FEAD Regulation - introducing specific measures for addressing the COVID-19 crisis Webinar EUROCITIES, 22 April 2020 #SocialRights
FEAD Regulation - introducing specific
measures for addressing the COVID-19 crisis
Webinar EUROCITIES, 22 April 2020
#SocialRights
Budget: 3,8 bn EUR (current prices) from cohesion allocation
Shared management
General objectives: promote social cohesion and enhance social inclusion
and contribute to achieving the EU2020 poverty reduction target
• -> contribute to poverty reduction
• Specific objective: contribute to alleviating the worst forms of poverty by
providing non-financial assistance to the most deprived persons
FEAD: Facts and figures
2 types of Operational Programmes
a) Food and/or Basic Material Assistance (OP I)- 23 Member States
• Purchase and distribution of food- annual reach 12,5 million people
• Purchase and distribution of basic material assistance (clothes, sleeping bags, school
supplies, etc.) 1 million people
• Accompanying measures
b) Social Inclusion of the Most Deprived (OP II)- DE, NL, DK, SE
• Non-material social inclusion activities outside active Labour market
• Reaches about 35,000 people (dedicated target groups)
FEAD: Scope of support
• Article 2(2) of FEAD Regulation: Persons whose need for assistance is
established according to a set of objective criteria
• Defined at national level (in the OP or later)
Examples: people covered by minimum income scheme; homeless persons;
disadvantaged children; migrants, marginalized communities
FEAD – who are the most deprived ?
• Article 2(3) of FEAD Regulation: through partner organisations (public
bodies or non profit organizations)
• For OP I: Deliver food or material assistance (multiple levels possible);
Provide accompanying measures; May also purchase assistance
• Exclusive list of eligibility of expenditure
• For OP II: undertake social inclusion activities for the most deprived
• Role of cities/ municipalities
FEAD – Implementation on the ground
• Stakeholder exchanges: 18 FEAD network meetings from 2016 until 2019
• FEAD Community: Mutual learning on implementation challenges and next
MFF
FEAD – Networking and Community
• Ensure the most deprived continue to receive FEAD assistance in a safe
environment
• Enable Managing Authorities, partner organisations and other actors involved
in the implementation of the Fund to react quickly to the emerging additional
needs of the target groups
• The most deprived are exposed to further hardship stemming from this crisis.
Reasons and objectives of the FEAD covid-19 amendment proposal
• Ensuring quick and effective crisis response by the FEAD (e.g early
eligibility of actions, flexibility for OP amendments, broadening scope of
eligibility)
• Providing flexibility and liquidity (e.g reporting, control and audit
requirements, temporary increase of co-financing rate)
• Alignment with CRII package (ESI Funds)
Key elements of the proposal
• Modification of key elements of the OP I not subject to COM decision
(only notification) - Article 9(4) FEAD
• Expenditure for operations for fostering crisis response capacity to the
COVID-19 outbreak is eligible as from 1 February 2020 (including when the
OP must be amended) – Article 22(4) FEAD
Alignment with CRII package (ESI Funds)
Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (1)
Food and basic material assistance may be provided through (electronic)
vouchers or cards:
• Rationale: Such indirect delivery reduces contamination risks
• COM proposal: only electronic vouchers for food and/or basic material
assistance, as in the ESF+ Regulation proposal
• EP and CL amendment: also other forms of vouchers are allowed
N.B: preparation costs for vouchers (and meals) are also eligible under Article
26(2)(c) as in ESF+ proposal
Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (2)
Provide protective materials and equipment to partner organisations
(Article 26 (2) (a))
Rationale:
• enables buying protective equipment for partner organisations outside
technical assistance
• Allows continuation of traditional delivery schemes in safe environment
Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (3)
Eligibility for suspended operations and operations that cannot be fully
implemented (Articles 26a, 26b, 26c)
• Rationale: introduce specific provisions regarding the eligibility of costs
incurred by beneficiaries in case the delivery of food/basic material
assistance or social assistance is delayed as well as for suspended and not
fully implemented operations.
• Differentiation between FEAD OP I, OP II and Technical assistance
operations.
