IP/07/1882

Brussels, 10 December 2007

Integrating third-country nationals: the Commission launches the 2007 call for proposals under the new Community Actions of the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals

The Commission has published the 2007 call for proposals designed to promote the integration of third-country nationals. 4,543 million euros have been allocated for the Community Actions in 2007; grants will cover up to 80% of the total eligible costs of the projects.

Vice-President Franco Frattini, European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs stated: "The Integration Fund aims to create a new form of solidarity to promote Member States’ efforts in enabling immigrants of different economic, cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds to fulfil conditions of residence and to facilitate their integration into European societies. Access to employment and enabling newcomers to acquire basic knowledge of the host society's language are critical for successful integration. The Integration Fund will also help Member States to share their best practice and reinforcing cooperation at EU level".

Under this call for proposals, transnational actions promoting the integration of third-country nationals in the EU Member States will be funded. In particular, they will pursue the following three priorities:

• Enhance interaction between third-country nationals and Member State citizens and promote integration measures and best practices targeted at society as a whole;
• Promote integration strategies and measures targeted at different immigrant groups;
• Reinforce the complementary linkage between migration and integration policies.

The minimum grant per project is 80.000 euros. The maximum grant per project is 500.000 euros. 4.243 million euros have been allocated for this specific call for proposals. The deadline for the submission of the proposals is 31 January 2008.

To give the programme a truly transnational dimension, partners from at least five Member States must participate in Community actions projects under the Integration Fund.

After four years and more than 60 projects co-financed under the INTI programme, it is now the first call for proposals under the Community Actions of the Integration Fund.

Overall budget for 2007 – 2013 of the Integration Fund is 825 million euros, 768 million euros for National Programmes distributed among the Member States on the basis of a distribution key expressing solidarity on the basis of the number of legally staying third-country nationals and 57 million euros for Community Actions (7% of the total annual resources each year).
Information on the Community actions of the Integration Fund and the documents related to this call for proposals are available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/funding/integration/funding_integration_en.htm
To find out more about Vice President Frattini's work please visit his website:

http://www.ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/frattini/index_en.htm