The European Commission has adopted the two national programmes implementing the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) in France to promote inclusive economic development by investing in people and combining social and employment support during the period 2021-2027.    

With a budget of €6.7 billion (€4 billion from the EU and €2.7 billion from France), the programme Employment, Inclusion, Youth and Skills will finance actions in metropolitan France and outermost regions. It will support social and labour market integration, improve education and training systems and provide opportunities for people to develop new and better skills, in particular for the young and the most vulnerable. The social and solidarity-based economy will also be strengthened.

For the first time, the programme  includes measures to provide basic material assistance. It is complemented by a dedicated European Food Aid Programme worth €646.7 million (with 90% EU and 10% national contributions)

More and better job opportunities

Thanks to the Employment and Inclusion programme, over 1.5 million unemployed people and jobseekers will be supported to enter the labour market. In addition, 1.5 million young people under 30 will receive support to either remain in or return to education and training, or to enter the labour market. 20% of the programme budget will be dedicated to youth employment, for instance through the Youth Guarantee scheme (contrat d’engagement jeune) and the new Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve (ALMA) mobility initiative for disadvantaged young people.

This programme will also promote the employment of all people of working age and an inclusive and adapted working environment, notably with measures for equal pay and increased work-life balance. Taking into account the specific needs of France’s outermost regions, the ESF+ investments will foster local business creation and provide 19,000 training placements in metropolitan France for students, teachers, jobseekers, apprentices and workers from these regions.   

Finally, ESF+ investments in social innovation will test and upscale new ways to foster labour market integration and social inclusion.  

Reaching the most vulnerable  

The two programmes will jointly address material deprivation by providing food to the most vulnerable people. The funding allocated to food aid and accompanying social inclusion measures from the food programme alone represents around 9% of the total ESF+ budget for France. It will help mitigate the impact of pandemic, which widened the group of people (e.g., university students) in need of food aid. The European Food Aid Programme is expected to account for approximately 30% of the total food aid distributed in France.  

Social integration of the most deprived people will also be supported by the Employment and Inclusion programme, for instance via basic material assistance, access to housing and support to victims of violence and. This will in turn help France achieve its 2030 target under the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan to reduce by 1.1 million the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.