European Social Fund+ - Performance

ESF+ (million EUR)

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

Recovery assistance for cohesion and the territories of Europe programme (REACT-EU) under the ESF (million EUR)

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

The EU’s relevance, resilience and success in the decades to come will depend on its ability to remain competitive in the global economy and to ensure high levels of employment, education and training, health, social inclusion and active participation in society. The European working age population will, in the period up to 2040, decrease by some 15 million (- 7%). In a context of already increasing skills shortages, this development will place a strain on growth. Investing in pulling inactive persons into the labour market, including through social inclusion pathways, and investing in reskilling and adult education, as well as in the quality of regular and vocational education and training education, is increasingly of strategic importance for sustainable growth in the EU. This requires the EU to invest in people, tackle various social challenges (including unemployment and persistently high rates of poverty and social exclusion especially of marginalised groups, such as Roma and migrants) and ensure fair labour mobility.

Ample evidence demonstrates that, given the scale and effect of the challenges, EU policies aiming at promoting social cohesion and social rights would not have been implemented without complementary EU investment. EU-level support of Member States’ efforts helps promote reforms that are beneficial to individual Member States and the EU as a whole. Also, these measures that have a focus throughout the territories of the EU have an importance for the broader democratic construct of the Union.

There is a need both for policy initiatives and for targeted supporting actions to address the above challenges. The European Social Fund+ (ESF+) aims to support Member States and regions to achieve high employment levels, fair social protection and a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the future world of work, as well as inclusive and cohesive societies aiming to eradicate poverty and delivering on the principles set out in the European Pillar of Social Rights ⁽¹⁾.

^{(1) European Pillar of Social Rights.}

The specific objectives of the ESF+ are to:

1. improve access to employment and activation measures for all jobseekers in the labour market, in particular young people, especially through the implementation of the ‘Youth Guarantee,’ for long-term unemployed people, disadvantaged groups and inactive people, and promote self-employment and the social economy;
2. modernise labour market institutions and services to assess and anticipate skills needs and ensure timely and tailor-made assistance and support for labour market matching, transitions and mobility;
3. promote a gender-balanced labour market participation, equal working conditions and a better work–life balance, including through affordable care for children and other dependent persons;
4. promote the adaptation to change by workers, enterprises and entrepreneurs, active and healthy ageing and a healthy working environment that addresses health risks;
5. improve the quality, inclusiveness, effectiveness and labour market relevance of education and training systems, so as to support the acquisition of key competences and promote dual-training systems and apprenticeships;
6. promote equal access to and completion of quality and inclusive education, training and learning, in particular for disadvantaged groups, from early childhood education and care through general and vocational education and training, to tertiary level, as well as adult education and learning, including facilitating learning mobility for all and accessibility for persons with disabilities;
7. promote lifelong learning, in particular flexible upskilling and reskilling opportunities for all, taking into account entrepreneurial and digital skills; better anticipate change and new skills requirements based on labour market needs; facilitate career transitions; and promote professional mobility;
8. foster active inclusion with a view to promoting equal opportunities, non-discrimination and active participation and improving employability, in particular for disadvantaged groups;
9. promote the socioeconomic integration of non-EU-country nationals, including migrants;
10. promote the socioeconomic integration of marginalised communities, such as Roma people;
11. enhance equal and timely access to quality, sustainable and affordable services, including services that promote access to housing and person-centred care, including healthcare; modernise and promote access to social protection, with a particular focus on children and disadvantaged groups; and improve accessibility (including for people with disabilities) to and the effectiveness and resilience of healthcare systems and long-term-care services;
12. promote the social integration of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including the most deprived people and children;
13. address material deprivation by providing food or basic material assistance to the most deprived, including children, and to provide accompanying measures supporting their social inclusion.

The ESF+ strand under shared management carries out a variety of interventions described in national and regional programmes, including quality and inclusive (vocational) education and training, the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, lifelong learning and career transitions, active labour market policies, adaptation of workers and enterprises to change, modernising and building the capacity of public employment services, equal access to quality social and healthcare, social inclusion activities, including social integration of people at risk and the fight against child poverty, integration of non-EU nationals and marginalised communities distribution of food and goods, etc.

The employment and social innovation (EaSI) strand under direct and indirect management supports (i) analytical activities, including in relation to non-EU countries (e.g. studies, social experimentation evaluating social innovation, monitoring and assessment of the transposition and application of Union law), (ii) policy implementation (e.g. cross-border partnerships, labour-targeted mobility scheme), (iii) capacity building (e.g. networks at Union level, national contact points, stakeholders' transnational cooperation) and (iv) communication and dissemination activities (e.g. mutual learning through exchange of good practices, guides, events, events of the Presidency of the Council etc.).

