Qec-Eran

Project Introduction

This project is founded under the INTI programme and seeks to undertake an exchange of experience and identification of good practice with the overall aim of developing a local/regional dimension to the implementation of the Common Basic Principles adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council in November 2004 and incorporated into the EC Communication on A Common Agenda in 2005. In terms of the concrete action it will seek to establish an Integration Exchange between 10 partners which aims to:

identify and develop good practice in relation to programmes for integration/induction developed at a local/regional level and
establish local online platforms of services, information and resources for supporting the integration of Third Country Nationals

To achieve this overall aim this proposal has the following specific objectives:

To establish 8 Local Action Groups (LAGs), local vehicles that bring together local/regional/national experience which in turn creates the "capital" for the peer review and development workshops
To establish local online platforms which would provide a "portal" for local services, information and resources .
To develop of a good practice resource pack and linked case studies with the aim of pooling the experience within the partnership and beyond in order to create an online resource that can be useful in disseminating good practice.

The INTI 2006 Award Decision has now been adopted and the project has been running since the 20th of August 2006.

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Amsterdam Southeast has a population of over 86.000 with more than 130 nationalities and cultures. The most dominant group are the Dutch, Surinamese, Ghanaians and Antilleans. Thanks to its multi-cultural character, Southeast is a distinctive and attractive district of the city of Amsterdam.

The Southeast population is relatively young. Almost one-third of the population is under 20 years and approximately 55% is under 35 years. Only 10% of the people in South east are older than 65.

Since the eighties, Southeast's economic importance for the city of Amsterdam has greatly increased. Amsterdam Southeast employs more than 47.000 people and is therefore, after the city centre, the most important location of employment in the capital. The number of jobs and job opportunities is still increasing.

At the end of 1966 the construction of Bijlmermeer, 'City of the Future', started. A city in which living, working, traffic and recreation would each be giving its own place. The first residents of this south-eastern part of Amsterdam came in 1968. Almost 40 years later, it is clear that Amsterdam Southeast has developed entirely different from what was expected.

Olmec is a community investment foundation committed to creating lasting positive social change by challenging injustice, disadvantage and discrimination. We aim to facilitate stronger and empowered communities through the provision of training, support and networking and by bringing opportunities and investment to local people.

As a partner in this project, OLMEC is undertaking to perform the following roles and tasks as set out in the work programme :

The KOPINT-DATORG Foundation for Economic Research is a non-profit organization, founded in 1991. The Foundation is controlled by a management board composed of three members: the managing director of the Foundation, a university professor, head of the EU Department at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest and of the deputy general director for economic research of the Institute Kopint-Datorg Economic Research, Marketing and Computing Company Ltd.

The major task of the Foundation is to support macroeconomic research in Hungary. The Foundation supports young economists (pre- and postgraduate students, PhD students) by providing fellowship, regular or occasional financial help. Beside that, the Foundation has been financing several economic projects in recent years, partly in international cooperation. Kopint-Datorg Foundation for Economic Research has gained experience not only in managing international projects but also in disseminating findings of these projects and use them to call attention of economic policy makers (central and local governments), interest representation organizations and enterprises to new challenges and problems related to different issues.

Major projects of the recent years were: a) the management of research projects, with Hungarian and foreign participants (like project sponsored by USAID/CIPE (1998-2000), b) research project on the "International environment and internal pre-conditions of Hungary’s catching up with Europe" (2000-2002) c) project in the frame of the Fifth RTD Framework Programme assessing the roles played by determinants of productivity gaps between accession countries in Central East Europe and the more advanced countries in Western Europe. Kopint-Datorg Foundation for Economic Research acted as principal contractor, with the task of conducting an enterprise survey, doing empirical analysis, organizing a conference, making presentations at the other conferences, preparing papers on the issue Dual economy, the role of the MNC-s in Hungary and the EU-accessions? ( By Judit Hamar.) (2001) d) management of the project titled " European Employment Strategy - Ways of Adaptability in New Member States. The case of Hungary", sponsored by the Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG. (2005) and e) participating in the elaboration of chapters concerning Northern Hungary and Eastern Slovakia of the Human Development Report coordinated by UNDP Bratislava. (2006).

Founder of FER is the Kopint-Datorg Ltd. looking back on a more than 40 years of past. Kopint-Datorg Ltd. was established in 1987 by the merge of the Institute for Economic and Market Research (Kopint) - founded in 1964 - and Datorg Foreign Trade Data Processing and Organizing Co. - founded in 1968. This company became a limited company in 1991 under the name “Kopint-Datorg Economic Research, Marketing and Company Limited”. In the same year the The Kopint-Datorg Foundation for Economic Research was also established.

The Digital World Foundation came to life officially on July 31, 2006. In practice, the Foundation fully takes over, and continues building upon, the Digital Youth Consortium's distinctive public mission and rich legacy of activities and relationships aimed at fostering digital literacy and innovation for the development of an inclusive knowledge society. Indeed, the creation of the Foundation is a clear recognition of both the achievements of the Consortium and the strategic importance of its unique mission for Rome and the Lazio Region.

