Brussels, 15/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of Anna Diamantopoulou, the European Commission should adopt, this Tuesday 16 January, its Communication concerning "the European Social Fund's (ESF) support for the European strategy for employment". The Commission proposes that the new ESF programmes dedicate towards investment in human resources close to EUR 60 billion in the framework of the modernisation and the reform of the labour markets during the 2000-2006 period. These programmes will grant particular attention to the economic and social insertion of marginalised categories of the populations and will facilitate the transition towards the knowledge economy and enhance the competitiveness of the European economy.
The Communication is based upon an analysis of the Objective 1 and 3 programmes of the ESF agreed upon between the Commission and the Member States. In the framework of these Objectives, the ESF will support four fields (capability for professional insertion, spirit of enterprise, capacity to adapt and equal opportunities) of the European strategy for employment as follows: (1) Capability for professional insertion: around 60% (EUR 34 billion) of the ESF budget will be dedicated to the improvement of the aptitude for employment throughout the EU; one third of this amount (or around 11 billion is allocated to the fight against social exclusion; (2) Spirit of enterprise: the promotion of entrepreneurship will receive EUR 8 billion, to provide the necessary impetus for new companies and the creation of jobs in the services sector; (3) Capacity to adapt: close to 11 billion will be allocated to the adaptability of European labour, the main priorities being the development of continuous training, the use of information technologies and communication (TIC) and the activities for SMEs; (4) Equal opportunities: the budget dedicated to specific actions in this field total some EUR 4 billion. The negotiations having not been completed, it is impossible to indicate how the remaining credits will be used, under Objective 2, support the European employment strategy.
The national, regional and local authorities as well as the social partners and the Commission will work together to maximise the impact of these new programmes.