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Article

European Social Fund Plus

The European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) supports labour-market and employment policies in EU Member States.

As the European Union's most important instrument for promoting employment and social integration in Europe, the European Social Fund Plus is active at local level with thousands of practice-oriented projects. These projects support people in finding employment or vocational training or in keeping their jobs.

In the previous 2014 to 2020 funding period, the ESF reached around 20 million people across the EU who were unemployed or inactive and provided support to around 10 million people from disadvantaged groups and more than 520,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the current 2021 to 2027 funding period, the ESF, now the “ESF Plus“, is striving even more intensively for a more social Europe. The former Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and the EU Employment and Social Innovation programme (EaSI) will now be combined under one roof.

Who can get support through the ESF Plus?

With the ESF Plus, the European Union is pursuing the goal of giving people career prospects. The ESF Plus helps people in Germany and in Europe to improve their education and skills to increase their employment opportunities. The aim is to ensure that all people have job prospects. The focus is on unemployed people, young people and young adults in the transition to vocational training and occupation, workers, but also start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and own-account workers.

The ESF Plus attaches particular importance to the equal treatment of men and women and the prevention of all forms of discrimination. The ESF Plus thus particularly focuses on those at risk of being excluded from the labour market, such as disadvantaged young people, migrants and homeless people.

The ESF Plus is not an employment agency. Rather, it promotes numerous employment projects at the local, regional and national level. Individual support is provided only through the various ESF Plus funding programmes, namely through the selected projects or responsible institutions in the respective programmes.

ESF Plus Federal Programme in the 2021-2027 funding period

To achieve the goals, each member state and each region develops its own strategy for each funding period as part of a programme (formerly operational programme) that must be approved by the EU Commission. In Germany, the Federal Government and the Länder submit their programmes to the EU Commission for approval.

The 2021-2027 ESF Plus Federal Programme was approved by the EU Commission on 5 May 2022. Under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), the ESF Plus Federal Programme is implemented by four other federal ministries:

  • Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
  • The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
  • Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space
  • Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community

The ESF Plus measures and ESF Plus Funding Programmes provided by the Federation have a thematic focus on five funding priorities:

  1. Promotion of sustainable and quality work, start-ups and entrepreneurship as well as adaptation to changePromotion of sustainable and quality work, start-ups and entrepreneurship as well as adaptation to change
  2. Promotion of social inclusion and fighting poverty
  3. Investing in general and vocational education and training and lifelong learning
  4. Social innovation
  5. Aid to the most deprived

Distribution of the resources of the ESF Plus Fund

In Germany, the federal level and the Länder will receive a total of around 6.56 billion euros from ESF Plus in the 2021 to 2027 funding period. Around 2.22 billion euros will flow into the ESF Plus federal programme and around 4.34 billion euros into the ESF Plus activities of the Länder. However, the ESF Plus funds are only available if part of the costs for funded projects is assumed by the member states themselves (co-funding).

ESF Plus funding programmes (2021 to 2027) of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

The following funding programmes of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs are co-financed by ESF Plus:

Publication

The European Social Fund Plus in Germany 2021-2027 (leaflet)

Publication

ESF Plus programme brochure

Publication

Shaping the future in Germany and Europe

Publication

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