ESF - Europäischer Sozialfonds in Österreich
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ESF
The European Social Fund
The European Social Fund (ESF) is one of the EU’s Structural Funds, set up to reduce differences in prosperity and living standards across EU Member States and regions, and therefore promoting economic and social cohesion.
The ESF is devoted to promoting employment in the EU. It helps Member States make Europe’s workforce and companies better equipped to face new, global challenges.
The ESF is the European Union’s main financial instrument for investing in people, employment and social inclusion and thus contributes to all policy areas.
The ESF was born alongside the European Economic Community in 1957, at the signing of the Treaty of Rome. Even if the objectives have changed in the course of the years, the ESF has always been connected to european challenges like employment, demographic renewal, integration and sustainability.
Since 2000 the ESF has been a key part of the EU’s Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs.
The 2007 to 2013 ESF programme defines two primary objectives, the Convergence objective, which aims to develop areas where the economy is lagging behind the rest of the European Union in terms of a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head below 75 % of the Community average, and the
Regional competitiveness and employment objective for all regions outside the Convergence objective.
Throughout the Union under both objectives, the ESF will provide support for four key areas of action:
- Increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises
- Enhancing access to employment and participation in the labour market
- Reinforcing social inclusion by combating discrimination and facilitating access to labour market for disadvantaged people
- Promoting partnership for reform in the fields of employment and inclusion
