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The european Social Fund andlabour mobiliTy

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PriNTeD ON WhiTe chLOriNe-free PaPer

imporTanT noTe

The information in this brochure is taken from a broader study, produced by Bernard Brunhes international

(BBi, www.bb-international.eu) under the contract “reporting on esf interventions in the eu”. The

background report “esf and labour mobility” was drafted by Nicholas Glytsos and mark Delmartino and

is available in english at http://ec.europa.eu/esf

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labour mobility benefits people and societies

The principle of freedom of movement of people is at the core of the european union and the

european economic area. People may choose to move from job to job, from employer to employer,

from region to region and from one member state to another. all these labour-related movements

and the changes therewith concerned fall under the labour mobility concept. Job to job and

employer to employer labour movements are best described as occupational mobility, while

geographical mobility incorporates region to region and transnational labour movements.

Whenever they move, be it occupationally or geographically, workers fill vacancies in enterprises,

regions or countries of destination, while at the same time relieving departure areas or economic

sectors from excessive or unemployable labour force. The immediate benefit of such a compensation

act is a better match between supply and demand for labour, and the resulting harmonisation

enhances economic growth at the local, regional, national and international level. People are likely

to look for the best productive areas, and to reallocate from low to high productive jobs. Their

individual options have a long-term impact on increasing welfare, and could bring new talent and

innovation to companies.

compared to other territories like australia or the united states of america, both geographical

and occupational mobility is relatively low in europe, leaving considerable room for more labour

movement. Over the past five to ten years, there has been a noteworthy, but not massive, increase

in mobility within the european union, notably from the twelve “new” member states to the fifteen

“old” member states.

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The european Social Fund in a nutshell

The european social fund is devoted to promoting employment in the eu. it helps member states

make europe’s workforce and companies better equipped to face new and global challenges. it

co-finances interventions supported by national public and private funds. The esf strategy and

budget is negotiated and decided between the eu member states, the european Parliament and

the commission. On this basis, seven-year Operational Programmes (OPs) are planned by member

states and approved by the european commission.

Operational Programmes 2000-2006: total expenditure claimed (in € million) per member state by

2 september 2008

Member State Expenditure Member State Expenditure

Austria 1,326 Latvia 115

Belgium 2,416 Lithuania 166

Cyprus 22 Luxembourg 47

Czech Republic 297 Malta 9

Denmark 779 Poland 1,776

Estonia 71 Portugal 7,145

Finland 2,365 Slovakia 241

France 12,204 Slovenia 60

Germany 20,930 Spain 17,388

Greece 4,783 Sweden 2,661

Hungary 288 The Netherlands 2,458

Ireland 1,778 United Kingdom 13,285

Italy 12,909

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eSF 2000-2006: Facts and Figures

most information in this brochure relates to the period 2000-2006. in 2000, the esf was open to the

then 15 eu member states. additional programmes started in 2004 to accommodate the priorities

of 10 new member states. a few figures to illustrate the size of the esf interventions:

Over 200 OPs together spent a total of € 105 billion: just over half (€ 54 billion) was paid ®for by the ESF, while the public and private sectors in the Member States invested the remaining € 51 billion.

More than 75 million people were involved in ESF activities. This corresponds to about ®24% of the total population between 16 and 64 years in the EU.

The ESF is committed to equal opportunities. Overall, the involvement in ESF was ®balanced: 52% were women and 48% men.

ESF is helping to prepare young people find suitable work: 37% of all participants were ®between 16 and 25 years old.

Supporting initiatives to keep people on the labour market is key to the ESF, in particular ®when workers are getting older: seven percent of ESF participants were over 55 years old.

Overall, 54% of ESF participants were unemployed, 38% were employed and 8% were ®inactive, i.e. not readily available to get and stay in a job.

Evaluations and monitoring data show that approximately half of the unemployed ®participants find employment within 12 months of completing an intervention. The range is 40 to 80%.

These figures do not cover the eQuaL community initiative which was also funded by the esf.

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eu efforts to remove the obstacles to mobility

The european union is paying special attention to promoting the gains of labour mobility and

issued a number of communications aimed at removing the obstacles to labour mobility within

europe. The removal of these obstacles is considered by the eu as a crucial factor for the preparation

of a high quality skilled labour force, which forms the basis for developing a dynamic knowledge-

based economy.

