Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation on the European Social Fund (COM(2004) 493 final)
Date: 2005-03-09
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: European Social Fund, competitiveness, cooperation policy, economic convergence, employment policy, enlargement of the Union, frontier region, operation of the Institutions, regional policy

22.9.2005

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 234/27

3.4
The injection of gas into the cranial cavity, which is
already prohibited for imported animals, is explicitly forbidden
in slaughter activities within the EU, and this is clearly advanta-
geous in preventing contamination.

their semen, embryos and ova, together with the restriction on
raw materials for the manufacture of di-calcium phosphate, in
accordance with the recommendations of the Scientific Steering
Committee.

The rules restricting the movement of bovines are quite

3.5
rightly extended to animals affected by scrapie.

The Committee welcomes the extension to other species
3.6
of the scope of the provisions concerning the placing on the
market and export of bovine, ovine and caprine animals and

3.7
In the Committee's view, it is essential to consolidate the
legal basis for possible inspections in third countries, so that
full use can be made of the experience acquired at European
level in this field, but also recommends that the financial and
human resources needed for this purpose be made available.

Brussels, 9 March 2005.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a European Parlia-
ment and Council Regulation on the European Social Fund

(COM(2004) 493 final)

(2005/C 234/08)

On 18 November 2004 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 18 February 2005. The rapporteur was
Ms Engelen-Kefer.

At its 415th plenary session, held on 9 and 10 March 2005 (meeting of 9 March), the European Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion unanimously.

1. Introduction

on priority objectives. With a budget of EUR 336.1 billion,
which is about one third of the total Community budget,
future structural support is to be:

On 14 July 2004 the European Commission adopted its
1.1
proposals for reform of cohesion policy for the period 2007-
2013. These proposals are intended to supersede the Structural
Fund regulations that will remain in force until 31 December
In its explanatory memorandum the Commission
2006.
mentions
in the
the considerable widening of disparities
enlarged Europe, as well as the challenges posed for the Union
by globalisation, economic structural change and demographic
developments.

— more targeted towards EU strategic priorities (the Lisbon
and Gothenburg objectives, and EU employment strategy);

— concentrated on the economically weakest regions;

— more decentralised and implemented more simply, trans-

parently and efficiently.

In this context,

1.2
the European Commission proposes
increasing the budget for the Structural Funds while focusing

This is to be achieved by redefining objectives,

i.e.
regional competitiveness and employment, as

1.3
convergence,
well as inter-regional cooperation.

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The legislative package comprises:

2.4 European inter-regional cooperation

— a general regulation with common provisions for all three
financial instruments (ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund);

— separate regulations on the European Regional Develop-
ment Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the
Cohesion Fund;

— a new regulation setting up a European grouping of cross-

border cooperation (EGCC).

1.4
Although this opinion focuses mainly on the role of the
ESF in European structural support, it also evaluates key factors
for the functioning and organisation of support measures
under the ESF, since these are set out in the general regulation.

2.4.1
This objective draws on experience with the current
Community initiative INTERREG; the aim is to support coop-
eration in border regions, including internal maritime borders
and certain external borders of the European Union, through
joint programmes, network-building and pooling of informa-
tion (ERDF). The proposed budget is EUR 13.2 billion (about
3.9 % of total resources).

3. Special role of the European Social Fund

2. New objectives of the EU Structural Funds

2.1
It is proposed that from 2007 EU structural support
should focus on three objectives — convergence, competitive-
ness and employment, and European inter-regional coopera-
tion.

