The Parliament votes for more investment on people’s education and skills.
The European Parliament voted today in favour of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the main EU instrument to invest in people.
For 60 years now, the ESF has been promoting employment, improving skills and fostering social inclusion. The ESF has legal basis in the Treaty as one of the EU Structural Funds aiming to strengthen the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion and reduce disparities between regions.
The proposed budget for the new ESF+ for 2021-2027 is €101.2 billion, this shows an increase of 21% compared to 2014-2020 and its goal is to improve work opportunities and contribute to raising the standard of living.
The ALDE Group shadow rapporteur, Jasenko Selimovic, pushed to get two key points into the report:
- To increase the earmarking of targeted actions that support youth employment from 10 to 15% as regards countries with high NEETs (youngsters no longer in the education system and not working or being trained for work),
- To include migrants among key target groups for long-term economic integration.
After the vote, Mr Selimovic said:
“I am delighted that we managed to include our priorities of keeping flexibility, integrating migrants and reducing the administrative obstacles in the use of this fund which will help Europe respond better to upcoming social, economic and labour market challenges in the upcoming years. The fund will invest in social innovation, mobility and health, youth and foster social inclusion, migrant integration and I am therefore convinced it will benefit millions of Europeans.”
More info: david.vidal@europarl.europa.eu
