Migrants and refugees are on the top of the European Commission agenda since the flow of people coming to Europe blow up. AER is also closely following this topic big very high in the agenda of European regions, which had discussed it on occasion of several AER meetings, in particular during the 2015 AER General Assembly & Autumn Bureau and the 2016 Committees Spring Plenary Meetings.

Since 2015, different strategies were put in place by the European Commission to look for complementary solutions to manage the issue. It now goes further to support organisations, institutions and other stakeholders with other calls for proposals especially targeting the group of migrants or third-countries nationals as call in the call for proposals, refugees and their families.

The first opportunity is under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. The topic of the call is “Integration of Third-Country Nationals – AMIF-2016-AG-INTE-01”. The call for proposals aims to promote the the active participation in society.

The call for proposals focuses on two priorities:

• promote the development and implementation of innovative actions;

• foster knowledge and experience, sharing and capacity-building on successful actions;

to increase third country nationals’ participation in educational and social activities, cultural life, the volunteering sector, media professions, decision-making/consultation and representation frameworks.

Among the eligible activities for this call there are the setting-up of transnational cooperation networks and pilot projects, organisation of studies and research on possible new forms of Union cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration, integration, and furthering of Union cooperation in implementing Union law and in sharing best practices in the field of asylum.

The co-funding for the grant of the projects is 90% of the total eligible costs for a minimum total of € 450.000 and a maximum of € 750.000. The deadline is 28 February at 17:00 Brussels time.

For more information on this call for proposals are available in the participant portal.

The second opportunity is in the frame of the Employment and Social Innovation EaSI programme. This programme aims to promote a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.

EaSI launched a new call for proposals specifically targeting asylum seekers, refugees and their family members. The call is named “Fast track integration into the labour market for third country nationals targeting exclusively asylum seekers, refugees and their family members – VP/2016/015”.

The present call for proposals aims at funding innovative transnational projects to test and implement innovative policy schemes and delivery mechanisms that will ensure and facilitate a swift labour market integration of the specific target groups of third country nationals listed in the documents.

The range of activities fostered in the call is really huge in numbers and typologies going from civic courses and intercultural skills to specific training for teachers, from surveys to transparent procedures for the validation of competences.

The European Commission expects to fund approximately 5 to 7 projects under this call. The co-financing is maximum the 80% of the total eligible costs. The first step of the selection is to prepare a concept note.

 The deadline is 30 March at 17:00 Brussels time.

More information on this call for proposals are available on the DG for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion web site.

AER is happy to support member regions wishing to tackle the topics funded by these calls, therefore do not hesitate to contact AER Secretariat.