The European Commission appears to be shifting towards a re-nationalisation of the operational programmes in the future of European Social Fund (FSE+), judging by an internal document consulted by EUROPE on Monday 7 May.
Therefore, according to the document, the Commission would like each member state to manage a single ESF+ funded programme in the future, except when this is imposed within a national institutional context, such as within the situation involving federal member states like Germany and Belgium. This would remove de facto fund management from many different regions.
According to comments made by the Commission services, the aim is to reduce the number of programmes and therefore guarantee greater coherence at a national level. At a general level, this re-nationalisation should help combat bureaucracy, as explained in the comments annotated by the services in question. The Commission would like to avoid a situation where programmes exist but the regional authorities do not have the necessary competencies to deal with them. The document explains that this situation creates difficulties in the current implementation of the fund.
The Commission also believes that the programmes that obtain ESF+ support should not be able to receive support from other European funds, except in very specific cases. The Commission services explain that the objective in this regard, is to avoid a multiplication in the number of programmes in the member states, such as, for example, in France, Poland and Portugal.
'European Semester'
Another interesting point involves the fact that the European Commission is planning to strengthen the link between the fund and the European Semester budget process. It is therefore planning for the member states to focus ESF+ assistance on the challenges identified in their national reform programmes and those targeted in the country specific recommendations. In this regard, the Commission is proposing that the member states target at least 65% (indicated between brackets and therefore subject to amendment) of ESF + resources on the country specific recommendations. The Commission, however, will create a certain margin of manoeuvre by introducing an "escape clause".
The Commission has not highlighted any particular figures in the budget but appears to prefer a budget set at a cohesion policy-based percentage in order to improve the distribution of the budget between shared management funds and those under direct management, explains the Commission in its paper. In its communication on 2 May, the Commission indicates that it is planning to allocate an amount of €89 billion in constant 2018 prices (see EUROPE 12013).
Dialogue social
One of the other significant proposals is the fact that the Commission does not appear to be shifting towards the proposal put forward by the European trade Union Confederation, which would like to reserve 2% of the fund for social dialogue.
The Commission appears to want to leave it up to the member states and only mentions the need to allocate an "adequate amount" for promoting the participation of social partners and civil society in fund management.
The services have indicated that they would like to include the European code of conduct on partnerships that ensures collaboration between the member states and the different regional levels, as well as the social partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The European Commission is expected to present its proposal on the next European Social Fund (ESF+) on 30 May. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)