The ESF+ is the main instrument of the EU for investing in people’s employment, education and skills, and social inclusion ⁽¹⁾ to support economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU.

The ESF+ is composed of two strands: the ESF+ strand under shared management encompassing the previous European Social Fund (ESF), the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD); and the EaSI strand, implemented under direct and indirect management.

DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is the lead DG for the Commission.

The responsibility for employment and social policy lies primarily with the Member States. The European Union mostly supports and complements Member States’ efforts by co-financing projects with ESF+ resources at national and regional level, therefore operating under shared competence.

The EU may also adopt minimum requirements in the form of directives, which enable EU Member States to adopt additional stricter provisions. Still, no financing is directly linked to the implementation of directives. Furthermore, in the context of the European Semester, underpinned by the employment guidelines, the Council on the proposal of the Commission may adopt country-specific recommendations for areas covered by named guidelines. These recommendations play an important role in setting the priorities for ESF+ support.

In addition to the ESF+ regulation, the shared management strand of the ESF+, as part of the cohesion policy, is mainly regulated by the common provisions regulation. The rules on management, programming, implementation, monitoring, and auditing to be applied are provided for in the common provisions regulation, whereas the specific objectives, fund-specific rules on the methods of implementation, programming, thematic concentration, eligibility, indicators and reporting are provided for in the ESF+ regulation.

^{(1)  Articles 162 to 164 and 174 to 178 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.}

The ESF+ merges several funds/programmes from the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, namely the ESF, the YEI, the FEAD and the EaSI programme. The merging of the funds is expected to reduce the administrative burden linked to the management of different funds. The merger is based both on the results of evaluations and on stakeholder consultations.

ESF+ offers an optimised design compared to the 2014-2020 period. In the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, the above programmes were addressing similar policy objectives but were implemented independently according to different sets of rules, making it difficult to develop synergies. In the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework, these funds are merged into a single programme to pool available resources to support integrated investments in people, to streamline and simplify the funding landscape and to create additional opportunities for synergies. The ESF+ has thirteen specific objectives that have a broader scope but are fewer and more streamlined than the previous ESF, which had nineteen specific objectives.

Furthermore, the ‘categories of regions’ apply less stringently on ESF+ programming compared to its predecessor programmes, as the funding follows the end beneficiary. Member States are allowed to use funding from any category of region of the programme to provide support to operations across the territory of the Member State. The only condition is that these operations contribute to the objectives of the programme, irrespective of where they are implemented.

Programme website:

• ESF+

Impact assessment:

• The impact assessment of the ESF+ was carried out in 2018.
• For further information please consult: https://europa.eu/!uV97Jw

Relevant regulation:

• Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
• Common Provisions Regulation 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and Council (for the shared management strand of ESF+)

Evaluations:

1) European Social Fund

Four thematic evaluations on ESF support between 2014 and 2018 were finalised in 2020:

• evaluation of the ESF/YEI support to youth employment⁽¹⁾;
• evaluation of the ESF support to employment and labour mobility (Thematic Objective 8 excluding support to youth employment)⁽²⁾;
• evaluation of ESF support to social inclusion (Thematic Objective 9)⁽³⁾; and
• evaluation of ESF to education and training (Thematic Objective 10)⁽⁴⁾

Their key findings were presented in the ESF+ Programme Statement for the 2022 Draft Budget.

In 2022, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion carried out an evaluation and a study in preparation of the ESF ex post evaluation.

• The evaluation of the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus, which focuses on whether the ESF has been able to provide the necessary type of support to the right target groups in a timely manner. The related staff working document will be finalised by the second quarter of 2023.
• The meta-analysis of ESF evaluations, which attempts to generalise national ESF evaluations’ findings through statistical methods.

2) Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived

The key findings of the latest evaluation ⁽⁵⁾ have been presented in the ESF Programme Statement accompanying the 2020 Draft Budget.

In 2022, managing authorities of FEAD operational programmes type I (i.e. providing food and/or basic material assistance and accompanying measures) carried out a structured survey on end-recipients, to be reported to the Commission in June 2023.

According to Article 18 of the FEAD regulation, the Commission shall carry out an ex post evaluation to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the fund and the sustainability of results obtained, as well as to measure the added value of the fund. This ex post evaluation shall be completed by 31 December 2024.

