TENDER SPECIFICATIONS
For the EU co-funded action
Towards a true socially sustainable EU Fishery: the contribution of EU social partners
Grant agreement VS/2015/0042
Pillar 1: Raise awareness amongst national-level social partners about the possibilities offered by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to support social dialogue in fisheries and improvement of working and living conditions
Background
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform process has been recently completed with the adoption, in April 2014 of the new financial instrument for the sector, the EMFF1 . Also thanks to the requests made by social partners to the European Commission and Parliament, the EMFF presents an improved social dimension, compared to the previous fund, the EFF. The regulation gives member states the opportunity to include in their operational plans the financing of measures to support social dialogue at European, national, regional or local level, to improve working conditions and to support professional training.
The inclusion of these elements amongst the actions that can be financed represents for social partners an important opportunity to tackle issues that have been central in their action over the past years. Over the last decades the ETF and Europêche have carried out two EU co-funded projects as well as other activities to try to support capacity building for social partners in the fisheries sector in those member states where their representation is poor. The lack of proper workers’ and employers’ representation is mainly due to the lack of resources and the drastic reduction of the fleet that hit many countries over the last decades. Notwithstanding EU-level social partners’ attempts to involve national administrations in their initiatives to build capacity at national level, most of the countries have not shown a proper commitment to support social dialogue in the sea fishing sector.
For these reasons, it is crucial, at this stage, to make sure that social partners at national and local level are made aware of the possibilities offered by the EMFF. Over the coming months, social partners will
Regulation (EU) No 508/2014
work jointly with their national affiliates to make sure that member states’ operational plans include the support to social dialogue, training and improvement of on board working and living conditions.
Against this background, the aims of this action are:
- Gather and analyse Member States’ operational plans and provide social partners with an overview of the measures that can be financed in relation with promotion of social dialogue and working conditions;
- Raise awareness amongst their member organisations as well as to other social partners’ organisations not represented at EU level about the possibilities offered by the EMFF;
- Produce a manual that can be used by social partners during the EMFF programming period.
Download Doc
