Blog Articles

In recent weeks a lot of work has been done on EU funding instruments. I participated in a meeting about transnational cooperation in the European Social Fund (ESF). The European Commission has set up nine thematic transnational networks focusing on different themes, ranging from social inclusion, employment, migrants, youth unemployment to partnership, governance and simplification of access to the ESF. The aim of these network is to help develop better and more effective employment and social policies and improve the delivery of reforms, essentially by enabling people to learn from experiences and good practices in other countries.

During the discussions, it emerged that civil society organisations and local authorities still find it difficult to get access to the ESF. The main difficulties that were mentioned range from a lack of transparency, insufficient information, not enough consultation of stakeholders, a high administrative burden, limited use of capacity building measures for beneficiaries, a lack of alignment between the priorities set at national and regional level and those at local level, and delays in payments by Managing Authorities.

At Social Platform we have been looking into how to facilitate access to the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), including the ESF. Our members echo concerns that grass-roots level civil society organisations find it very difficult to get funding from the ESF. Some members told us that it seems that it is easier for local and regional level civil society to get involved in European transnational programmes, often directly managed by the European Commission, rather than in ESF or other ESIF projects.

We are launching a survey to get more information about the use of ESIF by civil society and other beneficiaries. The survey is aimed at:

• Better understanding where the main difficulties in getting access to ESIF lie.
• How the 20% of the ESF devoted to fighting poverty and social exclusion is used.
• How the partnerships between the Managing Authorities and the partners, including civil society organisations, have been implemented in different Member States and regions.
• How technical assistance and capacity building for beneficiaries have been used by Member States to improve the management of the funds.

We would encourage any beneficiary of ESIF projects to participate in our survey, which will be open until 22 August. The information gathered will help us to make proposals to the European Commission on how to improve the regulations of the funds and their implementation at national level. Our member the European Association of Service Providers with Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) has already released ten recommendations to improve access to ESIF, which Social Platform supports. This survey will complement this work to see if additional elements emerge that should be considered.

For any information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me: valentina.caimi@socialplatform.org.