Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 June, the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission ended their negotiation on the new integrated programme for social change and innovation (PSCI) for the years 2014-2020. The programme will merge three existing programmes: - the European microfinance programme; Progress, the Community programme for employment and social solidarity; and EURES (European employment services).
The PSCI budgetary lines have been slightly modified during the interinstitutional negotiations. It is the EURES programme that mainly aims to propose job vacancies on an internet portal in order to increase intra-European mobility and to improve interaction between European public and private employment services, which would be the major beneficiary. Compared to the initial Commission proposal, it will receive 3% more of the total PSCI budget, i.e. 18%, while the share of the microfinance instrument will be 21% (compared to 20%) and the share of Progress will be 61% (compared to 60%). The last programme aims to assist the Commission in analysing the development of labour markets and policies concerned. The microfinance programme must strengthen the interinstitutional capacities in order to help cover the costs of starting up and funding for the granting of loans to high risk target groups. The Commission had proposed €958.19 million for the total budget.
The chairperson of the employment and social affairs committee at the European Parliament, Pervenche Berès (S&D, France), welcomed this “first deal reached on a social programme under the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020”. A Parliament press release states that MEPs “ensured more consistency between the three programmes under one instrument and more financial transparency by providing details on how the funds should be spent within the different programmes” and have “also secured the involvement of social partners and civil society organisations in the implementation of the programme”. (JK/transl.jl)