According to an internal document consulted by EUROPE on Friday 10 November, the European Commission’s employment and social affairs services (DG EMPL) is examining the possibility of creating an “umbrella” fund for the development of human “capital”, in an effort to support social and employment policies, as well as the development of skills for the next budgetary period.
The document considers that the investment requirements dedicated to the development of human resources as part of the funds for which DG EMPL is responsible, would have to increase it by between €170-840 billion for the 2021-2027 period. These estimates are nowhere near the current reference scenarios envisaged by the Commission. The latter has suggested that a post-2020 budget shortfall could be as much as 30% compared the current period, as EUROPE recently revealed (see EUROPE 11901).
Based on what was described as the “positive” experience of the Erasmus+ programme, which integrated seven funds within education domain, the Commission is examining the possibility of an “umbrella fund” for the development of human capital. It is therefore proposing three major reforms: establishing a direct link between the social fund and the priority reforms agreed with the member states and the European Semester budget process; guaranteeing significant simplification to facilitate implementation of the future instrument; creating a sub-section within the post-2020 multi annual financial framework, which would focus exclusively on social inclusion and the development of human capital. In this regard, the authors have no qualms about proposing that this section includes all European funds dedicated to human capital, including the Erasmus+ programme.
The document explains that the aim is to reduce the existing fragmentation and the structure of current financing, whilst increasing complementarity of policy actions targeting different socio-economic groups. There is also a suggestion to integrate all the funds managed by DG EMPL under a common regulatory framework with a series of “streamlined” rules. The document indicates that, “common fundamental financial and control rules would be applied for all European funds, whilst specific rules could be introduced for human capital development investment”. The document also highlights, for example, priority themes and specific follow-up systems.
This proposal therefore appears to be along the lines envisaged at the Commission’s regional policy services (DG REGIO), which sought to create a single raft of common rules for regional policy and cohesion funds over the next budgetary period (see EUROPE 11872). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)