SOCIAL PARTNERS AS BENEFICIARIES OF ESF – TUs training on effective use of resources from the European Social Fund Plamen DIMITROV – President of CITUB Warsaw, 15th January 2013

New, modern industrial policy Enhanced human capital Enhanced social partnership, aimed at: Improved legislative framework Elaboration of common analysis and policy proposals for improvement of work conditions, …… Radical measures against corruption and grey economy The key challenges

Own resources – membership fees National financing (National employment action plan) Horizontal programmes of European Commission (programme PROGRESS, LEONARDO, etc.) European Social Fund Instruments

European Social Fund in Bulgaria The European Social Fund is financing two Operational Programmes (OPs) in Bulgaria from : the first to ensure ‘Human Resources Development’ and the second to boost ‘Administrative Capacity ’, total budget of 1,4 billion euro

For the current programming period, the social partners in Bulgaria, had achieved 3% of the funds from Bulgaria’s ESF. After 2 years of negotiations, the social partners had reach an agreement to equally share the funds ESF operation “Enhancing Labour Market Flexibility and Effectiveness through Active Actions by the Social Partners”, every social partner has an equal share of the funds – 4.5 million euro from the Human Resource Development OP and euro from the Administrative Capacity OP.

Major achievements of CITUB project “Security through the law, flexibility through the collective bargaining” Improving policies of Labour, Employment and Social Security by identifying the major problems in these areas and creating sustainable mechanisms and instruments to measure the labour climate. Over 40 analyses developed by more than 500 experts of CITUB, federations, regions and partners form Bulgarian Industrial Association. The size of the analytical documentation (by this moment) is over pages.

Raising public awareness and shaping public attitudes towards the promotion and implementation of flexicurity measures in Bulgaria 3 National campaigns: –National campaign “The rights of the one are rights of all” Within five months (from 9th of May to 8th of October) were visited more than 82 leading companies, in which we have the main trade unions and we met with more then members; A “Tent” – over 70 days “a place of CITUB”, were placed at the centers of the 37 major cities in Bulgaria. Over booklets of “your rights” were distributed. In addition, the Youth organization of CITUB, had taken part in many music festivals and met with over young people; “ Over signatures were collected –National campaign “My first workplace” 2011, teachers form middle schools were trained during the campaign; “My first workplace” brochures and leaflets were made and distributed Over students were trained; Web-site: –National campaign “Be INFO” – ongoing

Development and strengthening of collective bargaining at regional and sectoral level by creating a National Network of Collective Bargaining and Rights New experts were appointed in the regional structures of CITUB. By this moment, labor contracts with the National Network have 46 experts: 17 lawyers and 29 economists Improving the capacity of our union members through the implementation of a comprehensive program of systematic follow up training in Industrial Relations and key competencies. Trained: union members Or... Every day since June 2011 until now, a group of at least 25 people is being trained somewhere in Bulgaria

Challenges

Plamen DIMITROV President of Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria