DG EMPL studies on the ESF future European Commission – DG EMPL E1 – ESF Policy and Legislation, Financial Engineering ESF Committee – 15 June 2011

List of studies Return on ESF investment in human capital Statistical study of costs and beneficiaries data Performance based management Setting and adjusting performance targets Administrative and institutional capacity building Administrative costs and burdens Focus groups: on proportionality, financial engineering, local actors involvement All reports will be uploaded on the ESF web-site

1 - Return on ESF investment in human capital - coverage Definition: public expenditures for (un)employed on: education and training internships and temporary work placement strengthening the capacity of education and training systems and structures. synthesis of available research findings validation with expert panel (USA & EU) impact analyses on data provided by BE/Flanders, IT/Northern regions, HU and PL taking into account evaluation findings

1 - Return on ESF investment in human capital – key messages training of employed people is socially profitable, but not rewarding enough at the level of the firm  under-investment of private funds training of unemployed people is socially profitable, but not for all target groups, and under the condition that it is associated with job-search assistance a rationale for investing public money in systems and structures at the level of industry it takes years for deriving lessons from an impact analysis; it means that impacts cannot be included in a performance monitoring system

2 - Statistical study of costs and beneficiaries data Ongoing, results in June/July 2011 Statistical study of costs and beneficiaries data ESF data (SFC2007) LMP data (Eurostat) Years: 2007 - 2009 Aim: to set standard rates or costs for some type of operations EU average MS deviations from EU average

3 - Performance based management - coverage purpose: to provide policy advice that could form the basis for a future reform of the ESF to explore possibilities for introducing performance management elements in the relation between ESF managing authorities and the Commission controllability and accountability problems

3 - Performance based management – key messages funding cannot be conditioned by results and impacts, but more realistic to use the aggregated outputs, milestones and occasionally some intermediate results an alternative for aggregating the outputs, milestones and intermediate results of project would be to aggregate the “status” of the different projects might be feasible to link funding to the performance achieved at Major Project level (ongoing discussion of Joint Action Plans) introduction of a performance-based system should be accompanied with simplification

4 - Setting and adjusting performance targets – coverage present the relevant literature on performance measurement for public policies - ALMP and social inclusion identify the methodologies used to assess them propose methodologies to set and adjust ESF targets according to changes in the socio-economic environment data from BE/Flanders, PL, HU and IT also: similar work done in the USA discussed in the RBM expert network

4 - Setting and adjusting performance targets - key messages (preliminary) targets set in function of historical performance Adjustment of targets: two methods tested based on Micro data: robust model linking probability of finding employment with business cycle  simple objective method to adjust targets but (relatively) high data requirements Macro data: model linking performance indicator with country-specific (economic) variables less demanding data but may be less applicable

5 - Administrative and institutional capacity building - coverage analyse the relevance of ESF interventions in administrative and institutional capacity building (ACB) and the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of those interventions; elaborate recommendations on how this priority could work for the ESF in the future; literature/documentary review and qualitative research; analysis at 3 levels: EU, country and case studies; in-depth analysis of 10 selected countries (BG, EL, HU, LT, PL, PT, RO, SI, ES and UK/Wales).

5 - Administrative and institutional capacity building – key messages Report argues there is a strong case for a focused ACB extended beyond Convergence regions; It should : have a stronger focus on economic/employment needs, be aligned with public administration reform frameworks, cover local and regional actors, be implemented in partnership with civil society and with active participation in EU-networking.

6 - Administrative costs and burdens ongoing, final report in September 2011 build on a similar study for ERDF and CF (DG REGIO) but focus on likely impacts of simplified cost options and of results-based management on administrative costs and burdens differences between ERDF/CF and ESF

Focus groups discussions - coverage Not really a study Series of meetings of experts to discuss proportionality and simplification, financial engineering and the involvement of local actors Based on background documents Five meetings in December 2010 / January 2011

Focus groups discussions – key messages Legal certainty Simplification (flat rate for Technical Assistance, costs/rates in regulations, national rules and procedures) Support for the policy based guarantee and for designing comprehensive packages of services for providers of microfinance No consensus on how far the partnership principle must be strengthened and detailed Possible decreasing returns to the further involvement of numerous partners at national, regional and local level

Thank you for attention!