The eu is also taking action to make education and training systems more flexible and better

connected to changing labour markets, as well as to boost lifelong learning and skill acquisition

and certification. The most frequent actions taken by the eu to remove mobility barriers across

member states include:

the provision of various incentives for mobility; ®

introduction of reform in labour market practices; ®

constant delivery of information and counselling of workers; ®

improvements in the public employment services or other services offering support to ®mobility;

the establishment of incentives for relocation of workers, and ®

grants and scholarships for students and researchers who want to perform part of their study ®or research abroad.

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The european Social Fund facilitates labour mobility

Labour mobility does not constitute a specific area of intervention for esf. This, however, does

not mean that labour mobility interventions are not eligible for support, on the contrary: the esf

regulations explicitly mention the promotion of job mobility as part of lifelong learning policy (in

the period 2000-2006) and as a means for enhancing the access to employment of job seekers

and inactive people and for their sustainable inclusion in the labour market (in the current period

2007-2013).

moreover, many of the actions relating to the core policy fields of esf like adaptability of workers

and enterprises, active labour market policies and lifelong learning have an influence on labour

mobility. hence there are many more esf supported actions that are not directly linked to labour

mobility, but play a crucial role in the decision of individual workers, jobseekers or students to

move to another job, another region or another country. a few examples:

By supporting initiatives to improve the quality of the education and training systems in ®member states, the esf facilitates the acquisition of complementary skills of workers and jobseekers, who in turn will be better qualified to enter or remain on the labour market and possibly move on to another job in another region or country.

By supporting the efficiency of Public employment services, the esf ensures better assistance ®and counselling to jobseekers who in turn will be better informed about the possibilities on the labour market, including the possibility to apply their skills in regions where such expertise is particularly needed.

By supporting initiatives that facilitate the recognition of qualifications, the esf helps to ®remove an important obstacle to the free movement of persons and thus to the transnational mobility of workers.

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Almost two thirds of EU Member States and more than one third of ®the ESF programmes address labour mobility related issues;

About 675,000 persons benefited from ESF supported activities with ®an explicit link to labour mobility;

At least 17,000 organisations, mostly companies, were encouraged ®through the ESF to adjust and/or improve their organisational functioning with the aim to further mobility;

More than 100,000 workers and trainees were supported to move ®jobs or perform a first on-the-job training away from home;

Almost 100,000 researchers benefited from scholarships, most of ®which were granted to work in another region or country;

Almost 60,000 people had their competences and skills recognised ®and certified.

The eSF support to labour mobility at a glance

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labour mobility as an indirect outcome of eSF interventions

Looking into the contribution of the esf to promoting labour mobility and removing the obstacles

that hinder mobility, a first observation is that while labour mobility is an issue that deserves

attention across the entire eu, not all member states appear to give the same priority to the topic

so far as the opportunities by the esf are concerned. This means that in some member states

mobility may have progressed far enough to attain its equilibrating function, while in others more

mobility cannot be expected to bring enough benefits to be worth pursuing it further. and in

some member states labour mobility may have been achieved through other means than esf

funding.

a second observation is that labour mobility may be the concrete but unplanned outcome of some

esf interventions. it is therefore very likely that member states implemented activities following

which at least part of the beneficiaries changed their job or went to pursue training or employment

abroad. Training is the core activity supported by the esf and the result of such training may be

that individuals obtain the necessary skills that may lead them to consider a change of job or a

(temporary) period of work or study abroad.

in fact, about one third of the eu member states indicated in the esf documents that labour

mobility is an issue of concern and would therefore be addressed in the framework of other

esf policy fields or priorities. Very often the foreseen interventions concern actions that should

contribute to reducing or removing specific mobility related obstacles and take place in a broader

setting, for instance the modernisation of Public employment services.

