European Social Fund


The ESF's EQUAL Community Initiative

Community Initiatives are special programmes devised by the European Union to find common solutions to specific problems affecting the whole of the EU. Each Community Initiative is financed by one of the EU's four Structural Funds.

EQUAL is co-funded by the ESF and the Member State and aims to fight discrimination and inequality in the labour market by implementing measures to improve access to employment and training opportunities for people who are unemployed, or employed but low-skilled and therefore vulnerable to unemployment. Under the EQUAL Community Initiative an ESF contribution of € 1.65 million will be invested in Malta during the first programming period from 2004-2006.

The 9 EQUAL Thematic Fields

Theme A:

1. Facilitating access and return to the labour market for those who have difficulty in being integrated or re-integrated into a labour market which must be open to all.

Theme B:

2. Opportunities to promote potential for ethnic minorities within the world of work.

Theme C:

3. Opening up the business creation process to all by providing the tools required for setting up in business and for the identification and exploitation of new possibilities for creating employment in urban and rural areas.

Theme D:

4. Strengthening the social economy (the third sector), in particular the services of interest to the community, with a focus on improving the quality of jobs.

Theme E:

5. Promoting lifelong learning and inclusive work practices which encourage the recruitment and retention of those suffering discrimination and inequality in connection with the labour market.

Theme F:

6. Supporting adaptability of firms and employees to structural economic change and the use of information technology and other new technologies.

Theme G:

7. Reconciling family and professional life, as well as the re-integration of men and women who have left the labour market, by developing more flexible and effective forms of work organisation and support services.

Theme H:

8. Promoting gender e quality in the work place, reducing gender gaps and supporting job desegregation.

Theme I:

9. Helping the integration of asylum seekers . Depending on the official status of the asylum seeker - an extremely complex area, with variations between Member States - assistance may be provided for new ways of helping to access the labour market, or to provide training for unsuccessful asylum seekers prior to their leaving the country.

EQUAL is implemented by 'Development Partnerships' based within specific sectors, with a full listing of theses Development Partnerships available on the European Commission's EQUAL Website http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equal/index_en.html

How does EQUAL operate?

EQUAL operates in stages called Actions 1, 2, and 3. Action 1 is the first stage lasting up to six months during which Development Partnerships finalise their constitution and prepare their programme of activities, already presented in outline to secure initial recognition as a Development Partnership. Action 2 covers the main implementation activities of work programmes approved at the end of Action 1. Action 3 covers the thematic networking and dissemination of good practice and impact on national policies.

Actions 1 and 2 are sequential and selected DPs will be expected to start Action 3 at the earliest possible point once results are available to disseminate. Action 4, or Technical Assistance, provides support to DPs and Thematic Network Groups, covering publicity and evaluation and providing support to Malta's EQUAL administration as well as other co-ordination activities.

Transnationality

Transnationality is an essential element in the EQUAL Initiative for promoting the transfer of know-how and good practice between partnerships and between Member States. By sharing the results of innovative actions carried out by the DPs at national level, transnational co-operation will provide real value-added for policy development at the national and European levels. During Action 1 a DP should develop a Transnational Co-operation Agreement with at least one partner from another Member State.

European Thematic Groups

Transnational co-operation is also taking place between national networks of DPs through thematic networks at European level, known as European Thematic Groups (ETGs). The ETGs are the main mechanism by which outcomes from DPs in each Member State are shared across all the participating countries.

Malta's ESF EQUAL Community Initiative Programme 2004-2006

The Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity's ESF Unit is also the designated EQUAL National Support Structure (NSS) responsible for the administration of the EQUAL Community Initiative Programme.

Malta has focused its EQUAL Programme into the four main Themes listed below with specific attention being paid to the expected impact on the situation in terms of equality between men and women by ensuring that all EQUAL projects promote equality between women and men. The EQUAL NSS, through its set-up within the overall ESF Intermediate Body, ensures that no EQUAL project will overlap with any of the ESF's mainstream activities.

The four Priority Themes for Malta's 2004-2006 Programme are:

1A. EQUAL Projects under this Theme aim at facilitating access and return to the labour market for those who have difficulty in being integrated or reintegrated into a labour market which must be open to all

3G. EQUAL Projects under this Theme aim to opening up the business creation process to all by providing the tools required for setting up in business and for the identification and exploitation of new possibilities for creating employment in urban and rural areas.

7C. EQUAL Projects under this Theme aim to reconciling family and professional; life, as well as the reintegration of men and women who have left the labour market, by developing more flexible and effective forms of work organisation and support services.

9I. EQUAL Projects under this Theme aim to where eligible, help refugees to gain access to labour markets and, in the case of those facing repatriation, helping with education and training which will be useful to them in their home country.


Please click here for more information regarding the EQUAL Call for
Project Proposals held on the 18th October 2004

Launch of Twinning Light Project with Spain


European Social Fund Unit
EQUAL National Support Structure
EU Affairs Directorate
Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity
310, Palazzo Ferreria
Republic Street,
Valletta, CMR02
Malta.

Telephone: (+356) 2590 3180
Fax: (+356) 2590 3189
E-mail: esf.mfss@gov.mt