3) Employment and social innovation programme

The EaSI programme’s mid-term evaluation covered the implementation 2014-2016 period ⁽⁶⁾ and the findings were included in the ESF Programme Statement for Draft Budget 2020.
In 2022, the EaSI ex post evaluation, covering the overall implementation 2014-2020 period, and the European Progress Microfinance Facility final evaluation were completed. For further information please consult: https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/publications/studiesdb/Consultation.xhtml?studyProjectId=12185.

The third EaSI performance monitoring report covering the activities in 2017 and 2018 was published in March 2020 ⁽⁷⁾ and the conclusions were presented in the ESF+ Programme Statement accompanying Draft Budget 2022.

The fourth EaSI performance monitoring report covering the 2019-2020 period was published in 2022. For further information please consult: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8501&furtherPubs=yes

^{(1)  Evaluation of the ESF/YEI Support to Youth Employment.}

^{(2)  Evaluation of ESF Support to Employment and Labour Mobility.}

^{(3)  Evaluation of ESF Support to Social Inclusion.}

^{(4)  Evaluation of ESF to Education and Training.}

^{(5)   FEAD Mid-Term Evaluation, (SWD(2019)148).}

^{(6)   EaSI Mid-Term Evaluation.}

^{(7)   EaSI Performance Monitoring Report.}

• The implementation of the shared management strand of the ESF+ started slowly in 2022 after it was significantly delayed in 2021. All programmes with an ESF+ contribution (except for one technical assistance programme which was carried-over to 2023 and adopted in the beginning of the year) were adopted. As a result, the relevant budget appropriation was fully committed in 2022 (budget commitment) and the pre-financing amount of 0.5% was paid, complemented by an additional 0.5% pre-financing for the FAST-CARE Initiative.
• For 2023, the budget implementation of the ESF+ programmes will continue. The relevant budget allocation can be committed and the outstanding pre-financing payments will be executed, including a second additional pre-financing of 0.5% under the FAST-CARE initiative. In addition, it is expected for 2023 that the first interim payment requests will be submitted by the Member States and can be paid.
• Despite the slow start in implementation of the 2021-2027 ESF+ programmes in 2022, a smooth transition between the 2014-2020 programmes and the new programmes was ensured. In addition to the recovery assistance for cohesion and the territories of Europe programme (REACT-EU) which was adopted in 2021 to support Member States' recovery from the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, three other amendments to the common provisions regulation were adopted in 2022. These allowed for the increase in flexibility of the 2014-2020 cohesion policy rules necessary to react to crises. Namely, the CARE and FAST-CARE initiatives allow Member States to reallocate available funding from the 2014-2020 programming period to provide emergency assistance to people fleeing Ukraine and to address the consequences. In addition, the Commission's proposal on 'Supporting affordable energy' introduces further flexibility, allowing Member States to use available funds under their 2014-2020 allocation to provide direct support to vulnerable families and small and medium-sized businesses to help them face increased energy costs.
• The request for Draft Budget 2024 builds on the adopted financing plans for the 2022-2027 period accompanying the programmes. In total, it amounts to EUR 16.6 billion for 2024. Additionally, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is going to adopt a delegated act rolling over simplified cost options, which already existed under 2014-2020 (for education, training of the unemployed, training of employed people, employment-related counselling services). The delegated act will also set out new EU-level simplified cost options and financing not linked to costs values for operations in the field of in-home and community based social services and emergency services for victims of domestic violence and homelessness. As for the uptake of simplified cost options in programmes: 13 Member States have set simplified cost options in their programmes so far. A significant number of further schemes is being and will be prepared in the coming years.
• Concerning the EaSI strand, the delays in the implementation in 2021 due to the late entry into force of the ESF+ regulation, the impact of the pandemic on the organisation of meetings and the ability of some of the stakeholders to take part in EaSI calls for proposals have been partially compensated in 2022. While the financing decisions were timely adopted in late 2021 allowing to start implementation from 1 January 2022, there are still delays in implementation, as all calls for tender and for proposals of 2021 were shifted by 6 months. Also, the award of grants has not reached cruising speed yet, due to a new IT tool that operational units as well as stakeholders were not fully familiar with in 2022. This was anticipated by a prudent request for commitments in the budget 2023. The cut has been carefully weighted so as not to negatively affect the delivery of the programme's objectives in the long term.
• Under the EaSI strand, the Commission awarded eight calls for proposals from 2021. Regarding 2022, the Commission already awarded three calls for proposals and three more are under evaluation. The Commission will continue to support the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). In 2023 through the implementation of activities to support the effectiveness of employment and social policies; keeping the support to evidence-based policymaking, and supporting initiatives of the Commission work programme relating to EaSI, the European Year of Skills, and the EPSR action plan⁽¹⁾, either through preparatory work or monitoring and assessing the implementation. This includes initiatives on long term care, protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to asbestos at work, social dialogue, guidance on Distributional Impact Assessment and tackling employment and social risks and addressing labour shortages in the EU in the geopolitical context.
• In 2023, the Commission will allocate EUR 57 million in grants, EUR 32 million in procurement and EUR 35 million in indirect management.
• The request for Draft Budget 2024 is conservative and based on the execution in 2021 and 2022. It is expected that 2024 will still be a bridging year until cruising speed at the level of the financial programming can be reached in 2025.  As the budget implementation of the 2021-2027 ESF+ programmes is only taking off at the moment, it is too early to make predictions over planned decommitments. So far, no budget appropriation had to be decommitted.