3.1
Under the Commission's proposal the European Social
Fund is to be used to further the goals of ‘convergence’ and
‘regional
competitiveness and employment’, although the
recommended budget allocation would put far more emphasis
on aid to underdeveloped regions. The political framework for
ESF measures
is provided by the European Employment
Strategy guidelines and recommendations, while ESF support
focuses on four key areas:

2.2 Convergence

— increasing the adaptability of workers and enterprises;

2.2.1
This objective is similar to the current Objective 1 and
concerns promoting economic convergence of regions that are
lagging most in development terms, through investment in
capital and human resources, encouraging innovation and
development of the knowledge-based society, supporting struc-
tural change, protecting and enhancing the environment, and
improving administrative capacity. With a budget of EUR 264
billion (about 78.5 % of
the re-formulated
regional aid policy will be the linchpin of EU structural
support. The ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund should help
achieve this objective.

total resources),

2.3 Regional competitiveness and employment

This objective combines current Objectives 2 and 3.
2.3.1
Its purpose is
to underpin regional competitiveness and
employment outside the most needy regions and Member
States. A dual approach is adopted: (1) regional development
plans (ERDF) will be used to support adjustment of industrial,
urban and rural areas that are particularly affected by structural
change, through promoting innovation, the knowledge-based
society, entrepreneurship and environmental protection;
(2)
national and regional programmes funded through the ESF will
be used to promote integration into the labour market of
employees affected by structural change and to enhance
employability in general on the basis of training and employ-
ment policy measures to support integration. The aim is to
achieve full employment and improve the quality of work and
labour productivity, as well as social inclusion and the imple-
mentation of the European employment strategy more gener-
ally. The proposed budget is EUR 57.9 billion (around 17.2 %
of total resources), split equally between the ERDF and the ESF.

— enhancing access to employment, preventing unemploy-
ment, prolonging working lives and increasing participation
in the labour market;

— social

inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the labour

market and combating discrimination;

— promoting partnership for reform in the fields of employ-

ment and social inclusion.

3.2
In very needy regions especially, which fall under the
‘convergence’ objective, the ESF is also intended to provide
support for improving education and training systems as well
as for developing institutional capacity and enhancing the effi-
ciency of public administrations at national, regional and local
levels, in order to establish the Community acquis. Innovative
measures and transnational cooperation, which until now have
been supported under the EQUAL Community initiative, are to
be incorporated into ESF mainstream programmes. Particular
attention is to be paid to promoting equal opportunities based
on gender mainstreaming, with specific measures to increase
participation of women in employment and improvement of
their professional development opportunities.

3.3
The ESF is the financial instrument used to implement
the EU employment guidelines, i.e. for supporting the employ-
ment and social inclusion policies of the Member States, above
all through more targeted labour market inclusion, improving
the quality of work and work organisation, and training
measures to maintain employability.

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3.3.1
and enterprises’, the ESF supports measures to:

Under the priority ‘increasing adaptability of workers

— promote investment in human resources by developing and
implementing lifelong learning systems and strategies, espe-
cially for low-skilled workers;

— manage economic structural change through innovative
future

forms of work organisation and identification of
skills requirements.

3.3.2
and ‘preventing unemployment’, the ESF supports:

Under the priority ‘enhancing access to employment’

— measures to modernise and strengthen labour market insti-

tutions;

— active and preventive measures to enhance integration, and

support tailored to individual needs;

— specific measures to increase sustainable participation of
women in employment, to reduce gender-based segregation
in the labour market, and to improve the compatibility of
work and private life;

3.4 With respect to programming, the European Commis-
sion proposes some changes that are in line with the general
provisions
the European Structural Funds. The new
programming system, which includes ESF measures, will essen-
tially consist of:

for

— adoption by the Council of strategic guidelines for cohesion
policy with strategic goals for each fund,
taking into
account the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and the EU
Employment Guidelines;

— a national strategic frame of reference, to be negotiated
with the European Commission, as the basis for setting up
operational programmes for each fund, with separate parts
for the ‘convergence’ objective and ‘regional competitive-
ness and employment’ objective;

— submission of annual implementation reports, both on the
national strategic frame of reference and on each opera-
tional programme, which must be approved by the Euro-
pean Commission.

— specific measures to promote social inclusion of migrants.

4. Evaluation

3.3.3
Under the priority ‘inclusion of people at a disadvan-
tage and combating discrimination’, the employability of disad-
vantaged and socially excluded people is to be promoted
through appropriate inclusion measures,
in particular social
support and care services, and by raising awareness of discrimi-
nation in access to the labour market.

