COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of the 2014-2018 ESF support to employment and mobility, social inclusion and education and training
Date: 2021-01-27
Institutions: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
Subjects: Cohesion Fund, EU employment policy, European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund, distribution of EU funding, education, employment aid, operational programme, social integration, vocational training

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 27.1.2021  SWD(2021) 11 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of the 2014-2018 ESF support to employment and mobility, social inclusion and education and training {SWD(2021) 10 final}  
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This  staff  working  document  presents  the  main  findings  and  lessons  learned  from  three  thematic 
evaluation  studies  on  the  European  Social  Fund  (ESF)  support:  the  evaluation of  ESF  support  to  (i) 
employment  and  labour  mobility  (Thematic  Objective  8,  excluding  youth  employment),  (ii)  social 
inclusion (Thematic Objective 9), and (iii) education and training (Thematic Objective 10) from 2014 
up to the end of 20181. 

Background and context 

The  ESF  invests  in  people  by  financing  a  wide  range  of  actions  directly  supporting  individuals  (e.g. 
guidance,  counselling,  professional  training  and  re-training,  education,  scholarships),  as  well  as 
actions  aiming  to  improve  services  to  people  (e.g.  by  modernising  labour  market  institutions  and 
education and training systems). The total 2014-2020 budget for ESF operations was EUR 121 billion, 
with the EU contribution representing EUR 84 billion 2.  

Key achievements 

By the end of 2018, about 22 million people had participated in ESF actions3. Women made up 52% 
of  all  participations.  Some  2.3  million  people  found  a  job  through  the  ESF,  and  about  3.3  million 
people gained a qualification.  

Main findings 

Effectiveness:  There  are  large  differences  in  performance  across  Member  States,  operational 
programmes  and  investment  priorities.  Capacity  to  run  operations  remains  a  constraint  in  some 
countries,  especially  in  less-developed  regions.  ESF  operations  have  made  a  clear  positive 
contribution  to  the  achievement  of  EU  2020  targets  related  to  employment  and  labour  mobility, 
social inclusion  and education, both from a micro-  and a macro perspective. Furthermore, there  is 
significant potential for long-term impact through ESF support for the development of system-level 
changes and sustainable innovative measures. The most significant factor hampering effectiveness is 
insufficient administrative capacity.  

Efficiency: Only preliminary analyses of efficiency are possible at this stage. The cost-benefit analyses 
attempted  for  social  inclusion  and  education  and  training  support  suggest  positive  returns, 
particularly  under  active  inclusion,  early  school  leaving  and  tertiary  education  operations.  Overall, 
actual  and  perceived  administrative  burden,  including  ‘gold  plating’,  have  resulted  in  delays  and 
affected  cost  effectiveness.  Qualitative  analysis  has  shown  that  factors  that  can  foster  efficiency 
include the use of wider partnerships and simplified cost options.  

Relevance: ESF support was highly relevant to employment and labour mobility, social inclusion and 
education  policy  needs.  Operational  programmes  proved  to  be  flexible  enough  to  adapt  to  socio-
economic and policy changes. However, there are still challenges with reaching and addressing the 

1 The supporting studies can be found at:  
TO8: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8330&furtherPubs=yes  
TO9: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8350&furtherPubs=yes   
TO10: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8346&furtherPubs=yes  
2 https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/how/is-my-region-covered/  
3 This figure does not exclude double counting as people may participate in more than one action. 

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needs  of  some  groups,  particularly  the  most  disadvantaged  ones,  which  sometimes  leads  to 
‘creaming’, i.e. targeting less vulnerable people with less complex needs in order to achieve better 
results.  

Coherence:  ESF  operations  are  aligned  with  EU,  national  and  regional  policies  and  initiatives  and 
have  supported  their  implementation  on  the  ground.  The  fulfilment  of  ESF  preconditions  led  to 
structural reforms, enhancing coherence. ESF employment and labour mobility, social inclusion and 
education  and  training  operations  are  internally  coherent.  Coherence  with  other  EU  funding 
instruments in related fields is more mixed even if there is often good coherence in the legal texts 
and some evidence of synergies in implementation, a variety of challenges were identified. 

Added value: Overall, ESF support has had clear added value. ESF operations have made a significant 
difference in the lives of many people across the EU. There is also evidence of sustainable long-term 
effects on institutions, processes and policies. In addition, ESF operations also support the transfer of 
ideas and the introduction of innovation and structural reforms. Crucially, the ESF has helped to build 
effective  delivery  capacity  in  Member  States  in  terms  of  programme,  cost  management  and 
monitoring systems, as well as awareness and knowledge of target groups.  

Lessons learned 

A number of lessons can be drawn for the implementation of the European Social Fund Plus 2021-
20274: 

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operational  programme  strategies  should  be  embedded  into  national  (or  regional) 
strategies;  
adequate  levels  of  human  and  institutional  resources  are  needed  to  achieve  effective 
operational programme implementation;  
strong partnerships between managing authorities and stakeholders are required;  
operation design and implementation should be based on target group needs; 
ESF-supported  actions  bring  about  changes  beyond  employment  and  qualifications; 
there is a need to better showcase these;   
more should be done to promote the visibility of ESF support and mutual learning;  
more  timely availability of data is crucial to provide robust  evidence  on the  impacts  of 
ESF interventions. 

4 https://ec.europa.eu/esf/main.jsp?catId=62&langId=en  

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