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436 project proposals filed for social economy development
A number of 436 project proposals for social economy were filed between July 28 and August 11, informs the European Funds Ministry (MFE) in a release on Thursday.
The European Funds Ministry, through the Management Authority for the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOPHRD), received 436 funding requests, with a total value of the requested non-refundable financial aid accounting for over 2.3 billion lei, within the call for projects No 168, 'Social economy development.'
The approximate financial allotment for this call for projects accounts for over 877.6 million lei (the lei equivalent of 200 million euros).
'Through this call for projects, we actually contribute for the first time to the development of the local communities by creating new jobs, mainly for the persons belonging to the vulnerable groups. (...) It is the proof that the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development begins to improve the life of all Romanians,' European Funds Minister Eugen Teodorovici said, according to the release remitted on Thursday.
MFE points out that, with launching this call for projects, the Ministry planned to make the assessment process more fluid and more efficient by beginning to evaluate the funding requests during the call.
'The first 32 funding requests were sent for evaluation on August 8, 2014. The evaluation of all project proposals filed within this call will be completed until the end of September. At the same time, the contract-signing process will begin before the evaluation process is completed, in the second half of August, for the funding requests which score over 80 points (on condition they meet the minimum point threshold for each evaluation criterion),' MFE underscores.
The European Funds Ministry also mentioned that this call for projects also encourages the establishment of new functional groups and partnerships in economy among cooperatives, friendly societies, foundations and associations, enterprises and agencies which will establish social economy structures that will provide new jobs and new opportunities for the persons encountering difficulties in integrating or re-integrating themselves on the labour market, mainly in the rural areas.
Moreover, these projects will facilitate the access to new social, health and education services and will contribute to capitalising the labour force, mainly the one in the rural areas, by increasing the employment opportunities for the Roma people, for the disabled people or for other vulnerable groups, exposed to social exclusion risks.