The eSF support to labour mobility at a glance

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The eSF helps remove obstacles to labour mobility

The esf support to labour mobility mainly relates to two types of intervention addressing a variety

of obstacles: information and guidance services; and recognition and certification of skills. The esf

supports member states and regions in addressing the issue of information and guidance services

by co-financing the creation or development of information services. such centres do not focus

exclusively on labour mobility issues, but include it as part of their portfolio of services. making user-

friendly advice, guidance and counselling opportunities on education and training opportunities,

as well as on job opportunities in other regions or abroad largely available, facilitates both

occupational and geographical mobility. moreover, the esf promotes the cooperation of Public

employment services and other relevant agencies that stimulate inter-regional and international

mobility. The approach and the services on offer may differ, but the scope is identical: offering

people the information to make well-informed decisions on new occupational perspectives.

insight:

The Spanish National Inventory of Certified Professionsin spain, the ministry of Labour and social affairs developed a National inventory of certified

Professions. in 2006 only, 43 certificates were created or updated. Professional certificates

are regulated by royal Decree and have official status across spain. This status increases the

transparency of certifications and encourages the free movement of workers while maintaining a

uniform quality of vocational training.

The Portuguese National System of Recognition, Validation and Certification Portugal successfully established a system of recognition, Validation and certification of skills

with the express aim of reducing the shortages in educational and professional qualifications.

This system fills in an institutional gap underlined by the eu as one of the major barriers to

mobility. since 2000, it involved more than 50,000 persons, both workers and unemployed,

across its 182 regional centres. almost two thirds of the beneficiaries were employed after their

skills were certified.

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insight:

The Finnish programme for occupational mobility promoted job rotation to support

communities undergoing change. it helped reorganise the work and the recruitment of new

personnel in enterprises and developed the co-operation between training institutions and

enterprises. People over 40 were a specific target group of the programme and actions were

undertaken to raise their level of education. more than 45,000 people and 8,600 firms were

involved in the programme. as a result of the interventions, almost 5,500 jobs were created or

safeguarded and 460 firms were created. Job rotation proved to function particularly well in

more than 6,600 sme’s, half of which being micro-enterprises with less than 5 staff. almost 19,000

people completed a degree or qualification and 8,000 of them were over 40 years of age.

The French mobility support programme aimed at facilitating the professional integration

of disadvantaged jobseekers in less attractive sectors, in particular through relocation incentives

and other financial subsidies to cover costs relating to the recruitment procedure. The french

Public employment service (aNPe) and the association of employment in industry and

commerce (asseDic) provided support to beneficiaries taking up an activity for at least one

year in a locality away from the place of residence. Beneficiaries were jobseekers who lived on

minimum social contributions.

The eSF facilitates the mobility of workers

The majority of esf-supported labour mobility interventions between 2000 and 2006 addressed

the mobility actions of individuals: jobseekers, workers, students and researchers. The mobility

of workers and jobseekers is often enhanced through some sort of financial support, such as

assistance for travel, accommodation and services for relocation and readjustment of employees.

One of the major obstacles towards the free movement of workers is the recognition of education

and training certificates abroad and their presumed equivalence to degrees obtained in the host

country. complementing eu policies to facilitate a harmonisation of the higher education structure

(the Bachelor - master degrees in professional or scientific programmes, the so-called Bologna

process) and to create a qualification framework that is valid at both national and european

level, the esf supports the recognition of formal and informal learning, as well as the creation of

institutions that validate competences and promote transparency.

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The eSF promotes the mobility of students and researchers

People may want to go abroad, but certainly young or unemployed people with limited financial

resources may find it difficult to cover the cost of relocation, let alone the cost of a non-remunerated

stay abroad. esf supported students through scholarships to study in a different region or in a

different member state and return home. extensive transnational mobility of students took place

from the overseas isle of La reunion to the french metropolis and back, after completion of

studies or training. The total number of students and trainees who received esf mobility assistance

between 2000 and 2006 was 58,000, of whom 48,000 belong to france (La reunion) - a french

Department with a population of 793,000 - indicating the importance of this educational project

for the island.

a few member states, notably italy and Lithuania, used esf support to attract their own researchers

working abroad to return home. This is a reverse brain drain that benefits the member states that

had been earlier deprived of their educated people.

insight:

Mobility of students and researchers in Sardinia, Italy a mobility programme for sardinia called “master and Back” provided scholarships and internships to

young people who are willing to study in another italian region or another country within or outside

the eu and then return. The programme may last between 6 and 36 months and supports higher

education studies (for people up to 35 years), as well as internships between 6 and 12 months in

universities, firms, research centres and public administrations in italy or abroad (again for people

up to 35 years). it also offers incentives to firms or institutions in sardinia aimed at hiring sardinian

researchers (up to 40 years) who work abroad or in another italian region for a period of 1 or 2 years.

