ESF and YEI support to youth employment, including youth entrepreneurship

Resa Koleva, DG EMPL Unit E1Brussels, 22 September 2014

Social Europe

European Social Fund 2014-20 support to youth:

A dedicated investment priority for young people:

Sustainable integration of young people in particular those not in employment, education or training, including young people at risk of social exclusion and young people from marginalised communities, into the labour market, including through the implementation of the Youth Guarantee.

But also other investment priorities relevant for youth measures: Reducing and preventing early school-leaving and promoting equal access to good quality early-childhood, primary and secondary education […];Enhancing equal access to lifelong learning […], upgrading the knowledge, skills and competences of the workforce […]Access to employment, active inclusion, etc.

ESF remains the biggest EU fund to support human capital investment.

Social Europe

Youth Employment Initiative (YEI)

•New instrument established in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2014-20), integrated entirely into the ESF legal framework.

•EUR 6 billion for the period 2014-2020: EUR 3 billion from the ESF + EUR 3 billion from a specific 'youth employment' budget line

•Open to all NUTS2 regions with levels of youth unemployment (15-24 age group) above 25% (in 2012) => 20 MS are eligible.

•In addition to ESF (European Social Fund) resources, which support youth employment in ALL MS and regions

•YEI will be spent faster than the ESF, until end-2018 (i.e. it is "frontloaded"). The aim is to address the problem quickly.

Social Europe

YEI: target group and examples of types of actions

YEI will target individuals only (not systems reforms).Target group: NEETs aged up to 25, or optionally for MS – up to 30 years, who must be residing in the eligible regions and can be:

- inactive or unemployed (including long-term)

- registered or not as job seekersPossible actions: provision of traineeships and apprenticeships; first job experience; hiring incentives for employers to recruit youngsters (e.g. limited subsidising of the salary or social security contribution); job and training mobility measures; start-up support for young entrepreneurs; vocational education and training leading to a qualification; where relevant for early school leavers - second chance programmes.Aim: deliver these actions as part of integrated pathways and based on the individuals' needs/ individual actions plans.

YEI in the Member States

MS YEI allocationBE 42,435,070BG 55,188,745CZ 13,599,984IE 68,145,419EL 171,517,029ES 943,496,315FR 310,161,402IT 567,511,248CY 11,572,101LV 29,010,639LT 31,782,633HU 49,765,356PL 252,437,822PT 160,772,169RO 105,994,315SI 9,211,536SK 72,175,259SE 44,163,096UK 206,098,124HR 66,177,144Total 3,211,215,406

State of play ESF/YEI programming

187 ESF/YEI OPs expected; 183 officially submitted, incl. 34 OPs covering YEI

6 OPs adopted (incl. 3 YEI-relevant OPs representing EUR 1.6 bn)

EUR 6.4 bn of YEI resources programmed Additionally, at least EUR 4 bn of other ESF resources

programmed under investment priority on sustainable integration of young people into the labour market.

Most youth-related OPs envisage self-employment/entrepreneurship measures, both on employment and education side

State of play ESF/YEI programming

187 ESF/YEI OPs expected; 183 officially submitted, incl. 34 OPs covering YEI

6 OPs adopted (incl. 3 YEI-relevant OPs representing EUR 1.6 bn)

EUR 6.4 bn of YEI resources programmed Additionally, at least EUR 4 bn of other ESF resources

programmed under investment priority on sustainable integration of young people into the labour market.

Most youth-related OPs envisage self-employment/entrepreneurship measures, both on employment and education side