Flowchart Project

An Exchange Programme for Learning and Labour Mobility

The right to be mobile across national borders is one of the fundamental freedoms of European citizens. Not only is the EU seeking to guarantee this right, but it also actively promotes it. However, it is recognised that Europe suffers a deficit when it comes to mobility and, it is for this reason that the Flowchart project has materialised.

The Flowchart Project is a European Commission funded project aimed at initiating and developing an exchange programme among a number of organisations based in various Member States. This, it is hoped, will address the free movement challenges that exist within the European Union and the societal impact of the EU policies related to migration.

The European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) has opted to use ‘A, B, C’, a framework pioneered by them in a previous project relating to vulnerable migrants (‘One Stop Mobility Shops’), as the foundation of this project. Flowchart will therefore be based upon:

Assisting migrants in one service or location;
Building bridges to other services; and
Co-operation among different mobility stakeholders across Europe.

By implementing ‘A, B, C’, it is hoped that EU citizens moving across Member States will find as many answers to their questions in one place as possible. This will, in turn, create partnerships locally among a wide range of third sector and public services. Further, this will have a trans-national dimension linking countries of origin and countries of destination to create a supportive environment.

There are a total of seven countries involved with Flowchart: England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Romania, Spain, Poland and Italy. From each of these countries an organisation specialising in providing advice to citizens has been selected to be involved.

From each of the organisations, an internal member shall be selected to participate in the exchange programme aspect of this project. That member will travel to another of the countries involved, stay for a period of ten days, during which time he or she will be introduced to how the organisation operates. By following the migration flows, members shall be travelling to organisations in countries which hold some relevance to them. Further, by having a strong cultural and social focus, it is hoped that those involved in the exchange programme will learn more about where their ‘clients’ come from, or where they are going to, thus allowing them to provide a more comprehensive and in depth service in their own country.

The outcome of these placements will naturally lead to improved, more multi-lingual services for European migrants (such as information systems, feedback mechanisms, mutual learning on common themes for advice etc). This can only be beneficial and advantageous to all involved and, it is hoped, achieve the EU’s goal of promoting workers’ free movement rights, resulting in higher levels of movement.

 For more information, please follow this LINK

Timeline
The Flowchart project is already underway, preparation work having begun at the beginning of 2010. Indeed, the project’s “Kick-off” meeting took place in London on 19th February 2010. Although it is officially scheduled to end in November 2010, through the use information technology, it is hoped that the project will continue to develop and flourish long after this date. The exchange placements are currently scheduled to take place between May and June, with the report connected to this project, entitled ‘Who’s afraid of free movement of people within the EU’, to be published and presented in August. All outcomes and conclusions will then be presented at a final conference on 3 November, coinciding with a press release and the official end of the Flowchart project.

This event seeks to bring together, by personal invitation, representatives of citizens’ advice organisations and other NGOs with experience in dealing, at a local level, with the problems of enforcing European free movement rights for EU citizens and members of their family. We aim to facilitate an informal dialogue between the two main geographical levels, namely the European and the local level:
• on one side, representatives of the EU dealing directly with citizens’ complaints and legislation enforcement in the different Commission departments; representatives of specialized EU networks such as EURES, SOLVIT, and the European consumer centres; members of relevant committees in the European Parliament and the ombudsman’s office; and
• on the other side, representatives from the local citizens’ advice services which are involved in out Flowchart exchange program, as well as academic and practicing lawyers.

At the centre of this informal brainstorming meeting will be three ECAS initiatives:
• The report of the high level panel on better enforcement of European citizens’ free movement rights;
• Flowchart – an exchange programme, involving citizens’ advice bureaux from different Member States, with the aim of enhancing learning and labour mobility; and
• The proposal to create a European civil society house the services of which will include help to citizens to enforce their European rights. 

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To see the PROGRAMME of the conference, please follow this LINK

The Organisations Involved

Citizens Advice (CAB) (England and Wales)
The Citizen’s Advice service helps people resolve their legal, monetary and other problems by providing information and advice at over four hundred and twenty Bureaus across England and Wales. It is a registered charity that relies upon trained volunteers and funds to provide their services. In 2008-09, the service dealt with just over six million separate advice problems including a total of 80,726 separate advice problems relating to immigration, asylum or nationality brought by 56,700 individual clients.

South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (STEP) (Northern Ireland)
STEP is a community development organisation, a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. Within the migrant rights programme, STEP actively supports free mobility of workers and new arrivals to negotiate the local systems effectively so they become integrated in the local community. Further, the organisation provides specialist support to the most vulnerable migrants, particularly those in danger of being homeless or already homeless and those who are victims of violence and/or racism. STEP and ECAS have previously worked together on other migrant projects.

The Union of Citizen Advice Bureau (UCAB) (Poland)
UCAB is a national association of independent non-governmental organisations whose mission is to provide all citizens with the knowledge of their rights so they can effectively and actively solve their problems. Further, UCAB acts for socially indicated changes. The association’s activities primarily concentrate on developing and strengthening the network of organisations dealing with citizen’s advice and past projects have concerned migration issues.

Casa del Diritti Sociali (FOCUS) (Italy)
FOCUS is a federation of Italian non-profit and non-governmental organisations engaged since 1985 in the promotion of fundamental rights of disadvantaged targets, such as migrants, victims of sexual slavery, homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers. The general aim is to find innovative methodologies to promote social autonomy of these categories of people. The organisation offers legal advice to those who encounter difficulties in Italy in their fundamental rights. Additionally, it helps with practical aspects such entry procedures, rights of residence, social rights, permanent residence for EU citizens etc.

ACCEM (Spain)
ACCEM is a nationwide non-governmental organisation that has developed its services and programmes in the field of migration since 1951. Its objective is to provide social services and to perform social and legal actions to benefit asylum seekers, refugees, displaced people and migrants in Spain. The organisation is present in ten Autonomous Communities (twenty one Provinces and twenty six Municipalities) across Spain.

National Association of Citizens Advice Bureau (NACAB) (Romania)
NACAB was founded to support and direct the activities of the Citizens Advice Bureau and is made up of thirty seven non-governmental organisations that created the CAB branches in over six localities within Romania. Through these, NACAB ensures equal access of citizens to information and advice services so that they are able to use their civil and social rights and responsibilities. It is estimated that over 10,000 citizens benefit annually from the direct services from the CABs.

*With the support of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.