The occupational and geographical mobility of researchers in Spain spain promoted the occupational mobility of researchers between universities and the private

sector in various regions: it has provided incentives to hire PhD’s for the research & Development

sections of private firms and has supported the return and inclusion of researchers who worked

abroad. a total of 62,000 persons and 6,000 companies have benefited from these spanish

programmes on researcher mobility.

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The impact of eSF on labour mobility in europe

The contribution of the esf to the promotion of labour mobility goes well beyond the outputs and

results reported on in the framework of mobility-specific interventions. The reported achievements

in reality underestimate the true reach of esf interventions, but one can say that the esf’s direct

or indirect assistance to labour mobility did make a difference to those beneficiaries and those

member states that made good use of the opportunities offered.

most of the figures mentioned describe the achievements in a limited number of programmes and

member states, but they could create an image of the sizeable impact they had on labour mobility

policies in the countries concerned, notably when taking into account that esf supported:

almost 75,000 researchers in spain; ®

almost 45,000 workers in finland; ®

more than 27,000 PhD and master students in italy; ®

the validation of skills for more than 50,000 people in Portugal. ®

The generation of more and better jobs is the substance and the focal point of the Lisbon strategy

and the european employment strategy. Labour mobility is incorporated in these strategies:

improving the employability and adaptability of the workforce, labour mobility delivers a more

productive labour force and increases employment. The european union has high expectations

that labour mobility under all its forms will have a positive influence on the implementation of

its employment policies. The esf positively contributed to the fulfilment of these expectations

between 2000 and 2006, and continues to do so now.

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Member State Budget Member State Budget

Austria 1,184 Latvia 657

Belgium 2,320 Lithuania 1,210

Bulgaria 1,395 Luxembourg 50

Cyprus 150 Malta 132

Czech Republic 4,436 Poland 11,420

Denmark 510 Portugal 9,210

Estonia 462 Romania 4,335

Finland 1,420 Slovakia 1,764

France 10,275 Slovenia 889

Germany 15,666 Spain 11,426

Greece 5,726 Sweden 1,383

Hungary 4,270 The Netherlands 1,705

Ireland 1,360 United Kingdom 8,598

Italy 15,321

european Social Fund 2007-2013: investing in people

in the current programming period 2007-2013, the esf has a budget of € 76 billion to co-finance

117 Operational Programmes in all 27 member states. National public and private funds amount to

a further € 41 billion. The interventions supported are in the fields of:

(i) adaptability of workers and enterprises;

(ii) access to employment and inclusion in the labour market;

(iii) social inclusion of disadvantaged people;

(iv) reform in education and training systems;

(v) good governance, partnership and the involvement of social partners.

The map shows that esf supports activities across all 27 member states under two Objectives.

additional priorities in the so-called convergence regions are:

(i) lifelong learning and research and innovation;

(ii) capacity building of public administrations and services.

Operational Programmes 2007-2013: total budget (in € million) per member state

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eSF 2007-2013 investing in your future

The level of ESF funding differs from one region to another depending on their relative wealth. EU regions are divided into four categories, based on their regional GDP per head compared to the EU average (EU with 27 or 15 Member States).

Convergence regions: with a GDP per head of less than 75% of the eu-27 average

Phasing-out regions: with a GDP per head of more than 75% of the eu-27 average but less than 75% of

the eu-15 average

Phasing-in regions: with a GDP per head of less than 75% of the eu-15 average (in the period 2000-2006)

but more than 75% of the eu-15 average (in the period 2007-2013)

Competitiveness and employment regions: applies to all other eu regionsPosition as of January 2007

© euroGeographics association for the administrative bounderies

What eSF does for youeSF: active labour market policies and public employment services

eSF: adaptability of enterprises and continuing training of workers

eSF: developing human potential in research and innovation

eSF and labour mobility

eSF: education and lifelong learning

eSF: women, gender mainstreaming and reconciliation of work and private life

eSF and roma

eSF: sustainable development and eco–technologies

eSF: migrants and minorities

eSF: urban areas and local employment

eSF and older workers

eSF and health

eSF and entrepreneurship

eSF and young people

eSF and disabled

eSF and institutional capacity

eSF and social inclusion

eSF and equality mainstreaming

eSF and social partners

eSF support to building partnerships

eSF and culture

check the latest on these publications at http://ec.europa.eu/esf