The contribution of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) to poverty reduction “is not yet established”, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors, published on Wednesday 3 April.
For auditors, FEAD is certainly a “useful” instrument, particularly in providing food aid to the most deprived (83% of funding was earmarked under Operational Programme I) in addition to national and private aid, but does not seem to contribute to other EU initiatives, in particular the European Social Fund (ESF).
In addition, the Court notes that there is no uniform data amongst Member States, noting that the vast majority of Member States consulted were not in a position to say what share of FEAD funding was in national poverty reduction efforts.
Therefore, for the auditors, it was not possible to establish a link between poverty reduction and the Fund and thus prove its contribution to the objectives set out in the Europe 2020 strategy.
For the authors of the report, over the next programming period 2021-2027, it is necessary: - for the Fund to be better targeted (better delimitation of the target population, establishing a modus operandi with quantified objectives); - to preserve social inclusion measures for beneficiaries and not to focus action only on food or material aid; - to improve the evaluation of the impact of the Fund on final beneficiaries by developing a methodology to determine the number of final beneficiaries before 2023.
Last year, the Commission proposed for the coming period that the FEAD be integrated into the future European Social Fund plus (ESF+) (see EUROPE 12022/20). Last January, the European Parliament adopted its position, in which it significantly increased the budget envelope to €120 billion (see EUROPE 12173/10). The EU Council, for its part, has not yet adopted its position.
To consult the Court of Auditors' report: https://bit.ly/2YIWspn. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)