The Commission wishes to know citizens’ and stakeholders’ opinion on the activities carried out by the EU since 2014 in order to promote social inclusion, combat poverty and any discrimination. These activities were carried out with support from the European Social Fund. The information collected will be used in assessing what has been achieved during the 2014-2018 period. It will also help the Commission to draw lessons on how to reinforce this support in the future, making it more effective and focused.

WB EDIF GF – managed by the EIF - provides guarantees to financial or credit institutions, guarantee schemes including mutual guarantee organisations, micro-finance institutions and any other financial institutions - subject to fulfilling certain criteria -  established and operating in one or several Western Balkan countries  (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav Republic of  Macedonia, Kosovo (i), Montenegro and Serbia) to encourage them to build up new portfolios of SME loans and thereby improving access to finance to SMEs in the region. 

The SME Initiative (SMEI), launched in Italy in October 2016, is co-financed by the Republic of Italy, the European Commission and the EIB Group with EIF managing the scheme on behalf of the different contributors.

The Croatian Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy is accepting proposals under the European Social Fund to support social inclusion and employment of marginalised groups. The overall objective is to support projects that will increase employment opportunities, reduce the risk of social exclusion for marginalised groups, including people under international protection, and improve the quality of work with marginalised groups.

Specific objectives

The Commission wishes to know citizens’ and stakeholders’ opinion on the activities carried out by the EU since 2014 in order to (a) promote sustainable and quality employment and (b) to support labour mobility. These activities were carried out with the support from the European Social Fund. The information collected will be used in assessing what has been achieved during the 2014-2018 period. It will also help the Commission to draw lessons on how to reinforce this support in the future, making it more effective and focused.

Following a successful rollout of the European social economy regions initiative in 2018 and 2019, the European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs is launching a third edition of the European social economy regions (ESER). The ESER make regional and local social economies visible by supporting regional authorities in organising awareness-raising events where stakeholders can also build active networks.

The objective of the call for proposals is to contribute to the development of a social finance market, by designing and launching financial instruments for social enterprises and, at the same time, generating effective demand for social finance among social enterprises by developing their “investment readiness”. Ultimately this should enable more social enterprises to take on repayable finance for developing and scaling up their business model.

The Erasmus+ Master Loan Guarantee Facility is an EU initiative managed and implemented by EIF on behalf of the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission launched in December 2014 in the context of Erasmus+, the EU programme aiming to boost student mobility in Europe.

The Erasmus+Master Loan Guarantee Facility aims to increase access to finance in order to enable students, regardless of their social background, to take a Master's Degree in another Erasmus+ programme country, as a contribution to tackling skills gaps in Europe. 

The COSME Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF) is a window of the Single EU Debt Financial Instrument which supports European enterprises' growth and research and innovation (R&I).

LGF is part of COSME (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), an initiative launched by the European Commission and managed by EIF.

The Equity Facility for Growth (EFG) is a window of the Single EU Equity Financial Instrument which supports EU enterprises' growth and research and innovation (R&I) from the early stage, including seed, up to expansion and growth stage.

EFG – managed by EIF – is part of COSME (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), an initiative launched by the European Commission.

The objective of this Open Call for Expression of Interest, launched by the European Investment Fund, is to select eligible financial institutions to become Financial Intermediaries under the InnovFin SME Guarantee Facility (the “Facility”), window of the single EU debt financial instrument.

Social enterprise finance providers can now apply for technical assistance services under the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme

To build the emerging European social enterprise finance sector and to facilitate access to EaSI financial instruments, the European Commission is extending the scope for the provision of EaSI technical assistance - which previously focused only on microcredit providers - to cover also the needs of social enterprise finance providers.

The Innove Foundation opened a call for proposals under the European Social Fund for services to enhance employability. The purpose of the call is to encourage the employment and labour market retention of those who are less competitive on the labour market, including people whose main language is not Estonian.

Introduction

These calls for proposals on projects aiming to increase citizen participation in civic activities is a part of the implementation of the programme Active Citizens Fund – Slovakia (ACF – Slovakia or programme).

The present call for applications lays down the detailed specifications to apply for Bilateral Cooperation Initiatives.

The EaSI Guarantee Instrument is funded from the EaSI Programme and is specifically dedicated to microfinance and social entrepreneurship. One of its key objectives is to increase the availability of and access to finance for vulnerable groups wishing to launch their own enterprises, micro-enterprises and social enterprises, both in their start-up and development phases.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the European Commission recently announced a new initiative to help micro-credit and social enterprise finance providers develop their businesses under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).

The objective of this instrument is to build up the institutional capacity of selected financial intermediaries that have not yet reached sustainability or are in need of risk capital to sustain their growth and development.