The EU programme has published its latest intermediate report on the ESF 2014-2020 and how it contributes to the EU 2030 social targets.
In 2021, the European Union reaffirmed its commitment to investing in people and providing them with skills through employment, social and education policies and support by continuing the efforts launched by the European Social Fund (ESF+) to achieve the EU social targets by 2030. This decision translates into measures to boost the creation and protection of employment and training opportunities, as well as strengthening social inclusion, and fighting against poverty (see SwissCore article). However, ESF successes are based on long-lasting projects. This means that the latest projects funded under the previous generation of programmes (ESF 2014-2020) are not yet finished. To measure the progress of the last programme, ESF+ has published an intermediate report that assesses the budget allocation, the implementation of projects, and the impact of the investment on people from 2014 to 2022.
In total, the EU invested €108.9 billion in the 2014-2020 programming period, with an additional national top-up by EU Member States (MS) to reach €146.9 billion. On average, the MS spent 42% of their budget on employment measures, 27% on education and 25% on social inclusion. The remaining part of the budget was used for institutional capacity building and technical assistance. Each country implemented the programme differently through one of the almost 119’000 different projects. As each MS has different priorities, the distribution of expenditures varies: while the Netherlands spent 75% of its budget on social inclusion, Luxembourg and Malta invested 83% and 63% respectively on employment measures. Portugal is the country which focused the most on education, with 50% of the expenditure, followed by Austria with 49% (p.8).
In terms of impact, the programme reached more than 2.03 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 64.4 million participations, of which 22.3 million achieved positive results immediately after participating in the programme (34% of all participants). This means that the EU invested an average of €1’677 per participation. When it comes to the impacted people, 7.2 million found a job shortly after their participation, 10.3 million obtained a qualification, 3 million are still in education or training, and 1.5 million are looking for a job position. Of these people with a positive impact, 6.9 million are considered to have a disadvantaged background, i.e. they were considered to be: i) low-skilled, ii) disabled, iii) from rural areas, iv) homeless or housing excluded, v) migrant or foreign background, and vi) other disadvantaged. Almost half of the participants (46%) were considered to be low-skilled (with a primary or lower secondary education background), and around 600’000 were homeless or housing excluded. Overall, the participants were mainly under 25 years old (44% of all participants), followed by those aged 25-54 (42%). The data provided by the MS show that ESF+ is a programme that can reach both unemployed and inactive people. They represented 34% and 39% of participants, respectively.
While the progress is promising, the EU acknowledges that MS may not achieve the full implementation of the ESF 2014-2020 objectives at current implementation rates. The EU has observed some delays in the implementation of projects and has made some adjustments in response to major events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian aggression in Ukraine. These adjustments have been made to align with shifting societal needs and budget allocation priorities. One concrete example of this shift is the increase in the number of participants and budget related to the health sector for the 2020 calls: more than 71’000 healthcare professionals have been supported and almost €74 million were spent in medical and protective equipment through the allocation of COVID-19 support funds towards ESF.