3.3.4 Within the framework of the convergence objective,
the ESF also supports:

— reform of education and training with a view to the needs
of a knowledge-based society and improvement of their
labour market relevance;

— promotion of lifelong learning, especially in order to reduce
the number of early school leavers and to improve access
to vocational and tertiary education;

— development of human potential in research and innova-

tion; and

— strengthening of the institutional capacity and efficiency of
public administrations and public services in the economic,
employment, social, environmental and judicial fields.

As a result of enlargement,

4.1
the EU is facing major
economic and social challenges; the EU's structural policy is
not sufficient to overcome these on its own, but it can contri-
bute to doing so. The EESC supports the European Commis-
sion's proposal to concentrate funding in regions with the
weakest economies, which should benefit new Member States
in particular, where the concentration of
least developed
regions is greatest. The EESC feels that the proposed increase in
the budget for the Structural Funds from about EUR 276 billion
to EUR 336.1 billion for 2007-2013, equivalent to 0.41 % of
the EU's gross domestic product (GDP) is appropriate, given
that these resources will now have to be shared by 25 Member
States. However, in the view of the EESC, structural measures
should continue, albeit on a smaller scale, in the old Member
States, at least in those regions which are most affected by
structural industrial change and are suffering from high unem-
ployment. At the same time, it is important to ensure that fair
transitional arrangements are in place for former Objective 1
regions which have lost their eligibility for support due to the
so-called statistical effect. The EESC welcomes the Commis-
sion's intention to ensure that the EQUAL Community initiative
is indeed fully mainstreamed into the ESF and its hitherto indis-
putable benefits exploited to the full, including the innovative
nature of the projects supported, support for the transfer of
experience and examples of good practice within the EU and
support for the partnership principle in its implementation.
After the EQUAL initiative has been mainstreamed, the Euro-
pean Commission could call on the Member States to incorpo-
rate measures similar to EQUAL into national operational
programmes.

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4.2
The EESC feels that the redefined objectives are appro-
priate, particularly the new objective of ‘competitiveness and
employment’, which combines employment and structural
policy objectives, both to be treated with equal weight. Coordi-
nated measures to stimulate investment and innovation (the
ERDF) and to mitigate the social consequences of structural
change (ESF) are particularly urgent, above all in areas whose
economies have been affected by structural change. Restruc-
turing of objectives should be beneficial if programming activ-
ities are similarly integrated. However, although measures are
to be integrated at the level of national strategic frames of refer-
ence, further programming will then take place separately for
each individual fund. To ensure the complementarity of opera-
tional programmes,
that
programmes under the ‘convergence’ and ‘regional competitive-
ness and employment’ objectives take account of each other. In
addition, regional priorities should be set for ESF employment
policy measures, depending on the structure of unemployment,
and with precedence being given to regions suffering from
particularly high unemployment, providing support in particu-
lar for local employment initiatives and territorial employment
pacts.

the EESC considers

it essential

4.3
The priorities which have been set for ESF intervention
basically match those of EU employment strategy and current
employment guidelines. The EESC feels that the emphasis of
employment policy should be on taking active and preventive
measures to curb unemployment and facilitate inclusion of
disadvantaged groups in the labour market. In line with the
proposals of the expert group on the future of European social
policy, particular attention needs to be paid to early and active
inclusion of young people,
for
women, and inclusion of older workers in the labour market.
In the latter area, it is especially important to boost participa-
tion in training and to enhance the quality of employment
through appropriate measures concerning the work organisa-
tion. Emphasis should be placed here on the innovative nature
of measures taken under the national employment action plans,
as noted in the opinion of the ESF Committee. (1)

raising employment

rates

4.4
In coordination with the other EU structural funds, the
ESF should also be seen as an instrument for furthering the
horizontal objective of combating discrimination, a goal
pursued through various measures at European level. Particu-
larly disadvantaged groups on the labour market include not
just young people, women and older workers, but also the
disabled, migrants and ethnic minorities. People may also be
subject to discrimination on the basis of their sexual orienta-
tion. Integrating these disadvantaged groups should therefore
be a priority, using measures to support social assistance,
training and work organisation, e.g. by creating jobs suitable
for disabled people. Appropriate information measures should

(1) See European Commission homepage (Employment and Social

Affairs).

immigrants,

to raise
also be taken, particularly targeted at
awareness of rights,
including labour rights. ESF measures
should therefore also be consistent with the national action
plans for social inclusion, and provide for ways of improving
the job opportunities of these groups. The EESC also concurs
with the ESF Committee on this point. Member States and
managing authorities must also ensure that structural
fund
support measures do not inadvertently contribute to the crea-
tion of access barriers for these disadvantaged groups.