In its five years of existence, the Consortium demonstrated in a small-scale the importance of bringing ICTs to people potentially at risk of exclusion or discrimination in the emerging knowledge society. It also demonstrated the importance of blending into a single process the four dimensions of education, innovation, inclusion and fundamental cultural values. This blend is the distinctive characteristic of an inclusive knowledge society.

The Foundation's raison d'etre is to serve and facilitate people's participation in the knowledge society, identifying, developing and implementing the best ways for this to happen. Various relevant concepts have taken hold of the policy-making arenas of digital divide and e-inclusion in past years. For instance, private-public partnerships (PPPs) have been high on policy-makers' agenda, as it was realised that the private sector could make significant contributions to social and community developments as part of policies of corporate social responsibility. Lately, the partnership concept has been expanded to include NGOs and other organizations having a stake in the solution of major social challenges such as e-inclusion, poverty, etc. This is reflected in the concept of multi-stakeholder partnership. The Fondazione Mondo Digitale builds on the public-private and multi-stakeholder partnership approaches of the Consortium and proposes a further development in the light of the challenging goals of scaling-up and enhanced impact of the present small-scale action lines.

Euroconsult s.c.ar.l. was founded in 1996, it operates in the field of business and directional consultancy, local development, international co-operation and economic and social consultancy. Its members are: 1) Michele Sabatino, General Coordinator; 2) Laura Aliano, Internationalization and Planning; 3) Marco Tilaro, TechnologyPlanning; 4) Flora Albano, Community Expert, Public Relation

- Consultancy and technique assistance to the use of the instruments for negotiated programming;
- Planning and technical assistance to the management of integrated projects for local development and economic and territorial activities;
- Monitoring and evaluation services for development programs;
- Initiatives supporting the public sector (consultancy, research, development and training of human resources);
- Feasibility studies and social and economic researches;

- Services of information, documentation and orientation about European Community polices and programmes;
- Consultancy and European Community planning services;
- Co-operation and development of projects with Developing Countries;
- Consultancy and assistance for the carrying out of promotion and commercialisation strategies;
- Drawing up of international marketing plans;
- Consultancy and technical assistance for the use of financial instruments for the internationalisation of SMEs.

Besides local development and international cooperation Euroconsult works in the field of managerial consultancy:

Consultancy for the creation of new enterprises;
Consultancy and planning for the use of the instruments of subsidised finance for SMEs;
Special services for management and organising innovation (company's diagnosis, management diagnosis, strategy, financing planning, management);
Research and technique innovation projects;
Planning and organisation of entrepreneurial and managerial training activities;
Market analysis and marketing plans.

We are planning to get involved in many projects concerning E.U. programme: Culture, Training, Media, Youth, etc.

ITD's mission is to develop, promote and/or transfer innovative projects, processes and concepts so as to favour cultural development, social inclusion and the territorial impact of these two forces.

The Excma Diputacion Provincial de Huelva, is the government of the province of Huelva; its main domains are providing legal, economic and technical co-operation and assistance to the municipalities that make up this province and to promote and manage the affairs of the province.

The Financial and Employment Promotion is a department was created in 1993 in order to competitive development of the productive tissue in Huelva, by enhancing activities that may contribute to the generation of employment in the province as well as harmonious balanced and right economic development, based on modern and competitive business tissue. This action will fall upon both the productive system and the improvement of production, management and commercialisation processes.

To enhance economic activities that may favour balanced and global development in the various areas of the province

Crotone municipality is included in the European Communitary Initiative Programme "URBAN II" (2000-2006), aimed to supporting the less integrated areas of the European Union , in the Programme URBACT and in the Project UDIEX - UDIEX Alep, a widely extended thematic area with over 400 participants, coming from more than 23 cities of the European Union.

Crotone's municipality has contacts also with other European networks such as: ESN "European Social Network", ESP "European Public Social Platform", EC "Euro Cities - The Network of Major European Cities" bringing forward the following actions:

One of the most interesting events organized after the European enlargement by these networks has been the Third Round Table about Poverty and Social Exclusion: "Social Inclusion in an enlarged Europe: New Challenges, New Opportunities", a conference organized in Rotterdam (17 - 20 November 2004) by the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs of the Netherlands and the European Commission, the European Parliament and international organisations.

To sum up , Crotone' s main challenges are :

Social and economics services activated by Lecce municipality in its territory are referred to "Social Service Sector", that has the aim to:
prevent and recover minority hardship; support and give solidarity to old people; the social integration of immigrates; the promotion of useful helps for ROMA people and carry out intervention for disabled people.

The co-ordination team is QeC-ERAN, based in Brussels, as project co-ordinators they are responsible for the overall management and co-ordination of the project, including administration & financial management.