The Basque Country’s European Social Fund Plus Programme 2021-2027 is among the first two in Spain to be approved by the European Commission

The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) Programme of the Basque Country 2021-2027 is, together with the one presented by Galicia, one of the first two in Spain to be approved by the European Commission, after having received the informal approval.

This approval comes two weeks after the communication and consultation period closed so that any interested person or entity could make written contributions or observations regarding the content and/or future implementation of this programme. For a month, this programme has been publicly presented to all interested agents in the Basque Country, opening a participation process that ended on 19 November.

In order to facilitate knowledge and consultation of the European Social Fund, the Directorate for Cohesion Policy and European Funds has redesigned this section on the institutional website euskadi.eus within the framework of the structural change that led, as of last summer, to aid from the Social Fund being managed by the Department of Economy and Finance.

The ESF Plus is the European Union’s main instrument for investing in people and applying the European pillar of social rights, contributing to a more social Europe. To this end, it allocates economic resources to co-finance actions amounting to 79 million euros for the Basque Country in the period 2021-2027.

In this context, the ESF+ Programme of the Basque Country 2021-2027 will allocate its funds to support the improvement of employability and access to and maintenance of employment and to promote the social integration of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The Youth Guarantee, aimed at young people who are neither studying nor working, continues to be a priority. A new feature this period includes the Child Guarantee, which aims to provide accompaniment and support for minors and their families to reduce the risk of poverty and exclusion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

During the process of drawing up the Programme, the documents of the socio-economic diagnosis and the identification of the main needs and challenges of the region in the fields of action of the ESF+ were shared with the key agents of the BAC in the fields of employment and inclusion who form part of the Employment Forum and the Basque Council for Inclusion.