For Information : Governance of the EU funds needs major improvement

Brussels, 25 November 2016

To: Education and Training Committee Members

Governance  of the EU funds needs major improvement

The ETUC and CEEP, together with their education sector partner organisations ETUCE and EFEE, organised a joint conference on 23 November entitled: “Investment and EU Funds for Education and Training – The European landscape and the role of the Social Partners”.

This joint conference took place in the context of a project being undertaken by the ETUC and CEEP, along with their education sector partner organisations ETUCE and EFEE, which aims at mapping out available funding and investment opportunities for training and education and the role of social partners.

The conference was attended by 80 members of the four project partners who had the opportunity to discuss with speakers of various European Commission directorates (Directorates-General for Employment, Education and Economic & Financial affairs) and the European Investment Bank about the sufficient use of EU funds for education and training needs and about the role of social partners in the governance.

The project research paper presented in the conference and the discussions underlined that

• Social partners have an essential role on policy decisions on skills, education and training, but they have limited access to the funds to implement these policies.
• The social partners would like to see more societal goals in the calls of the different EU funds, and special focus on supporting social dialogue on education and training issues.
• It is essential to improve the governance on the EU funds, in particular the Erasmus+ and ESF, with the involvement of social partners in the process.

The four organisations also agreed on a list of Joint recommendations: Improving social partners’ involvement in the EU support for public investment in training and education at the European level.

The project partners will continue their work in the second phase of the project on mapping out challenges and solutions on the use and governance  on available funds for education and training at the national level.

The Joint recommendations are available here: EN, FR

The final research paper is available here in the following languages: EN, FR, IT, DE, ES, PL