Brussels, 04/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - According to a draft general regulation to be presented by the European Commission on Thursday 6 October, a copy of which has been made accessible to EUROPE, the European Social Fund (ESF) is expected to operate during the 2014-2020 funding period on the basis of a repartition between the various categories of regions. Also, the Commission provides for ex ante conditions for benefitting from the Fund and ex-post criteria for eligibility to additional subsidies. The Commission will adopt the proposal on Thursday 6 October, at the same time as proposals on the 2014-2020 cohesion policy package.
The Commission's draft provides for minimum amounts allocated within the ESF to be shared out among three different categories of regions. The so-called “least developed” regions are thus attributed at least 25% of the share of cohesion funds that can be used through the ESF. The budget for this category of region, according to the Commission's proposal for the new financial framework over the 2014-2020 funding period, is fixed at €162.6 billion. This regional category would thus be allocated €40.7 billion within the ESF.
The second category of region is that known as a “transition” region, which should receive 40%. The budget allocated is €38.9 billion, which makes €15.6 billion within the ESF.
The last category is that of the “most developed” regions, which obtain 52% of a budget totalling €53.1 billion, making up €27.6 billion within the framework of the ESF. The total budget of the Fund is close to €84 billion (i.e. an increase of €10 billion compared to the previous financial framework).
Ex ante and ex post conditions. The setting in place of norms and criteria for assessment aims to ensure that amounts allocated by the ESF fall within the priorities of the EUROPE 2020 strategy. From among these priorities, four are identified in the proposal as particularly important for the ESF to: (1) promote employment and worker mobility; (2) invest in education, skills and lifelong training; (3) promote social inclusion and combat poverty; (4) and strengthen institution-building and the effectiveness of public administration. These objectives will form a base on which to set out the conditions for granting ESF subsidies. Some of the conditions will also be broken down according to the different regional categories (e.g. subsidies for strengthening the effectiveness of public administration should be restricted to the least developed regions), while others will apply to all (e.g. at least 20% of ESF allocations should be used to promote social inclusion and combat poverty). (JK/transl.jl)