Several facilities have recently been handed over as part of the Pontibus EGTC’s RE-START territorial action plan for employment (TAPE), which continues to assist unskilled workers and the older generation.
The Pontibus EGTC’s employment action plan, called RE-START (“Creating Needs Based Employment in the Lower Ipel Valley”), primarily seeks to integrate unskilled workforce and older generations in the labour market, paying special attention to the working-age population outside the labour market.
At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade launched a call for proposals to support the operational and project funding activities of the European Groupings for Territorial Cooperation in 2023. The available funding was HUF 170 million, of which a maximum of HUF 17 million per applicant could be awarded.
A new home for the elderly was built in Salka. There is a growing need for elderly care everywhere, and the waiting list is particularly long in the region. The new facility, which was created by renovating an existing but unoccupied building in the municipality, aims to fulfil this need.
RE-START is an action plan focusing on a specific geographical region, encompassing several municipalities, public administration bodies, economic actors and non-governmental organizations. The aim of the action plan is to reduce the economic and social gap of the Lower Ipoly Valley, mainly due to the peripheral situation, and to revitalize the labor market, while reflecting the challenges posed by the aging age structure. The action plan, launched in July 2019 and lasting until the summer of 2023, is coordinated by the PONTIBUS European Territorial Association, founded by the Local Government of Pest County and the Nitra District Local Government of Slovakia. RE-START was initiated within the INTERREG V-A Slovakia-Hungary Cooperation Program (www.skhu.eu).