DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Investment Directorate
ESF and FEAD Policy and Legislation
Brussels,
EMPL/F/1
Informal Technical Working Group Meeting
13-14 June Amsterdam
Draft minutes
0. Adoption of draft agenda
The draft agenda was adopted.
1 - Minutes of the previous TWG
The minutes of the previous meeting were adopted.
2 - State of play of OP implementation
The Commission updated Member States on: OP amendments, aligning PAs to adopted OPs, the procedure for PA amendments following OP amendments and finally on the state of play of the ex-ante conditionality action plans.
The Commission presented the state of play of draft implementing acts and delegated acts.
3 - Simplified Costs Options
The Commission presented the state of play of SCO.
The Commission confirmed to Member States that the amount of a SCO can be used to demonstrate compliance with State aid rules. The Commission also informed the TWG that a detailed Q&A on technical aspects will be published soon.
Regarding Art. 14(1) of the ESF regulation, the Commissions was finalising proposals for a delegated act for 6 Member States.
On EU level SCO the Commission informed the TWG that it was actively looking into ways to provide more "off-the-shelf" SCO to Member States. In this regard Belgium underlined that in order for EU Level SCO to work all Member States were advised to create national working groups to work on this.
Belgium, Greece and Italy mentioned that state aid rules were still a hindrance to the use of SCO by companies. The Commission replied that, as confirmed by DG Competition and the Legal Service, SCOs are considered to be a reliable proxy for real cost and can therefore be used to verify compliance with state aid rules. The Commission added that amounts smaller than 200 000 euro fell under the de minimis rule. The Commission informed the TWG that a second round of public consultations on the GBER would be held in Autumn and the adoption of a revised version was provisionally foreseen for the second quarter of 2017
Italy, Hungary and Malta informed the Commission of their interest on EU level SCO. Italy mentioned that further clarification would be needed to the EGESIF note, in particular regarding staff costs.
4 - Results of the ESF's 2007-2013 ex-post evaluation
The Commission presented the methodology and key results of the 2007-2013 ex-post evaluation.
5 - ESF Management: Audit
The Commission presented the, Annual Activity Report, the 2014 discharge procedure, the State of play of the DAS and several ECA special reports.
During the debate, the Netherlands and France raised concerns regarding ECA's recommendations on Member States i.e. was ECA overstepping its role. The Commission reminded Member States that the role of ECA, which included the review of the implementation of the EU budget, was stated in the Treaty. This said the Court focused primarily on the Commission and how the Commission implemented its recommendations.
Spain and France raised concerns regarding the high number of audits foreseen to take place in Member States following designation. The EC reminded Member States that system audits were foreseen for the start of the programming period and would progressively decrease.
6 - Community Lead Local Development
The state of play on the programming of CLLD from an ESIF and ESF perspective was presented. The joint initiative for a common ESIF LAGs database was presented by EMPL and DG AGRI's contractor.
Regarding the implementation of CLLD in the ESF, lack of capacity and the existing complexity to ensure coordination of ESI Funds were two of the issues raised by Member States.
The TWG was informed that Managing Authorities would soon be contacted by the Geographical Units of DG Employment in the framework of the centralization of data collection for ESF-funded LAGs.
7 - Erasmus and work placements for VET learners
Following a very short presentation by the EC of the state of play of Erasmus + a tour de table was held on weather Member States would be inclined to implement a similar model to the "knowledge education and development programme" of Poland and to take part in a meeting of Erasmus+ National Agencies and ESF Managing Authorities organised by the Commission.
The vast majority of Member States present mentioned that a Poland type programme could be interesting, although work placements abroad were not a priority in the framework of their ESF Programmes. Spain pointed out that the ESF and Erasmus + target groups were different. All Member States present were quite open to participating in an event organised by the Commission.
8 – Future of the ESF
The Commission presented the draft mandate for the sub-group of the ESF TWG on the future, as well as the draft opinion of the ESF Committee on the future.
