RESOLUTION A3-0057/93

Resolution on the European Parliament's approach to the revision of the European Social Fund

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Martin and others on the European Parliament's approach to the revision of the ESF (B3-0893/92),

-having regard to the conclusions of the Edinburgh European Council of 11-12 December 1992 on the future financing of the Community,

-having regard to its resolutions of 12 July 1991 and 16 September 1992 on the implementation of the Structural Funds in the 1989 and 1990 financial years respectively, and its resolution of 22 February 1991 on the operation of the Social Fund,

-having regard to the resolution adopted by the Council of Ministers on 3 December 1992 on the need to resolve the problem of unemployment in the Community,

-having regard to its resolution of 22 January 1993 on Community structural policies - assessment and outlook,

-having regard to the Commission Communication of 23 December 1992 entitled 'stepping up the fight against exclusion, promoting integration' (COM(92)0542),

-having regard to the social protocol annexed to the Maastricht Treaty, which gives the integration of persons excluded from the labour market the status of a Community policy,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Employment and the Working Environment and the opinion of the Committee on Women's Rights (A3-0057/93),

A.whereas the European Social Fund (ESF) is one of the instruments of Community structural policy aimed at combating unemployment,

B.whereas the task of the ESF is to support national efforts to fight youth, female and long-term unemployment and the severe poverty and social exclusion which they cause and, in accordance with the broadened objectives pursuant to the new Article 123 of the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht), to back up the Member States' efforts to adjust to industrial change and changes in production systems, in particular through vocational training and retraining,

C.whereas ESF and other Structural Fund measures should dovetail with the rest of the Community's policies and programmes, and whereas the guidelines and priorities laid down by the Community should be taken into account,

D.whereas ESF measures should be based on the fundamental principles of the social dialogue and equality of opportunity and equal treatment for men and women, and whereas the ESF in particular may be an instrument well-suited to combating the disproportionately high level of female unemployment and opening up new job prospects for women,

E.whereas the goals set can be achieved with these measures only if they are prepared and implemented in close cooperation with local or regional public authorities and with the two sides of industry and NGOs, e.g. charitable bodies, operating at local or regional level,

F.whereas the management and use of ESF resources must also take account of the situation and trends in the labour market,

G.whereas Local Employment Initiatives (LEI) and SMUs are important in creating jobs and regenerating the economic and social fabric,

H.whereas increased flexibility in the planning, management and implementation of measures within the framework of ESF Objectives must be accompanied by greater transparency as regards Community interventions, closer partnership, improvements in the system for disseminating information and technical assistance and by strengthening and improvement of the mechanisms and methods for monitoring the use of ESF resources,

I.whereas there is an urgent need to formulate a Community strategy for combating unemployment and preparing human resources to meet the changing requirements of the labour market,

J.having regard to the importance of the Structural Fund revision initiated in 1988 by the European Council, which for the first time introduced a medium-term approach (over five years) to Community policy in this area with precisely defined objectives,

K.in the belief that this concept has proved largely satisfactory and that it can only be successful in the longer term,

1.Approves as a general rule continuation of the established basic principles of concentration, planning, additionality, partnership and subsidiarity;

2.Calls on the Commission to take account of the following guidelines in the revision of the regulation on the Structural Funds and believes that Parliament must make full use of its co-decision rights as established in the Treaty of Maastricht;

3.Recalls that Structural Fund Objectives 1, 2 and 5b will have to take into account the importance of human resources in promoting structural development in the least developed regions, in converting regions or parts of regions affected by industrial decline and in promoting development in rural areas and in the fisheries sector;

4.Calls on the Commission, therefore, when revising the structural fund regulations, to take into account that the ESF has a paramount role in achieving all the structural fund objectives (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5b), thereby ensuring a stronger commitment by the Member States and the Community to financial assistance to support the labour force;

5.Welcomes in principle the consideration of other socio-economic indicators such as national and regional prosperity, the relative extent of structural problems, notably unemployment, in the use of Structural Funds; at the same time, however, stresses that this is only possible on the basis of comparable European statistics in order to maintain the comparability of the regions; stresses the need for eligibility indicators to be clear and consistent;

6.Considers that the existing contribution rates (50% minimum and 75% maximum for Objective 1, and 25% minimum and 50% maximum for other Objectives) and the possible differentiation within these bands, subject to the agreement of the partners, will continue to be adequate to induce the Member States to make an appropriate open contribution in line with the principle of additionality, but calls for an extension of the term of ESF interventions to at least five years;

