PURPOSE: to establish a European
Programme for social change.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European
Parliament and of the Council.
BACKGROUND: the recent economic and
financial crisis, which hit all Member States and regions in the Union, has
forced the EU to face complex problems, such as:
- high unemployment rates, especially
among the low-skilled, the young, older workers, migrants and people
with disabilities;
- an increasingly fragmented labour
market, in which more flexible work patterns and other challenges are
emerging and which have an impact on job security and working
conditions;
- a shrinking workforce and increasing
pressure on social protection systems as a result of demographic change;
- difficulty in combining work and caring
responsibilities and achieving a sustainable work-life balance,
hampering personal and family development;
- an unacceptably high number of people
living below the poverty line and in social exclusion.
The crisis also
highlighted the close links and spill-over between EU-27 economies,
especially in the euro area. Coordinated action at the Union level is more
effective in addressing these challenges than individual actions of
single Member States. To be cost-effective, reforms also need to be as far as
possible based on evidence. The involvement of policy-makers and other
stakeholders in a collective learning process and in developing and testing
new approaches is likely to lead to greater acceptance and ownership of, and
commitment to the Europe 2020 strategy. In this context, social innovation,
and in particular social experimentation, can be a powerful tool for shaping
the reforms and policy adjustments needed to implement Europe 2020.
While tackling
socio-economic problems is primarily the responsibility of the Member States and
regions and decisions have to be taken closest to the citizen, the Union has
a role to play in putting the need for specific reforms on the agenda,
identifying barriers to change and ways of overcoming them, ensuring that
existing Union level rules are complied with, stimulating sharing of good
practice and mutual learning, and supporting social innovation and
Europe-wide approaches.
The European Union
Programme for Social Change and Innovation is based on three existing
instruments: (i) the Progress Programme; (ii) EURES (European employment services; (iii) the European Progress Microfinance Facility for employment and
social inclusion.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the impact assessment
considered three options:
- Option 1: no policy change: under this option, the Progress programme, EURES and the
Progress micro-finance facility, would continue to exist as separate
instruments running alongside the European Social Fund.
- Option 2: a new integrated programme
for social change and innovation: the new
programme is made up of three separate albeit complementary axes:
Progress, EURES and microfinance and social entrepreneurship.
- Option 3: a single instrument for
employment and social affairs: such an
instrument would have a shared management strand (the European Social
Fund) and a direct management strand.
The impact assessment has concluded that option
2 is the preferred option that would bring about the most benefits in
terms of efficiency gains, critical mass, coherence and effectiveness, while
avoiding political and institutional risks.
LEGAL BASIS: Article 46(d), Article 149,
Article 153(2)(a) and the third paragraph of Article 175 of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
CONTENT: the proposal aims to establish a
new agenda for social change and social innovation. The proposal contains a
set of common provisions applicable to each part of the Programme and the
special provisions applicable to each instrument.
(1) Common provisions:
Subject matter: the proposed Regulation establishes a European Union Programme
for Social Change and Innovation which aims to contribute to the
implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy, its headline targets and
Integrated Guidelines by providing financial support for the European Union’s
objectives in terms of promoting a high level of employment, guaranteeing
adequate social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and
improving working conditions. The Programme shall run from 1 January 2014 to
31 December 2020.
Structure of the
Programme:the
Programme shall be made up of the following three complementarity axes:
- The Progress axis,
which shall support the development, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of Union employment and social policy and legislation on
working conditions and shall promote evidence-based policy-making and
innovation, in partnership with the social partners, civil society
organisations and other interested parties;
- The EURES axis,
which shall support activities carried out by the EURES network, i.e.
the specialist services designated by the EEA Member States and the
Swiss Confederation, together with other interested parties, to develop
information exchanges and dissemination and other forms of cooperation
to promote workers’ geographical mobility;
- The Microfinance
and Social Entrepreneurship axis, which shall facilitate access to
finance for entrepreneurs, especially those furthest from the labour
market, and social enterprises.
General objectives of the Programme: these include:
- strengthening ownership of the Union
objectives in the employment, social and working conditions fields
among key Union and national policy-makers, as well as other interested
parties in order to bring about concrete and coordinated actions at
both Union and Member State level;
- supporting the development of
adequate, accessible and efficient social protection systems and
labour markets and facilitate policy reform, by promoting good
governance, mutual learning and social innovation;
- modernise Union law in line with the Smart Regulation principles and ensure
that Union law on matters relating to working conditions is effectively
applied;
- promote workers’ geographical
mobility and boost employment opportunities
by developing Union labour markets that are open and accessible to all;
- promote employment and social
inclusion by increasing the availability and accessibility of
microfinance for vulnerable groups and micro-enterprises, and by
increasing access to finance for social enterprises.
Types of actions: the following types of actions may be financed under the
Programme:
- Progress:
(i) gathering of data and statistics, as well as development of common
methodologies, classifications, indicators and benchmarks; (ii) evaluations
and impact assessments; (iii) preparation and implementation of social
experimentation as a method for testing and evaluating innovative
solutions with a view to scaling them up; dissemination of the results
of these analytical activities. Mutual learning, awareness and
dissemination activities including, inter alia, (i) Council Presidency
events, conferences and seminars; (ii) training of legal and policy
practitioners, and EURES advisers; (iii) drafting and publication of
guides, reports and educational material; etc. Support for main actors
in regard to: the operating costs of key Union-level networks whose
activities relate and contribute to the objectives of the Progress axis;
networking and cooperation among specialist bodies, national, regional
and local authorities, and employment services at European level; funding
of European-level observatories.
- EURES: actions
to promote mobility of individuals in the Union, in particular the
development of a multilingual digital platform for the clearance of
job vacancies and applications, and targeted mobility schemes to
fill vacancies where labour market shortcomings have been identified
and/or to help specific groups of workers such as young people.
- Microfinance: support to microfinance and social enterprises in
particular through the financial instruments (grants).
(2) Specific provisions:
this part focuses on the implementation measures of each of the axes
concerned. These include:
- specific objectives as regards each of the actions;
- technical provisions as regards the participation by eligible
actors;
- measures as regards third countries and international
organisations;
- implementing measures conferred on the Commission;
- transitional measures.
Evaluation and follow-up: with a view to regular monitoring of the Programme and making
any adjustments needed to its policy and funding priorities, the Commission
shall draw up biennial monitoring reports and send them to the European
Parliament and the Council. A mid-term evaluation of the Programme shall be
carried out by the end of 2017 to measure progress made in meeting its
objectives, to determine whether its resources have been used efficiently and
to assess its Union added value.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATION: the financial appropriations for implementing the Programme for
the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020 will amount to EUR 958.19
million (in current prices):
- 60% to the Progress axis, of which at
least 17% shall be allocated to promoting social experimentation as a
method for testing and evaluating innovative solutions with a view to
scaling them up;
- 15% to the EURES axis;
- 20% to the Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship
axis.
The remaining 5% shall
be apportioned among the axes on an annual basis in line with policy
priorities.