Ready to deliver on the European Pillar of Social Rights: The European Social Fund+ enables EU Member States to create a brighter future for children and youth.
The European Social Fund+ (ESF+) received the green light from the European Parliament (EP) on 8 June 2021 after negotiations had been concluded already in January (see SwissCore article) and the Council of the EU given its approval in May 2021. With its legal base expected to enter into force on July 1, the ESF+ will constitute a key instrument of the EU to deliver on the principles under the European Pillar of Social Rights, to which EU leaders, institutions, social partners and citizens reconfirmed their commitment during the recently held Porto Social Summit (see SwissCore article). Together with the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument, the ESF+ will support the social recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare European citizens for societal challenges like the twin green and digital transitions as well as demographic change.
With an envelope of €99.3 billion (in current prices) and building on synergies with other EU programmes such as Erasmus+ and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the ESF+ aims at boosting investment not only in the creation and protection of employment, education and training opportunities, but also in measures aimed at enhancing social inclusion and tackling poverty. As a reinforcement of its predecessor and merging several formerly independent programmes, the new ESF+ constitutes the EU’s main instrument for investing in people: Member States will have to spend at least 25% of their allocated ESF+ budget on measures addressing social inclusion, and a minimum of 3% on the provision of food and basic material.
In particular, Member States are called on to use an appropriate amount of the resources received under the ESF+ to implement the reinforced Youth Guarantee and the European Child Guarantee. While the renewed Youth Guarantee tackles youth unemployment by generating more inclusive education, training and job opportunities for Europe’s next generation, the European Child Guarantee aims at combatting child poverty by guaranteeing access to key services such as early childhood education and care (ECEC) or school-based activities.
The reinforced Youth Guarantee was presented together with the European Skills Agenda in July 2020 as part of the Youth Employment Support (YES) package, and adopted by the Council in October 2020 (see SwissCore article). Supporting the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, Member States with a rate of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) above EU average are required to invest at least 12.5% of the ESF+ resources into education, training and employment measures for young people.
On 14 June 2021, the Council adopted the European Child Guarantee following a proposal by the European Commission (EC) in March. Apart from contributing to the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2021-2024), the Guarantee also represents a major step towards implementing the European Pillar of Social Right’s Principle 11 (childcare and support to children). It will play a key role for achieving the EU-level target set in the Pillar’s Action Plan, which aims at reducing the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion by five million by 2030. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, Member States with a high child poverty rate will have to dedicate 5% of the ESF+ funds to measures preventing and combatting childhood poverty and social exclusion. In addition, national governments are asked to set in place a Child Guarantee Coordinator and, by March 2022, present an action plan covering the next decade. Progress towards the implementation of the Pillar will be monitored by the EC through the revised Social Scoreboard under the European Semester.
Inclusion and equality are placed high on the EU agenda for education and training: They constitute a main dimension in the EC Communication on Achieving a European Education Area (EEA) by 2025 published last September. In the corresponding Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030), adopted on 19 February 2021, Member States agreed on EU-level targets addressing low-achievement of young people in basic and digital skills, early leavers from education and training and participation in ECEC. Moreover, the new generation of the EU’s flagship programme Erasmus+ provides more inclusive opportunities aimed at improving access to education and mobility for all.