7.Calls for simplified management procedures, more open decision-making procedures and more effective financial controls through ex-ante assessment, supervision and ex-post evaluations. In addition, local and regional authorities and the social partners must be more closely involved in all stages. Structural interventions should be adjusted in line with the results of supervision and evaluation. Aid should only be granted where the assessment indicates that the medium-term economic and social benefit is suitably proportionate to the funds invested. For this reason, in addition to the annual implementation reports on revision of the Structural Funds, there should also be a mid-term review of the revision of the Structural Funds;

8.Calls, with respect to Objectives Nos. 1, 2 and 5b, for an improvement in defining the criteria for eligibility of measures to be co-financed by the ESF;

9.Takes the view that the efficiency of the ESF has been adversely affected in the past by its being strictly related to calendar years and therefore calls for the introduction of multi-annual financing for longer-term measures;

10.Considers it necessary to shorten the deadlines for transferring funds to the Member States and to regions or individuals;

11.Believes that the horizontal nature of Objectives 3 and 4 must be maintained;

12.Supports the amalgamation of Objectives 3 (tackling long-term unemployment) and 4 (access of young people to employment) to form a new Objective No. 3 (tackling unemployment, particularly by facilitating the access of young people and women to employment and finding new jobs for the long-term unemployed) and its extension to enable those affected by severe poverty and social exclusion to be integrated into social and working life;

13.Stresses in this connection the special importance of establishing equal opportunities for men and women as a task of Community social policy and the need to focus on the training of women in the jobs of the future, offer women new prospects of employment in such jobs and, therefore, to foster pre-vocational training measures, e.g. encouraging women to take up technical occupations;

14.Calls for greater flexibility when defining the criteria for access to support measures (e.g. more flexible age limits when classifying young people as job-seekers or long-term unemployed, consideration of women not registered as unemployed who are looking for work) and expects greater efforts to tackle long-term unemployment by means of continuing training and mobility aids for reintegration into the labour market, along with stronger moves to integrate young people into working life immediately after they leave school, including improvements in the efficiency of vocational training systems and of continuing training and retraining schemes, concentrating these measures on the neediest countries;

15.Expects the measures concerned, in view of the extent and complexity of social exclusion, to be mainly projects of a demonstrative or innovatory nature, some of which should be implemented by NGOs, including, in particular, measures for pre-vocational education (fighting illiteracy, language teaching), initial and further vocational training and retraining and, where appropriate, subsidies to facilitate participation in the support measures, for example to enable women with children to combine this with their family duties;

16.Welcomes the creation of a new Objective 4, in accordance with new Article 123 of the Treaty of Maastricht, encompassing the adjustment to industrial change and changes in production systems, in particular through vocational training and retraining;

17.Regards it as absolutely essential that the measures provided for in Article 56 of the ECSC Treaty for the re-employment of labour, the creation of new jobs and the restructuring of enterprises, which have proved successful over several decades, should serve as a suitable model for a horizontal Objective 4 as amended in accordance with the principles of Article 123. In addition to training and retraining measures, this should include the payment of tide-over allowances, aids to improve mobility and retraining, recruitment and self-employment aids which should primarily be people-centred. Where there is a need for company- or sector-specific support measures, these should chiefly benefit SMUs and ancillary industries; workers' representatives must be involved in the decision-making on measures relating to their particular firm;

18.Considers that the term 'eligible expenditure' as related to ESF co-financing should be clarified;

19.Urges closer coordination of Social Fund interventions with all other existing financial instruments and with the other existing instruments of social policy, whilst ensuring that the ERDF devotes equal resources, alongside the improvement of basic infrastructure, to safeguarding and establishing vocational training schemes and jobs, particularly in Objective 1 and 2 regions;

20.Calls for the necessary coordination mechanisms to be introduced to ensure that ESF projects are synchronized with other Community policies and that funding is not provided for actions which infringe Community legislation;

21.Recalls that the dissemination of information on the possibilities offered by the Structural Funds, especially the ESF, should be improved;

22.Advises the Commission to ascertain whether and how suitable bodies in the Member States could be employed or set up in order to analyze in time industrial change and the consequent specific effects on employment;

23.Considers that the establishment of Community initiatives for cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, continues to be necessary and believes that, in order to tackle any new structural problems arising outside the scope of the Structural Funds' existing Objectives which cannot be tackled by the Member States or regions affected on their own, new Community initiatives such as KONVER must be devised;

24.Calls for a significant increase in ESF financial resources in view of the extension of the ESF tasks requiring the European Parliament's approval and of the scale of the ESF;

25.Calls for more effective procedures for monitoring the outflow of funds, swifter intervention by the Community (technical assistance etc.) in cases of delays or undesirable developments, and, as a last resort, the withdrawal of funding in the event of insufficient outflow;

26.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.