Use of EU funds and potential for a child guarantee

• Author: Meyer, Stefan; Fresno, José-Manuel; Bain, Skye
• Pages: 68-90

Target Group Discussion Paper Children living in precarious family situations

68

5 Use of EU Funds and potential for a Child Guarantee

When referring to EU Funds, we need to take into account that the EU has a diversity of

financial instruments. While some of them are managed directly by the EC – as in the case

of the Community Programmes (i.e. Erasmus+) – others are managed by the Member

States – as in the case of the Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). Both can apply to

the Child Guarantee t o a different extent. The EU Funds under consideration here are in

the first instance some of the ESIF: the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Regional

Development Fund (ERDF), and in some countries the European Agricultural Fund for Rural

Development (EAFRD); additionally, and given the relevance for children living in

precarious family situations, we consider the Fu nd for European Aid to the Most Deprived

(FEAD).

The ESIF are financial instruments of the EU for strengthening economic and social

cohesion.237 In the Programming Period 2014-2020, the ESIF are meant to be concentrated

on the EU 2020 Ag enda, which is aimed at promoting ‘smart, sustainable and inclu sive

growth’ in Europe, and its fi ve target areas. Targets related to a Child Guarantee are

education (rates of early school-leavers below 10%), poverty and social exclusion (at least

20 million fewer people in – or at risk of – poverty/social exclusion) and indirectly

employment (75% of people aged 20–64 to be in work).238

Under the ESF regulation, Member States are asked to earmark at least 20% of their ESF

spending for ‘promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and discrimination’. While this

target is a great achi evement in itself, Member States tend to allocate this funding to the

active inclusion priority, which is often interpreted very broadly, thus leaving an open

question as to the extent to which it clearly targets populations experiencing poverty and

exclusion. The EU 2020 Strategy is monitored in the European Semester. The Annual

Growth Survey and CSRs are key instruments in the process of impl ementation.239

Two of the Thematic Objectives (TOs) of the ESF, TO 9 ‘Pr omoting social inclusion and

combating poverty’ and TO 10 ‘investing in education, skills and life-long learning’, are

closely related to children living in precarious family situations. TO 8 ‘promoting

employment and supporting labour mobility’ is also related as it seeks to promote ‘equality

between men and women and reconciliation between work and private life’.240 Additionally,

the TO 11 ‘Enhancing institutional capacity and ensuring an efficient public administration’

allows for institutional reforms in this area.

At first sight, the TOs of the ERDF and ESF do not refer specifically to children at risk of

poverty and social exclusion, even if the regulations indicate that fun ding may be used to

improve education, health/social infrastructure, and access to affordable and high -quality

services – including out-of-school care and childcare; interventions preventing early

school-leaving; and promoting equal access to good-quality early-childhood, primary, and

secondary educati on. Nevertheless, when reading in detail the i nvestment priorities and

their key m easures, we can find many references to children, including those at risk of

poverty.

237 European Structural and Investment Funds Regulations 2014-2020 (see:

ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/legislation/regulations).

238 The Europe 2020 strategy is the EU's agenda for growth and jobs for the current decade. See:

ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/eu-economic-governance-

monitoring-prevention-correction/european-semester/framework/europe-2020-strategy_en.

239 European Semester timeline: ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-

coordination/eu-economic-governance-monitoring-prevention-correction/european-semester/european-

semester-timeline_en.

240 Regulation (EU) No 1304/2013 of 17 December 2013 on the European Social Fund, Article 3. (a) vi

Target Group Discussion Paper Children living in precarious family situations

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In the tabl es in the Annex w e refer to the investment priorities for the relevant TOs that

allow for developing programmes, projects, and measures with children living in precarious

family situations, as follows.

• Table 7: Investment pri orities related to children in Thematic Objective 8:

Promoting employment and supporting labour mobility).

• Table 8: Investment pri orities related to children in Thematic Objective 9:

Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty).

• Table 9: Investment priorities related to chil dren in Thematic Objective 10:

Investing in education, skills and life-long learning).

• Table 10: Investing priority related to children in Thematic Objective 11: Enhancing

institutional capacity and ensuring an efficient public administration).

The current programming period of the ESIF is seven years, beginning in 2014 and ending

in 2020. The implementation of Funds can be extended for three more years, up to 2023 ,

subject to the rule n+3. According to different reports and to the Country Reports prepared

within the framework of the FSCG, in most of the countries the planning process has been

delayed, as well as implementation. Thi s means that the information provided for this

report is necessarily limited, as in many cases intermediary evaluations are not available.

Several cases refer to what i s planned under the Operational Programmes (OPs) but not

necessary implemented. Furthermore, there are frequent inconsistencies between what

was planned and the effective implementation. Implementation is usually delayed in many

countries and is not necessarily fully coincident with what has been planned, as the OPs

may be amended. Many operations that have been approved have not yet been developed.

Additionally, data is usually available late, in some cases a year after implementation.

The FEAD is designed to support th e most deprived people and covers all Member States.

The definition and targeting of these groups are th e responsibility of Member States. The

FEAD helps to provide material goods, thus giving Member States greater flexibility and

diversity in the type of material assistance they can provide to tackle the worst forms of

poverty. In addition to providing food and basic material assistance, the FEAD also gives

advice and guidance to promote social inclusion and cohesion. It can provide two types of

assistance. According to the mid-term evaluation, the share of children receiving FEAD

help was 29%, either directly or through their families.241

5.1 Extent of use

This Section documents how extensively and in what ways EU Funds (in particular the ESF,

ERDF, and FEAD) have been used to support policies and programmes in favour of children

living in precarious family situations.

Allocation of funds and spending rates

Based on the Country Reports, we can say that most countries are making use of the EU

Funds for supporting children living in precarious family situations: only 3 countries, the

Netherlands, the United Kingdom , and Luxembourg, have not reported measures funded

by the ESIF or FEAD for this group. Th e spend ing rates are still very low. In the Czech

Republic the selection and spendi ng rates by TO by September 2018 were as follows: the

TO 8 selection rate was 78% and the spendi ng rate was 35%; as for TO 9, the selection

rate was 48% and the spending rate was 14%; and for TO 10, the selection rate was 80%

and the spending rate was 6%.242 In Estonia by the end of September 2018, 87% of th e

budget for social inclusion had been selected and 18% spent. In Poland by November 2018,

it had reached approximately 20% in education, only 16% in social inclusion, and 27% for

the employment proj ects. The selecti on rate in Spain for the TOs 8, 9, and 10 was 74%,

49%, and 64% respectively: but the spending rate was 13%, 11%, and 13% respectively.

241 European Commission 2018d.

242 Ibid.