PERIOD 1994-1999

Initiativa Empleo	Horizon	Now	Integra	YouthStart
Initiativa Adapt

Search for Community initiatives developed in Spain (94-99)

The European Commission approved 13 Community Initiatives, of which 11 are regional and are co-ordinated by the ERDF or the EAGGF-G and 2 are of a social nature and are generally managed by the ESF.

The regional initiatives are:

• INTERREG II: Co-operation and crossborder networks.

• LEADER: Promotion of rural development.

• REGIS II: Territorial integration and articulation of outlying regions.

• RECHAR II:Conversion of coal-mining areas.

• RESIDER II: Conversion of areas dependent on iron and steel works.

• RETEX: Conversion of areas heavily dependent on textiles.

• KONVER: Conversion of areas dependent on the defence sector.

• TEXTIL PORTUGAL: Support of the Portuguese textile industry.

• PYME: Support of small and medium-sized enterprises.

• URBAN: Urban policies.

• PESCA: Promotion of areas dependent on fishing.

The two initiatives related to human resources are the following:

• Community Initiative EMPLEO
  
  
• Initiative ADAPT

EMPLEO

The Community Initiative EMPLEO is a direct consequence of the European Commission White Paper on growth, competitivity and employment, which proposed a series of actions geared at fomenting the creation of jobs for groups having the biggest difficulties. It is implemented through three types of action:

NOW

Its objective is to foment equal employment opportunities for women, through vocational training and support of access to jobs with career possibilities and related to management positions.

Four types of measures are financed:

• Development of training, guidance, advisory and employment promotion systems
• Offer of training plans.
  
• Creation of jobs and support for the creation of small firms and co-operatives by women
• Dissemination of the information

The projects which participate in Empleo-Now are co-financed under the responsibility of a public institution and public and/or private participation. The ESF provides 75% of the total cost of the project in Objective 1 regions and 50% in regions that are outside said Objective.

HORIZON

The objective of this initiative is to make it easier for the most vulnerable social groups to enter the labour market, including persons with physical, mental, sensorial and psychological disabilities.

INTEGRA

This initiative arose from the initiative Horizon as a more specific one, given the importance the disadvantaged had acquired in all projects. It is geared towards the integration in the labour market of disadvantaged groups with specific problems, such as immigrants and refugees, drug addicts, inmates and former inmates, ethnic minorities, homeless persons and others in a situation of social exclusion.

YOUTHSTART

Youthstart is aimed at young people under the age of 20 who lack training as a result of having dropped out of school at an early age, that are unemployed or subemployed and at risk of becoming excluded (in Spain half of the active population between the ages of 16 and 19 is unemployed).

The projects are geared, amongst other things, to the creation of jobs and the promotion of self-employment in the development of activities related to the environment, rural tourism, new technologies, urban renewal and welfare services.

The Initiative ADAPT is intended to contribute to the adaptation of workers to industrial transformations and to improve the labour market. It has the mission of stimulating innovative training projects that benefit workers at risk of losing their jobs or whose training is insufficient or not adapted to the labour market.

It is aimed at:

• Workers of firms affected by processes of technological and social transformation.

• Workers who have just lost their jobs due to mutations.

• Workers temporarily unemployed for the same reason.

• Owners of SMEs, self-employed workers and members of co-operatives affected by industrial change

SUMMARY CHARTS

HORIZON

INTEGRA

YOUTHSTART

ADAPT INITIATIVES

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

The initiatives are based on four basic principles:

• Transnationality: the co-operation between organisations or institutions of two or more member states to stimulate the transfer of innovation and the development of non-traditional methods.
• Innovation: depending on the novelty of the actions for the group or territory where they are implemented.
• Bottom-up approach: to mobilise the experience and know-how of the agents who are in direct contact with local, regional and sectoral problems.
  
• Multiplier effect: due to the diversity of the entities involved, the relations that are established locally in the community, the dissemination of the results and the transfer of experiences.