The Republic of Albania became a potential candidate country for EU accession following the
Thessaloniki European Council of June 2003. The main document for the relationship between the
Republic of Albania and the EU is the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) which entered
into force on April 1st, 2009. On April 28th, 2009, Albania submitted application for EU membership
and on November 9th, 2010 the EC published its Opinion (Avis) on Albania’s application for EU. In
October 2012 the EC recommended Albania to be granted EU candidate status, subject to completion
of key measures in the areas of judicial and public administration reform and revision of the
parliamentary rules of procedures. In November 2013, the high-level dialogue on the key priorities was
established. In May 2014 Albania adopted a roadmap laying down and structuring its planned reforms
under the key priorities. In June 2014, Albania was granted candidate status. Following the granting of
candidate status, the Council also underlined the need for Albania to act decisively on all of the
recommendations and intensify its efforts to ensure implementation of five key priorities, notably the
reform of the public administration and the judiciary, the fight against organised crime and corruption,
the protection of human rights and anti-discrimination policies including in the area of minorities and
their equal treatment, and implementation of property rights.
The European Union is planning to implement the Action for Social Inclusion during 2020-2024,
which will focus on increasing coverage, inclusiveness and effectiveness of social care services, the
provision of inclusive education and employment opportunities. The action targets populations at risk
of poverty and social exclusion – including youth, men and women, people with disabilities and
minorities.
The priorities in this Call for Proposals are defined in accordance to the Government of Albania policies in the National Strategy and Plan of Action on Employment and Skills (2019-2022), National Strategy and Plan of Action on Social Protection (2019-2023) and Strategy on Pre-University Education (2014-2020).
The grant scheme for local level partnerships to advance the social inclusion agenda in Albania aims to support local government in establishing community based and integrated services in the area of social services, employment and vocational education and inclusive education to ensure that all citizens and in particular the most at risk groups have access and benefit from these services. The call will provide targeted support to Roma and Egyptian communities in line with the National Plan of Action on reintegration of Roma and Egyptian communities in Albania. The call aims to support various typologies of community and social care services and various models of inclusive practices in
employment and education in the view of the recent earthquake and COVID 19 crisis in Albania. It will
be crucial that all social care services, different employment, and inclusive education practices that will
be supported under this scheme shall be sustained by the central and local government budget.
Following consultations with the beneficiaries and based on a set of criteria’s 5, the grant scheme will be
open for proposals targeting 19 municipalities, more specifically to: Prrenjas, Gjirokaster, Vore,
Mallakaster, Cerrik, Librazhd, Shijak, Kavaje, Kurbin,Kukes, Kruje, Pogradec, Korce, Kamez, Vlore,
Shkoder, Elbasan, Durres and Tirane.
The overall objective of this Call for Proposals is: to contribute at strengthening municipal
capacities to establish and deliver inclusive services to citizen in the area of social care, employment
and inclusive education. Calls for Proposals are structured into three main “lots” (thematic areas) with specific
objectives related per each lot, as follows:
Lot 1: Local Level Partnerships for Integrated Service Delivery.
Lot 2: Economic and Inclusive Learning Grant for Roma and Egyptians.
Lot 3: Fostering inter-municipal innovative collaboration on policy and practice development
FINANCIAL ALLOCATION PROVIDED BY THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY
The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 4,500,000. The
contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
Indicative allocation of funds by lot:
Lot 1- Local Level Partnerships for Integrated Social Inclusion Services – 2,000,000.00 EUR
Lot 2- Economic and Inclusive Learning for Roma and Egyptian communities- 2,000,000.00 EUR
Lot 3- Fostering Inter-municipal innovative collaboration on policy and practice development – 500,000.00 EUR
For more detailed information for each Lot, see the information provided in section 1.2