The co-legislators agreed to support EU-countries using ESF+ funding for skills development in the defence sector and decarbonising industries. Regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will also receive additional support, highlighting their special needs in a tense geopolitical environment.
Under the new rules, EU-countries would receive additional pre-financing of 1.5% based on their amended programme budget if they allocate at least 10% of resources to the new priority skills in civil preparedness and the defence industry, and to decarbonisation. Regions bordering Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine can receive up to 9.5% pre-financing.
In addition to the pre-financing, EU-countries can benefit from a maximum co-financing rate for the dedicated priorities that is 10 percentage points higher than current ones and from 20% exceptional pre-financing.
When amending their existing programmes, EU-countries will have to include obligations to ensure that beneficiaries respect certain working and employment conditions. The new law ensures that micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises will have priority access to the fund to help them develop skills under the new priorities. The agreement also includes language on rule of law conditionality, ensuring that funds frozen because of breaches of EU values cannot be reallocated until the conditions are fulfilled.
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Rapporteur Marit Maij (S&D, NL) said: “We have drawn a clear line in the negotiations: the ESF+ should continue to invest in people, not in large companies. It is clear that the Commission is committed to a shift from social policy to strategic sectors such as defence. This agreement ensures that support remains with smaller organisations and with training that strengthens people and society. In this way, we safeguard the social core of this fund and ensure more stability. I will ensure that this fund will not be undressed in the next MFF, but that it will continue to invest in people.”
Next steps
Both the Parliament and the Council need to adopt the provisional agreement formally before the rules can enter into force.
Background
In parallel, the Committee on Regional Affairs is discussing similar proposals in the context of the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fun