^{(1) The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.}

^{% of target achieved by the end of 2021.}

Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators

• The ESF implementation is on course, with, end 2022, no decommitments of funding in Member States due to delays in implementation. The year has been marked by the war of aggression against Ukraine, and the resulting flows of displaced persons, many unaccompanied minors. Many Member States had to show significant flexibility in using the funds, and making optimal use of the provided flexibilities.
• Implementation progress and challenges were addressed in the regular ESF Technical Working Group and ESF Committee meetings. Discussions focused, for example, on promoting the use of simplified cost options in ESF programmes and getting all relevant stakeholders more involved by sharing best practices. Also more emphasis is being placed in this group on exchanges between Member States, so that good practices are widely promoted. This practice will continue, with the aim of continuing the sharing of innovative ways and to simplify the implementation in the 2021-2027 period. For example, this includes Member State presentations on their experience with the use of financing not linked to cost, reception of refugees fleeing the war of aggression against Ukraine or electronic vouchers in FEAD/food and material support for the most deprived implementation.
• By the end of 2022 the overall ESF project selection rate, including for the additional allocation for recovery assistance for cohesion and the territories of Europe (REACT-EU), stood at 108.4%. In 2021, nearly EUR 13.4 billion had been paid to the 2014-2020 ESF programmes, along with nearly EUR 1.1 billion for REACT-EU, lifting the absorption rate to 72.5% (total payments made compared to allocation, including REACT-EU). The level of ESF expenditure certified to the Commission remained high in 2021. This confirms that a mature phase of implementation has been reached for the majority of the programmes. Implementation has not been affected by the COVID-19 health crisis thanks to the effects of the programme amendments under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives and the higher flexibility provided for all European structural and investment funds.
• In regard to the YEI, the mature phase of implementation continued in 2022. By the end of 2022, the total eligible cost of YEI operations selected for support was EUR 12.2 billion, and more than EUR 8.1 billion had been declared by beneficiaries. By the end of 2022, nearly EUR 3.8 billion had been paid to the Member States in relation to the YEI (including interim payments and pre-financing).
• According to the 2021 annual implementation reports, most ESF programmes advanced with implementation rates increasing by 10-20 percentage points compared to 2020. However, differences still exist in terms of expenditure declared as some Member States achieved full budget implementation and others are still lagging behind on implementing their ESF and/or YEI budget. The most common reason for this is capacity constraints on the part of Member State authorities. Implementation weaknesses are regularly addressed bilaterally by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion’s geographical desk officers in the context of ESF implementation and ESF+ programming negotiations with managing authorities.
• The use of financial instruments also increased. Eleven Member States included them in 31 operational programmes for the 2014-2020 programming period; overall, 85 financial instruments were set up. Operational programme contributions of EUR 758 million were committed to these financial instruments including EUR 521 million of ESF. Most financial instruments supported by ESF and YEI were established under Thematic Objective 8 ‘promoting sustainable and quality employment and supporting labour mobility’. There were also financial instruments under Thematic Objective 9 ‘promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and any discrimination’ in BG, CZ, HU, IT and PL. Thematic Objective 10 ‘investing in education, training and lifelong learning’ was addressed by financial instruments in IT, MT and PT. Managing authorities mainly established loan or micro-loan with some exceptions, including equity and guaranty schemes. In 2014-2020 their use was extended to all thematic objectives and was intensified thanks to an improved regulatory framework and more flexible implementation options. The increased take-up of financial instruments was also supported by fi-compass ⁽¹⁾ advisory platform, a joint initiative of the European Commission and the European Investment Bank aiming at building capacity within the ESF managing authorities.
• In 2022, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion continued providing technical and policy guidance on the programmes through the monitoring committees to ensure that they are on track to deliver the expected results.
• In 2022, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusionran the ESF Transnational Cooperation Platform until its conclusion in July. This is the framework for activities relating to transnational cooperation between the Member States’ ESF managing authorities and other stakeholders involved in ESF planning, implementation and monitoring. It concerned four communities of practice: employment, education and skills; social inclusion; social innovation; and result-based management. Its aim was to foster mutual learning and good practices, while paving the way for the 2021-2027 programming period and ESF+. Due to the pandemic, all activities took place online. After July 2022, and during the 2021-2027 period, transnational cooperation activities will take place under the ESF social innovation+ initiative. With a budget of EUR 197 million, the initiative will be implemented under indirect management by the Lithuanian European Social Fund Agency. The first activities of the initiative are expected to start in the second half of 2022.
• The gap between the project selection rate on the ground and the implementation rate of the ESF is expected to reduce significantly in 2023 and 2024. According to the Member States’ forecasts, EUR 23.8 billion is expected to be sent to the Commission for reimbursement in 2023, lifting the implementation rate to 82% of the total envelope. An additional EUR 12.5 billion is expected to be requested for reimbursement in 2024, further raising the ESF’s implementation rate to 89%. Moreover, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion will continue its work on assessing programme amendment requests submitted by Member States to ensure that the ESF and YEI programmes are policy and result oriented.
• In March 2022, in order to help Member States and regions to provide emergency support to people fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Commission adopted CARE. The initiative introduced the necessary flexibility into the 2014-2020 cohesion policy rules to allow the swift reallocation of available funding to provide such emergency support. It was extended in June 2022 with the adoption of the FAST-CARE initiative. It added further flexibility to the rules of Cohesion policy for those welcoming and integrating displaced persons. In particular, it introduced the possibility of a 100% co-financing option for priorities promoting the socioeconomic integration of non-EU nationals and introduced EUR 3.5 billion of additional pre-financing available to Member States in 2022 and 2023. As part of the repowerEU legislative package, the Commission proposed the ‘Supporting affordable energy’ initiative which aims to introduce further flexibility, allowing Member States to use unspent funds under their 2014-2020 allocation to provide direct support to vulnerable families and small and medium-sized businesses to help them face increased energy costs.

