EaSI call for proposals on undeclared work

EaSI-PROGRESS: Call for proposals on Activities in the field of Undeclared Work (call reference VP/2018/02 - deadline 13/06/2018)

Purpose of the call
Undeclared work is a central element in the Europe 2020 strategy, in particular the necessity to move from informal or undeclared work to regular employment. Within the context of this call for proposals and building up on the 1998 Communication from the Commission on Undeclared Work undeclared work is understood as "any paid activities that are lawful as regards their nature, but are not declared to the public authorities". Undeclared work takes a variety of forms ranging from undeclared work in a formal enterprise to clandestine work done by own account workers.

The need for structural reforms in the areas of undeclared work, shadow economy, tax evasion has been addressed by the Council and the European Platform tackling undeclared work was established in May 2016, as a tool to support Member States in their reform agendas.

Objectives
The main objective of this call for proposals is to complement and add value to the activities indicated in the work programme of the European Platform tackling undeclared work. Other objectives are to develop and fund innovative initiatives which shall contribute to enhancing the implementation, application, knowledge and better enforcement of EU and national law in the area of undeclared work, thus contributing to the reduction of undeclared work and to the emergence of the formal jobs.

The knowledge gained from these projects should also help building up evidence-based knowledge for better policy design. The priority is to co-finance actions fostering joint activities and cross-border projects of enforcement authorities improving their technical capacity in the field of preventing and deterrence of undeclared work.

Activities
a) Common training courses for staff involved in enforcement activities
b) Joint inspections and exchange of staff of enforcement authorities
c) Provision of technical assistance to other EU/EEA enforcement bodies to contribute to capacity building, implementation of good practices, etc.
d) Information exchange systems
e) Collaborative work in form of sharing of information and mutual learning between enforcement authorities
f) Joint awareness raising campaigns/sector specific campaigns/regional cross-border campaigns

Expected results
The expected results are improved transnational cooperation between Member States' different authorities to prevent and deter undeclared work, increased mutual trust among the stakeholders and increased public awareness on the urgency of action and encouraging Member States to step up their efforts in dealing with undeclared work.

a) Technical implementation
This includes facilitating and promoting training, good practice initiatives and innovative approaches, such as exchanges of staff and joint activities; exchange of information, mutual learning and awareness raising campaigns. Information exchange systems could be addressed through the joint establishment of protocols, agreements and the development of IT-based systems.

b) Analytical elements
In addition to implementing the activities described above, another deliverable of projects under this call for proposals is the capacity to spell out success and failure factors and parameters. These should be documented in the form of findings and conclusions deriving from a thorough evaluation of the actions undertaken. The evaluation shall help the beneficiaries to draw lessons learned and to establish, deriving from this experience, building blocks for a successful and sustainable cooperation between enforcement authorities and to contribute to the work of the European Platform. The proposal should detail how this output will be achieved.

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