing the gender specific aspects of undeclared work, at promoting the benefits of formalising work, at encouraging a culture of commitment to declaration, informing about the prevention services available to employers/workers, etc. Messages can be conveyed through many different channels, such as mass media (television, radio), social media (using new media channels to spread messages – for e.g. social networks, videos, blogs, twitter, vlogs etc.), public relations, events, talks, demonstrations, tours, posters and leaflets.
The available call budget is EUR 5 000 000. This budget might be increased by a maximum of 20%. The Commission expects to fund between 1 and 3 proposals.
Project budgets (maximum grant amount) are expected to be higher than EUR 350 000 per project, but this does not preclude the submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
In order to be eligible, applicants must:
+ be legal entities (public or private bodies)
+ be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
To be eligible, single applicants or lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities must be established in EU Member States and EEA countries, according to ESF+ Regulation.
Co-applicants can also be established in associated Candidate Countries and Potential Candidates, in accordance with ESF+ Regulation. Organisations of social partners without legal personality under the applicable national law are also eligible provided that the conditions of the Financial Regulation related thereto are met (Article 197.2(c) of the Financial Regulation).
Single or lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities must fall into one of the following categories:
- Public enforcement authorities such as labour inspectorates, social security inspectorates, tax authorities, customs authorities, migration bodies, ministries in charge of tackling undeclared work, the police and the public prosecutor's office, or
- Social partner organisations. Social partner organisations at EU, national or regional level which are entitled by law or institutional agreement to carry out enforcement tasks can be lead-applicant Other social partner organisations can be co-applicants.
- Non-profit organisations (private or public).
Proposals may be submitted by single applicants or by a consortium of composed of at least 2 eligible applicants (lead applicant and co-applicants) (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), as described in the section 6 above. Applicants may participate with affiliated entities (i.e. entities linked to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations as the beneficiaries, but do not sign the grant and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves). They will get a part of the grant money and must therefore comply with all the call conditions and be validated (just like beneficiaries); but they do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition (if any).Co-applicants can also be established in associated Candidate Countries and Potential Candidates, in accordance with ESF+ Regulation.
The duration of the project shall normally be 24 months (extensions will be possible only exceptionally, for duly justified reasons and through an amendment).
Brussels time
