What?

In the aftermath of the outburst of the migration crisis, numerous efforts towards identifying and implementing solutions have been made on all governance dimensions. Despite the endeavour of ensuring the most efficient policies, most of them treated short-term symptomatics of what is a rather long-term concerning issue. Includ-EU brings into play a bottom-up approach to identifying and respectively tackling issues surrounding the migration and asylum policies. The project acknowledges that both coordination and cooperation are foundational to developing a homogenised strategy that ensures both social cohesion and the utmost respect for human rights.

In this context, the Includ-EU project aims at bringing together local and regional authorities from Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Spain for the purpose of enhancing transnational knowledge and experience sharing cooperation and partnerships. The action takes account of five key integration priorities as outlined within the EU Action Plan, and more specifically:

• Enhancing host communities’ integration capacity
• Education
• Employment and Vocational Training
• Basic Service Provision (housing, healthcare)
• Active Participation and Social Inclusion

Who?

Includ-EU is to be implemented by the International Organisation for Migration, a UN-related agency with 173 member states, the Assembly of European Regions and five co-applicants among which we number:

• ANCI Toscana (IT): The regional branch of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, gathering no less than 274 municipalities.
• Region of Crete (GR): Represented in the Committee of Regions, member of the European Network of Social Authorities, and committed to matters of integration, health and social services.
• City of Tilburg (NL)
• Secretariat for Equality, Migrations and Citizenship (ES): Entity responsible for the development and implementation of public policy on integration in Catalonia.

Why?

By structuring the action around the previously mentioned five key integration priorities, the main goal is that of building more inclusive and cohesive European Societies. Through fostering a better understanding of local integration experiences, promoting knowledge sharing, and peer-to-peer capacity building, the project aims at reinforcing the coordination capacity of national integration strategies across different levels of governance.

How?

• By improving knowledge and capacities of local and regional authorities to facilitate the integration of third-country nationals
• By implementing and assessing pilot-projects that promote the integration of third-country nationals at regional and local levels
• By establishing an informal network of regions and local authorities with different levels of expertise that capitalizes on the diversity of territorial approaches, policy and practice of integration

AER is committed to making the voice of its member regions heard, in both matters of migration and asylum and otherwise. We are proud to share their success stories and applaud their initiatives, developments and practices. It is for this reason that AER is honoured to cooperate and involve the Intercultural Regions Network.

For more interesting updates, see the Includ-EU website:

Contact: Anna Comacchio, Includ-EU Project Manager

E-mail: a.comacchio@aer.eu

This project receives funding from the European Union’s AMIF – Asylum Migration and Integration Fund programme.