^{(1) FI-compass.}

^{% of target achieved by the end of 2021.}

Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators

• In 2021, a total of 15 million individuals received food assistance through FEAD ⁽¹⁾, and another 2.1 million individuals received material assistance. Slightly under 18 thousand individuals received social inclusion support (OPII). Of this total of end recipients, 50% were women, 26% children and 11% above 65 years old. A total share of 18% were migrants, people with a foreign background or minorities, 6% persons with disabilities and 5% homeless. The number of end-recipients increased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and remained relatively stable in 2021 as well. The amount of food counted in tonnes has increased steadily since 2019, to almost 450 thousand tonnes of food in 2021. This increase is related to increased precariousness during COVID-19 lockdowns.
• By the end of 2021, the total approved expenditures reached EUR 4 680 million, which is the equivalent of 94% of the total resources allocated for the 2014-2020 programming period by 2021, or EUR 5.0 billion. This total budget includes both EU funds and national co-financing of FEAD programmes by the end of 2021, as well as an increase of 0.5 billion related to REACT-EU.
• The annual amount of expenditure incurred by beneficiaries and paid for the implementation of operations in 2021 has increased considerably in comparison to earlier years to EUR 768.3 million, reaching a total EUR 3 614.5 million by the end of 2021 (or 65% of the total budget). In terms of declared expenditure, an acceleration in comparison to earlier years can be observed as well, reaching an annual amount of declared expenditures of EUR 703.9 million, reaching EUR 3 115.3 million in total, or 63% of the total budgets.
• By 2022, Cyprus, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland had fully implemented their budget from the Food and/or basic Material Assistance Operational Programme (OP I). The average implementation rate at EU level is 77%. Currently, Bulgaria (99%), Hungary (99%), Ireland (90%), Latvia (99%) and Poland (97%) are advancing relatively well and on the current track of implementation are projected to declare expenditures at the level of their entire budgets by the end of 2023. Additional efforts will be necessary particularly in Italy (current implementation of 60%), Croatia (60%), Romania (64%) and France (69%) to accelerate implementation to avoid decommitment of FEAD budgets by the end of 2023.
• Despite a steady increase, the current trend of increasing implementation would not be enough to declare all budgets by the end of 2023. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the budget implementation in 2023.

