European Social Fund (ESF)

Image: ESF, WelcomEurope.

European Social Fund

The European Social Fund (ESF) is a programme set up in 2014 to run until 2020 with the aim of contributing to a more social Europe and make the European Pillar of Social Rights a reality on the ground. It is the EU’s main instrument for supporting job creation, helping people to get better jobs and creating fairer working opportunities for all EU citizens.

The ESF funds tens of thousands of local, regional and national employment-related projects throughout Europe: from small charity initiatives helping people with disabilities to find suitable work, to nationwide projects providing vocational training for everyone. ESF’s priorities differ for each Member State. National governments agree on these priorities with the EC, for a period of seven years.

The 2014-2020 priorities are:

  •          Boosting the adaptability of workers by teaching new skills, and supporting enterprises to adopt new ways of working;
  •          Improving access to employment by helping young people make the transition from school to work, and training less-skilled job-seekers to improve their job prospects;
  •          Helping people from disadvantaged groups to get jobs through vocational training and lifelong learning opportunities.

Budget

In this period, the ESF will provide some €80 billion (in current prices) in funding.

Activities funded

Through this programme, the EU invests in 3 main areas:

  1. Education training and lifelong learning, 
  2. Effectiveness of labour markets and equal access to quality employment, 
  3. Social inclusion, health and combatting poverty.

In 2021, ESF will be replaced by ESF+ with the same objective of upward economic and social convergence across Europe. ESF+ will bring simplified rules and processes to the table to ensure a better impact by merging 5 programmes: ESF, Youth Employment Initiative, Employment & Social Innovation EaSI, Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived FEAD and EU Health programme. It will also be further aligned with the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Semester, and EU policies in social, health and employment sector.