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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 cohesivesocieties aiming to eradicate poverty.
The call aims to support the Commission and the Member States to understand existing and new challenges and develop initiatives in the field of posting of workers and a decent work agenda.
The specific objectives of are the following:
a) To support and promote cross-border and transnational cooperation and increase mutual trust among public authorities in charge of the implementation of administrative cooperation and mutual assistance as well as monitoring the compliance with and enforcement of the applicable rules and stakeholders, including the promotion of the use of the Internal Market Information System(IMI) and sharing experiences and evidence-based good practices in this respect;
b) To increase the accessibility, transparency and quality of the information concerning the terms and conditions of employment to be respected and the existing practices in the MS to monitor and enforce the provisions of the Posting of Workers Directive;
c) To promote the evidence basis through the collection and evaluation of original data, and the analysis specific to the posting process and posted workers' working conditions, including through the collaboration between universities across various disciplines, research centres and institutes and stakeholders, in particular social partners.
Thus, this call will contribute to the following principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights: 3. Equal opportunities; 5. Secure and adaptable employment; 6. Wages; 7. Information about employment conditions and protection in case of dismissals; 8. Social dialogue and involvement of workers; 10. Healthy, safe and well-adapted work environment and data protection; 12. Social protection; and 20. Access to essential services.
In order to achieve the objective, it is intended with this call for proposals to fund transnational cooperation initiatives aiming at developing activities by relevant stakeholders involved in the context of posting with a significant and lasting impact on workers, companies and administrations. Activities aim at supporting competent authorities in MS and social partners in administrative cooperation, in increasing access to essential information for posted workers, to promote the evidence basis through the collection and evaluation of original data and analysis.
The following activities may be co-financed:
a) Cooperation: developing new or improving existing exchanges, peer reviews and/or training programmes (for example joint visits, joint inspections, short training actions) between officials of competent public authorities and/or between relevant social partners and stakeholders in the contexts of monitoring the compliance with and enforcement of the applicable rules in relation to posted workers, and/or of administrative cooperation and mutual assistance, including the use of the Internal Market Information System (IMI).
b) Information: developing and improving different information and/or advisory forms and formats for the collection and dissemination of quality, user-friendly, and specific information targeted at workers and/or undertakings with respect to the working conditions applicable to posted workers, including preventing in-work poverty of posted workers and discrimination based on origin as well as the procedures and conditions to be respected by undertakings in different Member States, and other relevant information for the posting of workers in the context of the provision of cross-border services.
c) Evidence: development of joint research projects on different dimensions of the posting of workers in the context of the transnational provision of services and dissemination of results through targeted publication strategies, both in the scientific domain as well as in the specialised and general press.
The three type of actions are mutually exclusive.
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 2 and 9 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.:
Lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities must fall in one of the following categories:
- Public authorities;- International organisations (with registered headquarters both inside and outside of eligible countries of the Call);
- Non-profit organisations (private or public);
- Research centres/institutes;- Higher Education Institutions (HEIs);
- Civil Society Organisations (CSOs),
- Social partner organisations at European, national or regional level (in application of Article 197 2. (c) of the Financial Regulation), social partner organisations without legal personality are also eligible provided that the conditions of the Financial Regulation related thereto are met).
Only consortia are eligible. Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 applicants (lead applicant and co-applicants; not affiliated entities) established and registered in at least three different EU Member States, according to art. 27 of the ESF+ Regulation .Lead applicants and co-applicants 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.
The duration of the project shall normally be 24 months (extensions will be possible only exceptionally, for duly justified reasons and through an amendment).
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