How it is funded
The European Social Fund (ESF) is Europe’s main instrument to ensure fairer job opportunities for everyone living in the EU: workers, young people and all those seeking a job.
The European Parliament proposed to increase funding ine the EU’s budget for 2021-2027. The new version of the fund, known as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), with a budget of €88 billion, focuses on education, training and lifelong learning, as well as equal access to quality employment, social inclusion and combatting poverty.
The Employment and Social Innovation Programme (EaSI) aims to help modernise employment and social policies, improve access to finance for social enterprises or vulnerable people who wish to set up a micro-company and to promote labour mobility via the EURES network. The European Jobs Network facilitates mobility by providing information to employers and jobseekers and also features a database of job vacancies and applications across Europe.
The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) supports workers losing their jobs due to globalisation, as companies may shut down or move their production to non-EU countries, or the economic and financial crisis, in finding new work or setting up their own businesses.
The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) supports member state initiatives to provide food, basic material assistance and social inclusion activities to the most deprived.
The updated version of the European Social Fund Plus merges a number of existing funds and programmes (the ESF, the EaSI, the FEAD, the Youth Employment Initiative), pooling their resources and providing more integrated and targeted support to citizens.