tenders and grants

partnership

1. THE CONTEXT
There are two main reasons behind the European Commission's strategy in relation to skills and mobility: first, the free movement of workers is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law since 1958. This comprises the right to work or establish oneself in a different Member State, the right of residence in the host Member State, and the right to equal treatment compared to nationals of the host Member State. The second cornerstone is to enhance opportunities for workers and enterprises to face the challenges presented by the Labour Markets in the coming years. Mobility allows individuals to improve their job prospects and employers to recruit the people they need. It is an important element in achieving efficient labour markets and a high level of employment.
In addition, fostering growth in the European economy calls for better matching between the skills demanded in growth sectors and regions and those available in the workforce. A fundamental aim of the European Union is to create opportunities which allow individuals to take free and responsible decisions for their own life, including to move to another Member State. This may contribute to reducing sectoral and geographic imbalances and hence create the conditions for a better use of available resources.
The broad lines of the Commission's strategy on skills and mobility are contained in the Action Plan for skills and mobility, adopted by the Commission on 13 February 2002. The fundamental aim of the Action Plan is to open up the European labour markets by making them accessible to all, and tackle the barriers which make it difficult for people to move between jobs, or between regions and countries in the EU.
The measures in the Action Plan can be broadly grouped into three main objectives that will contribute to increase the citizens' opportunities to find jobs.
The first is about strengthening job mobility and skills development. This involves making education and training systems more responsive to the needs of the EU labour market (especially for ICT skills), bolstering lifelong learning, making it easier to have skills and work experience recognised, and focusing on the needs of less-developed regions.
The second group of objectives is designed to make geographic mobility easier, through the elimination of regulatory and administrative barriers, such as full transferability of social security rights and pensions across the EU, (including a new European health insurance card replacing the current paper forms), improved recognition of professional and other qualifications, more language learning (so that school-leavers should have acquired two EU languages in addition to their own), and agreeing a common immigration policy and equitable treatment of third-country nationals living in the EU.
Finally, information must be improved in order for enabling people to make informed decisions. This involves setting up a one-stop job mobility information portal that will make access easier to citizens and companies looking for up-to-date information on all the aspects related to job mobility, making more job vacancies available through EURES, and launching a mobility information campaign.

2. AIMS OF THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS
According to the Commission's Action Plan for skills and mobility (point 25),
‘An EU-wide mobility information campaign should be launched targeted at employers and workers on the key dimensions, opportunities and possibilities provided by the Internal Market and the European labour markets for skills. More sectorally focused information campaigns should be launched to help update and improve the image of some occupational sectors and aim to bring more skilled women into such sectors.’
This call for proposals is intended to co-finance a number of information activities to take place within the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) in the framework of the mobility information campaign.
The nature of the activities that can be supported are described in section 4, ‘What types of actions can be supported?’
2.1. Objective of the mobility information campaign
The objective of the campaign is to promote occupational and geographic mobility by raising the awareness of existing opportunities for mobility within the EU/EEA and actual or emerging labour shortages in certain sectors, occupations and regions.
2.2. Target groups
As defined in the Action Plan for skills and mobility, the target groups for the campaign are:
— workers and job-seekers
— employers, especially in occupational sectors needing an updated and improved image, among other things to attract more skilled women.

3. CAMPAIGN CONCEPT
The campaign covers both occupational and geographical mobility. Since it is targeted both at workers and job-seekers and at employers, the activities and the message to be communicated may have to be differentiated according to the target group.
The ‘message’ or the information disseminated should be of a concrete and ‘down-to-earth’ nature and answer questions such as:
— Job mobility, what is in it for me as a job-seeker/worker/ employer?
— Job mobility, what could it mean for me as a job-seeker/ worker/employer?
— Where can I get more information?
— Where can I find the opportunities?
— Where can I get some advice?
— Job mobility is som

European Commission
DG Employment and Social Affairs
Unit A3 J-27 05/50
B-1049 Brussels,
empl-A3-eures-call@cec.eu.int
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/tender_en.htm
Questions related to the call for proposals as well as requests for application forms may be addressed to the following persons:
Henric Stjernquist
henric.stjernquist@cec.eu.int
Tel. (32-2) 296 27 17
Ida Monclair
ida.monclair@cec.eu.int
Tel. (32-2) 295 60 11
European Commission
DG EMPL Unit A3
B-1049 Brussels