Maramureș County Council has initiated, as a partner, the SIRM project - "Socio - Economic Integration of Refugees and Migrants" funded under the INTERREG EUROPE 2021 - 2027 Program, call 1. The project leader is the Regional Development Agency Rzeszow under the Podkarpackie Voivodeship (twinned with Maramureș County) along with regions and institutions from Ireland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, and Poland.

The main goal of the project: SIRM aims to help decision-makers better understand the potential, challenges, and barriers of socio-economic integration of migrants and refugees to improve regional policies.

The general objective of the project is to improve the implementation of 8 regional development policies in the field of socio-economic integration of migrants and refugees. A significant issue in social inclusion is the socio-economic integration of migrants from third countries. Integration activities for this group require the coordination of many systems, such as healthcare, social policy, education, or the labor market. Each country faces similar problems and has developed its own way of supporting refugees and migrants, but despite the migration phenomenon being common in the EU for many years, no country/region has developed ideal tools and regional policies that fully address this issue. The self-confidence of foreigners reduces the costs of staying in the EU and is a condition for integration. The project aims to contribute to interregional learning and exchange of good practices, giving each partner the opportunity to modify regional/national policies.

Among the activities proposed under the SIRM project are meetings of regional stakeholders, representatives of local authorities, NGOs, local activists, people who influence problem-solving and identifying migrants' needs and ways to address migration issues, presentations of good practices in supporting refugees and migrants, thematic workshops during partnership meetings: adaptation and assimilation programs and counteracting the social isolation of migrants, including informational, psychological, linguistic, cultural, educational, and social support. Programs to support integration into labor markets, support for entrepreneurship among migrants and refugees, including social entrepreneurship, additional support: housing, social, educational, and health assistance. A special place will be cooperation between institutions by analyzing the role of public institutions and NGOs, increasing the competencies of institution staff working in migration and integration, creating networks, and initiating cooperation between institutions involved in supporting integration processes and professional activation of foreigners, and even proposing a system for monitoring actions taken for refugees and migrants.

The total budget of the SIRM project is 1,620,928 euros, of which the budget for Maramureș County Council, for the 4 years of implementation, is 140,370 euros, with the ERDF contribution being 112,296 euros (80% of the total budget). The national co-financing is 28,074 euros (20% of the total budget), of which 25,266.4 euros is co-financing from the state budget (18%), and 2% is the co-financing of Maramureș County Council, amounting to 2,807.4 euros.

The project is implemented from 1^st of March 2023 to 31^st of May 2027.

Partners: Regional Development Agency Rzeszow (PL), Podkarpackie Voivodeship – Regional Center for Social Policies (PL), Munster Technological University (IE), University of Groningen (NL), Consiliul Județean Maramureș (RO), Prešov Self-Governing Region (SK), University of Latvia (LV), Municipality of Brindisi (IT), City of Sibenik (HR).

More details about the project: https://www.interregeurope.eu/sirm