Under the ‘convergence’ objective, the ESF should also
4.5
support measures
to help reform education and training
systems, particularly with a view to the needs of a knowledge-
based society and improvement of their labour market rele-
vance. Good governance which develops institutional capacity
the efficiency of public administration and
and enhances
services at national, regional and local
levels should also be
eligible for support. As the ‘convergence’ objective applies to
regions with a development lag, measures under this objective
are particularly relevant to the new Member States. The EESC
notes that putting modern education and training systems in
place and ensuring administrative efficiency is the responsibility
of Member States. Although EU employment guidelines include
objectives for the reform of education and training, implemen-
tation is generally the responsibility of Member States, or even,
for example in Germany and several other countries, of
regions.
In the EESC's opinion, the ESF should be focused
mainly on its intended role of complementing national employ-
ment policies through innovative measures, e.g. on training.

The

changes

4.6
to programming which have been
proposed by the European Commission reflect the intention to
adopt a more strategic approach. Strategic guidelines for cohe-
sion policy as a whole and accompanying frames of reference
at national level are intended to reinforce the links between the
general political objectives of Lisbon and Gothenburg,
the
Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and the EU Employment
Guidelines. EU employment policy and ESF intervention are
already interconnected through national action plans, which
include ESF measures
supporting implementation of EU
employment strategy. In addition, a national action plan for
social
employment policy
two-yearly intervals. Therefore,
measures,
although the European Commission's concern with monitoring
the use of funds is a legitimate one, the EESC doubts whether
annual implementation reports, both on the national strategic
frame of reference and on each operational programme, are
helpful, except insofar as they provide a record of expenditure.
Instead,
in connection with the ESF, the EESC recommends
considering the possibility of linking national action plans on
the EU employment guidelines with
implementation of

inclusion, which also covers

is prepared at

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programming requirements for ESF measures, thus helping to
achieve the objective of simplified programming. The ESF
Committee also expresses concern that red tape may increase
rather than decrease. The EESC therefore calls for this concern
to be seriously addressed so that ESF measures are effective.

4.7
The EESC is pleased to note that structural support will
continue to be based on the principles of concentration,
programme planning, additionality and partnership. However,
the EESC would like there to be greater emphasis on the
special role of the social partners in ESF employment measures,
and on the need for their involvement at both central and
regional levels. The social partners share responsibility within
institutional structures and for the practical implementation of
employment policies in the Member States. Planning and
implementation of additional ESF measures should be coordi-
nated with national employment policy strategies. For this to
happen, the social partners need to be involved in program-
ming and implementation of programmes at central and
regional
levels. The EESC agrees with the ESF Committee's
proposal to earmark a given portion of funding in the conver-

Brussels, 9 March 2005

gence regions for helping the social partners to implement the
EU employment strategy.

for

each

and managing

The EESC welcomes the requirement that the Member
4.8
States
operational
authorities
programme should consult non-governmental organisations as
appropriate when planning, implementing and monitoring ESF
aid. It should therefore be made clear in Article 5 (2) of the
proposal for a Regulation that these consultations take place at
central and regional level. The Committee is also pleased to see
that not just the social partners, but also non-governmental
organisations, are given access to the financial support. In the
context of the proposed partnership, the role in the labour
market of not-for-profit social service providers must also be
taken into consideration. The EESC therefore recommends that
these players be more involved in the planning, implementa-
tion and monitoring of ESF aid.

The EESC recommends making more use of ESF tech-
4.9
nical assistance to finance the education, training and informa-
tion activities of all the non-governmental actors involved in
implementing ESF objectives.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND