The European Commission has adopted the Maltese Operational Programme “Investing in human capital” financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) in the period 2014-2020.

This programme aims to invest over 132 million (of which 105 million euro from the ESF) to promote employment and social inclusion, improve the education system and enhance the efficiency of the public administration.

Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility commented, “I welcome the adoption of this programme, which will help bring more people into the labour market, in particular young people, offer a fair chance to vulnerable groups and get a better trained population. Our funds will directly contribute to the EU’s strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.”

Investments will be focused on the following priorities:

Employment: 26 million will be invested to support measures which aim at improving the employment prospects of job seekers and inactive persons, as well as at supporting labour mobility and the integration of young people into the labour market. More than 5700 people are expected to get support, including at least 2 700 youngsters.

Social inclusion: 40 million will be invested to finance actions seeking to create more opportunities for groups such as women and the inactive, and to address health needs and inequalities. Over 10 000 people are expected to receive support.

Education: 47.4 million euro will be invested to fund actions in order to reduce early school leaving, to get more students in tertiary education and to increase the participation in lifelong learning. Interventions to strengthen vocational education and training systems are also supported. Up to 12 000 students may benefit from digital technology courses and 8 000 people from lifelong learning or re-skilling and up-skilling.

Public administration: 11 million euros will be invested to help improve the administrative capacity and efficiency, in order to better deliver services to citizens. The target here is to train 4 000 people. Interventions focusing on strengthening the capacity of stakeholders delivering education (including lifelong learning and training), employment and social policies are also supported, with a target of 500 persons within stakeholder organisations. Background

On 29 October the European Commission adopted a “partnership agreement” with Malta setting out the strategy for optimum use of European Structural and Investment Funds in the country for 2014-2020, whereby € 729 million will be dedicated to the Cohesion Policy (current prices, including € 17 million for European Territorial Cooperation funding and € 3.9 million for the FEAD allocation), € 97.3 million for rural development and € 22.7 million for fisheries and the maritime sector.

The European Social Fund plays a fundamental role in supporting Member States’ investment in employment and social policies and human capital, and thereby in strengthening the competitiveness of the European economy as it emerges from the crisis.

Every year the ESF assists more than 15 million people by helping them to upgrade their skills, facilitating their integration into the labour market, combating social exclusion and poverty and increasing the effectiveness of public administrations.

In 2014-2020, for the first time in the history of EU cohesion policy, a minimum ESF share of 23.1 % (at EU level) of cohesion policy funding has been set out.

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