• No similar provision in CPR
Providing flexibility and liquidity
Provide protective materials and equipment to partner organisations
(Article 26 (2) (a))
Rationale:
• enables buying protective equipment for partner organisations outside
technical assistance
• Allows continuation of traditional delivery schemes in safe environment
Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (3)
Deadline for Annual Implementation report extended to 30/9/2020(Article
13 (1))
Co-financing rate of 100% on Member State request (Article 20(1a))
• Applicable for the accounting year 2020-2021, provided that the programme
amendment is approved by the Commission at the latest before the
submission of the final application for an interim payment
• Requires a programme amendment
• Need to notify the financial table; from the subsequent accounting year `reset`
financial tables to normal
Alignment with CRII package
Providing flexibility and liquidity (ctd)
Lighter control and audit trail requirements (Article 30 (1a))
• Rationale: Reduce administrative burden; provide flexibility for compliance
with certain management and control requirements (eg audit trail
requirements during confinement periods)
• Based on an analysis of potential risks
• Applies only to FEAD OP I type programmes
Providing flexibility and liquidity (ctd)
• COM proposal adopted 2 April, as part of the CRII Plus package
• COREPER 8 April, Presidency compromise text
• EP Plenary adoption, 17 April
• Council adoption (Wednesday 22 April, tbc)
• Enters into force on the day following the OJ publication
State of play
• Full flexibility to transfer resources for 2020 between the 3 Cohesion policy
Funds (Investment for Growth and Jobs Goal) : ESF, ERDF, Cohesion Fund
(Art. 25a(2) CPR)
• full flexibility for the 2020 allocations
• No minimum share for ESF
• YEI and FEAD: not affected
• Flexibility between categories of regions (Art. 25a(3) CPR)
• Full flexibility on thematic concentration (Art. 25a(5) CPR)
• Increasing EU co-financing rate to 100% (Art. 25a(1) CPR)
State of play Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus(CRII Plus) – COM proposal for CPR (COM(2020)138)
Some examples:
• No more amendments to Partnership Agreements (Art. 25a(6) CPR)
• Deadline for submission of annual implementation reports for all ESI Funds 2019 extended (Art. 25a(9)
CPR)
• Eased use of a non-statistical sampling method for audit (Art. 25a(12) CPR)
• Up to 10% financial flexibility per priority at programme closure (New Art. 130(3) CPR)
State of play Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus(CRII Plus) – Less administrative burden:
The ESF+ components
Support to themost deprived
(FEAD)
European Social Fund + EU priority
actions / experimentation
(EaSI)
Investment in Youth (YEI)
Employment, education andsocial inclusion
(ESF)
Health
Shared management € 100 bn
Reminder:EGF
€ 1,6 bn(outside MFF
ceiling)
Direct mgt € 1,2 bn
Also contributes to other policy objectives, in particular, to PO 1 a
Smarter Europe; PO 2 A Greener, low-carbon Europe
EMPLOYMENT
• (i) Access to employment of all jobseekers
• (ii) Modernising labour market institutions and services
• (iii) Women’s labour market participation, work/life balance, well-adapted working environment, adaptation of workers & enterprises, active & healthy ageing
EDUCATION
TRAINING
• (iv) Improving the quality, effectiveness and labour market relevance of education and training systems
• (v) Promoting equal access to and completion of, quality and inclusive education
• (vi) Lifelong learning, upskilling, anticipating change and new skills requirements
SOCIAL INCLUSION
• (vii) Active inclusion
• (viii) Socio-integration of migrants and marginalised communities e.g. Roma
• (ix) Equal and timely access to services; social protection healthcare systems and long term care
• (x) Social integration of people at risk of poverty;
• (xi) Addressing material deprivation including accompanying measures
Policy Objective 4 - A More Social Europe – Implementing the
European Pillar of Social Rights
Gender equality, equal opportunity & non-discrimination
ESF+ Specific Objectives
• Ensures continuation of support provided by the FEAD in 2014-2020 to OP I:
Addressing material deprivation through food and/or basic material
assistance to the most deprived, including accompanying measures
• Objective of the merge: to promote synergies between ESF and FEAD
support, whilst preserving lighter rules for FEAD-type support:
• ESF+ Regulation and CPR proposals continue to provide for simpler requirements for
this type of operations
ESF+ support for addressing material deprivation (specific objective xi)
The Regulation proposal provides for full flexibility. ESF + support to address material
deprivation can take two forms:
• Specific objective is part of comprehensive ESF + programme
• Specific programme exclusively addressing material deprivation
Relevant derogations in Common Provisions Regulations, such as:
• Performance framework: no targets and milestones
• Exceptions on programming and monitoring
NEW! Electronic vouchers/electronic cards for food and/or basic material
assistance (Article 17 (2))
• May ensure continuation of support provided by the FEAD in 2014-2020 to
OP II: now part of a broader specific objective x – “promoting social
integration of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including the
most deprived and children”
• In “duly justified cases”, addressing the most deprived under specific
objective (x) counts for 2% minimum allocation to address material
deprivation.
• In ESF+ proposal, this falls under Chapter II, General support of the ESF+
strand under shared management (already in 2014-2020 many of the simpler
rules only applied to OP I)
• Common provisions apply throughout
ESF+ support to social integration of the most deprived (specific objective x)
Partnership principle
Social
partners
Civil society
Bodies for
fundamental
rights, gender
equality, non-
discrimination
ESF+
programming,
implementation,
monitoring and
evaluation
ESF+ resources for
capacity building of
partners
PartnershipCPR - Article 6 - Partnership and
multi-level governance
ESF+ - Article 8
1. Each MS organises partnership
incl.:
• urban and other public authorities;
• economic and social partners;
• civil society
2. Involvement at all stages (PA,
preparation, implementation,
participation in monitoring
committees)
3. Continuation of ECCP
4. COM consults partners min. once
a year on programme implementation
• MS to ensure participation of
social partners and civil society in
the delivery of employment,
education and social inclusion
policies under ESF+
• Member States to allocate
appropriate amount of ESF+ in
each programme for the capacity
building of social partners and
civil society organisations.
• Recital 26
• Partnership for innovation
(art.13)
ESF+ programming state of play
• Spring 2019: informal dialogue with Member States
started
• November 2019: COM letter to Member States on
partnership and transparency
• Q3-Q4 2020: expected submission of Partnership
Agreements and programmes
→ formal negotiations can start
References:
- FEAD website https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1089&langId=en
- COM proposal FEAD amendment:
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1089&furtherNews=ye
s&newsId=9638
- CRII Plus press release
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_20_574
- ESF+ COM proposal
Thank you !