A number of experts have drawn up a balance sheet on behalf of the European Commission. This looks at the way in which the European Social Funds (ESF) were functioning during the 2007-2013 period, during the height of the socio-economic crisis. The experts outlined a number of ways for improving the way in which this fund functions during the post-2020 period by emphasising the simplification of procedures and reducing administrative costs.
This report was published on Thursday 5 January. It was drafted by independent experts and takes the shape of a preparatory study, five thematic studies carried out in the context of the ESF over the 2007—13 period and specific reports for each member state. The Commission welcomes the fact that the report is, overall, positive. The Commission highlights the fact that at the end of 2014 at least 9.4 million European residents had found a job with the assistance of this fund, 8.7 million had obtained a qualification or diploma and around 13.7 million people had mentioned other positive results, such as an improvement in their skill sets.
According to the conclusions of an ex-post assessment carried out by the Commission, ESF programmes have proved “efficient” and have had, above all, positive effects by way of the “volume” of the financial support (€76.8 billion from the EU budget), the scale of the action covered (support for groups that do not receive support or receive very little of it at a national level, such as migrants or Roma) and the kind of support that encourages innovative approaches. The ESF has, for example, provided more than 70% of resources for active labour market policies in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.
According to the experts, however, nothing suggests that the ESF has contributed to the effective promotion of gender equality, as was promised, even though 51.2 million women have benefited from it over the period analysed. A similar observation was made with regard to the promise of developing coherent action and “synergies” with other EU instruments. The “sustainability” of the results obtained has also been difficult to gauge.
The Commission’s assessment ultimately outlines a number of possibilities for improving the current EFS implementation phase and the phase launched for the post-2020 period. It therefore suggests: taking into account the so-called “soft” results during the impact assessments (“motivation” or the “self-esteem” of the beneficiaries); assessing the macro-economic effects (impact of the ESF on the GDP is estimated to be around 0.25%) and the results from the “capacity strengthening” activities; encouraging member states to reduce administration costs for beneficiaries; improving and promoting the use of instruments relating to financial engineering; promoting more take up of simplified cost options (SCOs), such as flat rate financing, standard barometers of unit costs and flat rate amounts, in addition to simplifying audits. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)