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The general objective of the European Fund for the Integration of Third-country Nationals (EIF) is to support the efforts of Member States to enable third-country nationals to fulfil the conditions of residence and to facilitate their integration into European societies. The Fund is targeted primarily to newly-arrived third-country nationals for actions supporting their integration.

Specific objectives of EIF

• facilitation of the development and implementation of admission procedures for third- country nationals;
• development and implementation of the integration process of newly-arrived third- country nationals;
• increasing of the capacity of Member States to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate policies and measures for the integration third-country nationals;
• exchange of information, best practices and cooperation in and between Member States in developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies and measures for the integration of third-country nationals.

The target group are third-country nationals legally staying in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The target group DOES NOT INCLUDE third-country nationals having filed their applications for asylum pending final decision, the holders of the status of a refugee or the status of a subsidiary protection beneficiary or those who satisfy the conditions for the award of the status of a refugee or those who are entitled to subsidiary protection.

Eligible actions include the following activities in particular that:

• facilitate for Member States the development and implementation of admission procedures and increase their efficiency and accessibility for third-country nationals;
• better prepare third-country nationals for the integration in the host society by supporting measures to be implemented before arrival in the host country, aiming at introducing newly arrived third-country nationals to the host society and enabling them to acquire basic knowledge about the host society’s language, history, institutions, socio-economic features, cultural life, and the fundamental norms and values; or complementing such programmes or activities;
• develop and improve the quality of such programmes and activities at local and regional level, with special emphasis on the civic education, enhance the capacity of such programmes and activities to establish contacts with special groups;
• increase flexibility of such programmes and activities, particularly through in-job part-time courses, accelerated modules, distance and e-learning systems, or similar modules enabling third-country nationals to participate in programmes or activities along with employment or study;
• develop and implement such programmes or activities targeting young third-country nationals and high skilled third-country nationals;
• improve the access of third-country nationals to public and private goods and services, support permanent and sustainable involvement in the civic and cultural life;
• develop and implement intercultural training, acquisition of skills and management of diversity, training of public and private services providers, including educational establishments;
• strengthen the capacity to coordinate, implement, monitor and evaluate national strategies for the integration of third-country nationals across diverse levels and bodies of public administration;
• contribute to the evaluation of admission procedures or programmes, support representative surveys among third-country nationals participating in these programmes and/or among stakeholder parties such as undertakings, non-governmental organisations and regional or local authorities;
• introduce and implement the systems for the collection and analysis of the information on the needs of various categories of third-country nationals;
• develop indicators and benchmarks of the progress achieved at national level, tools for monitoring of the integration policies and measures and develop the systems for their evaluation;
• increase the acceptance of migration and integration measures in the host countries;
• and that are implemented through information campaigns, particularly in the media.