Conedis Group is a consortium located in Turin (Italy) which works mainly in giving technical assistance to SMEs in terms

of Vocational and Educational Training, and consulting in general.

Conedis have developed an increasing International Project Unit within the Group that is in charge of projecting proposals in reply to various co-financing programmes issued by the European Commission and other international donors.

Related to this topic, Conedis are now working on a call for proposal financed by the European Commission. The programme is based on the industrial relations and the social dialogue among European partners at interprofessional and sectoral level, with the main aim to develop the experience and the change of information on European scale.

Thematic sectors

The project could be developed on the following focus:

1. Support for the European social dialog

2. Promoting financial participation by workers

3. Improving expertise in the field of industrial relations

4. Codes of conduct, labelling and fundamental social rights

Particular attention will be given to the improving of the participation of women and to the access of disable people, considering that 2003 is the year for disable persons.

Actions

The typologies of eligible actions are the followings:

- Preparatory surveys, meetings and conferences (for example about the active policies on the labour market, the social assistance, the participation of the workers to the decisional processes, the creation of the consent among social parts and professional organisations );

- Negotiating meeting or meeting to prepare for negotiations;

- Initiatives to disseminate the results of European social dialog through European or National events, whether as paper publications or in electronic forms;

- Actions in the candidate countries in order to prepare the enlargement;

- Actions of the social parts that contribute for the European Employment Strategy (EES);

- Inquiries and studies (for example about the incidence of the training policies in the labour market, the social action and the fundamental social rights, the advantage of the responsible and ethic production);

- Structured and organised exchange of information (database, surveys);

- Creation of network;

- Training actions (for example about the social responsibility of the enterprises, the opportunity to implement ethic codes of conduct, social labelling and audit);

- Actions linked with the development of the European social right (implementation of directives, groundwork on the future of work);

- Organisation of round tables , exchanges of experiences and networks of experts and operators;

- Dissemination measures on the social responsibility of the enterprises (regular information bulletin and Internet site);

European financing

A commitment appropriation of € 11.850.000 has been entered for 2003. The European contribution per project will be of 80% on the total cost, therefore the contribution of the partnership will cover the remaining 20%.

Participants

The participants must be located on the territory of European Union and in the candidate countries as well as enter in following categories:

- Social parts: Trade unions, organisations involved in industrial relations, research centres, Universities, network of enterprises and workers that act in this field;

- Public Authorities: at European, Regional and local level;

- NGO involved in the promoting of fundamental social rights;

Deadline

1° September 2003.

We are looking for interested partners. Should you have any further question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Paolo Elia

CON.E.DIS. soc. coop. sociale a. r. l.

Via Cernaia 14 10121 Torino (I)

Tel: +39 011 53 71 88

Fax: +39 011 53 59 86

www.conedis.it

conedis@conedis.it