^{(1) A person may be recipient of multiple forms of FEAD support and thus reported for more than once.}

^{(*) Average of results for 2014-2021 compared to target.}

^{(**) A person may be recipient of multiple forms of FEAD support and thus reported for more than once.}

Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators

• Up to the end of 2020, EaSI had committed close to EUR 898 million. Of this, 56% supported activities under the progress axis, 20% supported activities under the EURES axis and 22% supported activities under the microfinance / social entrepreneurship axis. Therefore, the commitments made under all three axes were well in line with the indicative percentages envisaged in the EaSI legal basis.
• The Progress axis has supported actions in three thematic sections. Over the whole period of the programme, the thematic section of social protection received the largest share of funding (50%), with the thematic section of employment accounting for 28%. The thematic section of working conditions received the smallest share of funding per axis (10%). The shares of funding for the three thematic sections under the progress axis exceeded the minimum shares of financial commitments envisaged in the EaSI legal basis. In 2021, the progress axis focused on gathering evidence through studies, analyses and statistics to shape policy developments. The axis fostered a shared understanding of policy options through policy debates. It also promoted the involvement of civil society by providing financial support for 23 key EU-level non-governmental organisations via 23 operating grants. The EURES axis has supported actions in three thematic sections. Over the whole period of the EaSI programme, the development of services for the recruitment and placing of workers in employment through the clearance of job vacancies and applications at the Union level received the largest share of funding (49%), while activities to induce transparency of job vacancies and applications accounted for 33%. The smallest share of funding was dedicated to cross-border mobility (10%).
• The committed funding for activities related to transparency of job vacancies and the development of services exceeded the minimum shares set in the EaSI legal basis while commitments made for cross-border partnerships were below the set target (Figure 2). The minimum target (>18) was not reached, and this was mainly because of the quantity and quality of applications received. The intra-mobility report explaining the mobility flows of cross-border workers revealed that cross-border commuting is more frequent between Member States such as Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Czechia while it is less frequent between newer Member States. Therefore, there was less demand and equally fewer proposals submitted.
• The EURES axis has supported actions in three thematic sections. Over the whole period of the EaSI Programme, the development of services for the recruitment and placing of workers in employment through the clearance of job vacancies and applications at the Union level received the largest share of funding (49%), while activities to induce transparency of job vacancies and applications accounted for 33%. The smallest share of funding was dedicated to cross-border mobility (10%). The committed funding for activities related to transparency of job vacancies and the development of services doubled the minimum shares set in the EaSI legal basis while commitments made for cross-border partnerships were below the set target (Figure 2). The minimum target of the cross-border partnerships  (>18%) was not reached, and this was mainly because of the quantity and quality of applications received. The intra-mobility report explaining the mobility flows of cross-border workers revealed that cross-border commuting is more frequent between Member States such as Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Czechia while it is less frequent between newer Member States. Therefore, there was less demand and equally fewer proposals submitted. In 2022, the EURES axis supported the European Job Mobility Portal and training courses on EURES services, and provided horizontal support to the member organisations of the EURES network. It continued financing cross-border partnerships supporting mobility for frontier workers in the cross-border regions, along with targeted mobility schemes. The 13 EURES calls for proposals launched between 2014 and 2020 resulted in 94 contracts. Activities under the thematic section focusing on cross-border partnerships have not reached the minimum indicative target for financial commitments, mainly due to the quality of the applications received under the call for proposals. Furthermore, as indicated in the intra-mobility report, cross-border commuting affects certain Member States to a higher degree, with newer Member States affected to a much lesser extent. This affects the level of demand, the proposals submitted and the projects implemented. 
• The Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship axis supported actions in two thematic sections. Over the period of the EaSI Programme, the thematic section of Microfinance received 48% of funding while the activities under the thematic section of Social Entrepreneurship accounted for 38%. The shares of funding committed for both Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship thematic sections exceeded the minimum shares of financial commitments envisaged in the EaSI legal basis (>35%)
• In the 2021-2027 programming period, EaSI is a strand of the ESF+ and is no longer structured in axes. The successor activities under the former microfinance and social entrepreneurship axes will be implemented under the InvestEU Fund.

^{(*) % of target achieved by the end of 2022.}

Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators