Successful and inspiring projects financed by EaSI and its predecessors – Fifth Commission report

Successful and inspiring projects financed by EaSI and its predecessors – Fifth Commission report

The European Commission published its fifth monitoring report in which it reviewed activities implemented by 19 EU-level organisations in 2015 funded under the EU's Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) and 30 projects supported by its predecessor programmes PROGRESS and EURES (2013-2016).

This time the focus was not only on potential good practices, but also on the European added value. Analysing project results is part of EaSI's performance monitoring.

This report will serve as guidance for

• public authorities of EU Member States,.
• civil society organisations.
• private actors.

wishing to apply for EU funding and it will provide policy-makers with ideas for further policy developments.

Below you can find a small sample of the 49 successful and inspiring projects.

Projects funded under EaSI

The report describes EaSI-supported projects in the area of social inclusion, poverty reduction, microfinance and social enterprise finance.

EuroHealthNet, for example, began setting up a help desk for members and partners of its network to access information on

• Structural Funds.
• European Structural and Investment Funds.

The network also developed a special online tool on the use of structural funds for studying the quality of health and healthcare across different populations. It keeps the tool up-to-date and started working on a Structural Funds Guide for its members.

The European added value is that EuroHealthNet promoted good practice examples from previous EU and national actions. In addition, it communicated policy evidence to EU and national authorities with an impact on their decisions. Ministries for example have been confronted with evidence that they need to re-orient towards integrated health-promoting systems.

Projects funded under PROGRESS

The PROGRESS-funded projects listed in the report all deal with the areas of employment or social protection and social inclusion.

The project coordinated by ManpowerGroup (a private employment service) achieved numerous results, such as

• piloting a model for collaborative public-private-third sector action against unemployment in Greece;.
• assessing and profiling 523 graduates of apprenticeship vocational schools.
• approval (assessment, interviews and positive employment prospects) of 495 candidates;.
• 19 job placements;.
• 47.36% sustained employment, 6 months after placement.

The value added of this project at European level was adding specialised support for unemployed youths after they completed vocational and educational training.

In the area of social protection and social inclusion, the National House of Public Pensions in Romania set up a newly built microsimulation tool to model the Romanian pension system. No such simulation model existed in Romania before. During the project, the Romanian officials learned from their peers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Projects funded under EURES

The EURES-funded projects in the report all promote working abroad.

The Bündesagentur für Arbeit, for instance, coordinated the EURES TriRegio partnership which aims to promote the development of a common labour market, in compliance with the existing employment and social standards of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. In this context, a single point of contact was created for both job seekers and employers in this geographical area.

The partnership contributes significantly to the free movement of persons across the border regions of Saxony (Germany), Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Lower Silesia (Poland), which is a key European added value.

Background

This is the fifth report in the series, after the first, second, third and fourth were published between 2014 and 2016.