The Netherlands stated that the ESF was crucial for Human Capital and Social Inclusion interventions in Member States. In the Netherlands opinion, anti EU sentiment was fuelled by difficulty to show results and by extremely complex procedures, in particular those related to audit. The Netherlands therefore believed the focus of the sub-group discussions should be on better regulation and simplification.
Belgium stressed the importance of simplification and the need to have in mind who the beneficiaries of the ESF really were. Belgium believed the first outcomes of the sub-group discussion should appear by end 2016 and at the latest mid 2017 in order to inform the EC's proposals. Belgium mentioned that DG Employment was quite behind in the preparations for the next programming period when compared to DG REGIO.
Germany agreed with the Commission's proposals and timeframe suggested. Germany mentioned that a reflection on the overarching goals of the funds was crucial, as well as its acceptance by stakeholders such as national/regional parliaments, beneficiaries etc. as the funds were perceived as overly complex and bogged down by administration. Poland also mentioned that it would be important to consider the EU budget as a whole, since the ESF, YEI, FEAD, AMIF etc. were all interlinked in their aims.
France referred to speech made by Commissioner Cretu in 2015 where she provided pointers for the future of Cohesion Policy. France expressed concerns regarding a possible centralisation of the management of the funds by the EC and mentioned as priorities flexibility, simplifications and link with CSRs.
The Commission stated that discussions in the group should be bold. There was a need to look at the entire spectrum of Human Capital interventions, not just the ESF. DG REGIO and Commissioner Cretu had indeed already identified questions for the debate on Cohesion. The Commission promised the ESF Committee secretariat would circulate the speech France referred to. Notwithstanding it was important to hold a discussion on Human Capital. The Commission also underscored the importance of the upcoming MFF discussion in shaping the next period.
9 - ESF Management: state of play of ESF financial execution
The Commission presented the state of play of ESF financial execution.
Feedback received from Member States during the meeting can be found in the table below:
Country / Total OPs / Designated / Percentage / MS feedback given on 14/06/16 / Country / Total OPs / Designated / Percentage / MS feedback given on 14/06/16Austria / 1 / 0% / - / Italy / 29 / 1 / 3% / Q4/2016
Belgium / 4 / 1 / 25% / end 2016 / Latvia / 1 / 1 / 100%
Bulgaria / 3 / 2 / 67% / done 10 June / Lithuania / 1 / 0% / -
Croatia / 1 / 1 / 100% / Luxemburg / 1 / 0% / September
Cyprus / 1 / 1 / 100% / Malta / 1 / 0% / September
Czech Republic / 3 / 0% / end July / Netherlands / 1 / 1 / 100%
Denmark / 1 / 1 / 100% / Poland / 17 / 14 / 82% / end July
Estonia / 1 / 1 / 100% / Portugal / 10 / 4 / 40% / Q3/2016
Finland / 2 / 0% / Q4/2016 / Romania / 2 / 0% / end 2016
France / 33 / 10 / 30% / end 2016 / Slovakia / 2 / 2 / 100%
Germany / 17 / 0% / Q3/2016 / Slovenia / 1 / 0% / end 2016
Greece / 17 / 17 / 100% / Spain / 23 / 1 / 4% / done, but no SFC notification
Hungary / 5 / 5 / 100% / Sweden / 2 / 2 / 100%
Ireland / 1 / 0% / in 2017 / United Kingdom / 6 / 3 / 50% / Q3/2016
TOTAL / 187 / 68 / 36%
10 - Transnational Cooperation: state of play
The Commission and the contractor responsible for the management of the Technical Assistance Platform presented an overview of the work of the last year, including the newly developed partner search database which should help with the coordinated calls for proposals.
The Commission encouraged Member States, especially larger ones, and social partners, to actively take part in the 9 TNC networks.
11 - Long Term Unemployment
The EC presented the possibilities for use of the ESF in the framework of the LTU Council recommendation, and emphasized in particular the recommendation for the creation of Single Points of Contact (SPOCs). The ESF guidance note was also presented to the TWG.
The Commission informed the TWG that national seminars would be held in those Member States experienced a high level of long term unemployment and with CSRs in this area.
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