EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND

European Social Fund

Policy framework
The links between the ESF and the policy framework – the European Employment Strategy – are being reinforced so that the ESF can contribute more effectively to the employment objectives and targets of the "Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs". Particular importance is being placed on the strategy's three main objectives of full employment, quality and productivity at work, social cohesion and social inclusion.

The scope of ESF intervention
The new ESF regulation for 2007-2013, which provides a common framework for ESF interventions throughout the Union , is more focussed than the current regulation. Throughout the Union , under both the 'Convergence' and the 'Regional Competitiveness and Employment' objectives, the ESF will provide support for anticipating and managing economic and social change. Its intervention will focus on four key areas for action:
increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises enhancing access to employment and participation in the labour market reinforcing social inclusion by combating discrimination and facilitating access to the labour market for disadvantaged people promoting partnership for reform in the fields of employment and inclusion

In the least prosperous regions and Member States, the Funds will concentrate on promoting structural adjustment, growth and job creation. To this end, under the 'Convergence' objective and in addition to the priorities mentioned above, the ESF will also support:
efforts to expand and improve investment in human capital, in particular by improving education and training systems action aimed at developing institutional capacity and the efficiency of public administrations, at national, regional and local level.

Promoting good governance and partnership
Social partners and similar stakeholders have traditionally played an important role in the implementation of ESF interventions. Building on this, the new regulations aim at:
reinforcing the partnership between the different partners in preparing, implementing and monitoring the strategy, and in programming the interventions supported by the Funds;
supporting the involvement of the social partners, which is of particular importance in ESF programming and implementation. Under the new 'Convergence' objective (see below), social partners will be encouraged to actively participate in capacity building actions and to undertake joint activities in the policy areas where they play a decisive role (e.g.: lifelong learning, modernisation of work organisation and tackling the consequences of restructuring).

The Funds' architecture and objectives
Currently, the ESF intervenes in support of all three objectives of the Structural Funds (see 2000-2006), as well as under the Community Initiative EQUAL.
In the future, the ESF will provide support under two new objectives: 'Convergence', which concerns the least developed regions, and is comparable to the present Objective 1, and 'Regional Competitiveness and Employment', which concerns the rest of the territory of the Union . The Commission has proposed to 'mainstream' EQUAL. In this way, the promotion of innovative activities and trans-national co-operation will be fully integrated in the scope of the ESF, and mainstreamed within the national and regional operational programmes.
To this end, in the framework of each operational programme, particular attention will be paid to promoting and mainstreaming innovative activities. Under both the 'Convergence' and the 'Regional Competitiveness and Employment' objectives, the ESF will give priority to funding trans-national cooperation (joint actions and the exchange of knowledge and experience across the Union ), either within each operational programme or through a specific operational programme dedicated to trans-national cooperation.

Reinforcing gender equality
Under the current regulation, the ESF supports 'specific measures to improve women's access to the labour market' and a more horizontal objective, 'equal opportunities between women and men as part of a mainstreaming approach'.
The future ESF regulation reflects more strongly the EU's commitment to the elimination of inequalities between women and men: specific actions aimed at women are combined with a robust gender mainstreaming approach, to increase women's participation and progress in the world of work. These ESF provisions complement a new specific principle on gender equality in