WHAT IS THE ESF?

The European Social Fund (ESF) is one of the European economic, social and territorial cohesion policy’s 5 structural funds aiming at reducing existing development disparities between the 274 regions of the EU and at promoting sustainable, intelligent and inclusive growth in these areas, in accordance with the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.

The ESF’s purpose is to fund insertion and training actions to provide European citizens with better professional perspectives and to facilitate their integration to the labour market.

Europe gives local players budgets to develop areas over several years.

The main objective is to restore equal opportunities by assisting the most disadvantaged in priority, particularly people needing to get new skills to find and keep a job.

At regional level, European and national orientations are divided into two types of documents, operational programme (OP) and implementation document (DOMO), which define the ESF regional intervention framework for a 7-year programming period, 2014-2020.

In Saint-Martin, the ESF comes in the form of subsidies granted to beneficiaries who requested it.

THE ESF IN FIGURES

In France, for the 2014-2020 period, the ESF had a € 6-billion budget

Like for other structural funds, the ESF never comes alone to support a project but always as co-financing from other public and/or private financiers (State, local authorities, local chambers, companies, associations etc.). This principle shows through the duty project promoters have to find funding with their partners or in their own accounts to start with. The level of ESF co-financing a project varies from one region to another and depends on its relative wealth.

Saint-Martin is one of the least developed areas and the ESF co-financing level can reach 85%.

During the 2014-2020 programming period, Saint-Martin received 16.58 million euros.

ESF GOVERNANCE

In France, in the 2014-2020 period, Regional Councils managed 35% of the national ESF budget as vocational training, learning and guidance in particular and the State the remaining 65% mainly as fight against poverty, access to jobs and workers training.

In Saint-Martin, the Guadeloupe prefecture is the ESF managing authority. The ESF is partially examined by the State in the Saint-Barthélémy and Saint-Martin prefecture and partially by the Saint-Martin local authorities, as an intermediary structure.

At regional level, European and national orientations are divided into two types of documents, operational programme (OP) and implementation document (DOMO), which define the regional ESF intervention framework for a 7-year programming period, 2014-2020.

ORIENTATIONS OF THE ESF

ESF investments enter into operational programmes (OP) – framework documents made up of a coherent series of priority lines and specific objectives – in which the types of actions and priorities the ESF is planning to co-finance within an area are identified.

For the 2014-2020programming in Saint-Martin, the ESF contributes to fight against unemployment, particularly that of young people, by assisting people with actions led during education or vocational training actions to develop skills and knowledge while guiding them toward the most promising branches (tourism, biodiversity, sea jobs, digital jobs…).

In Saint-Martin, for the 2014-2020 period, the ESF has been supporting actions entering into the following 4 lines in priority:

• Line no. 2: “Anticipate and assist economic mutations to favour workers’ adaptation, company competitiveness and employment”
• Line no. 5: “Promote young people’s access to jobs”
• Line no. 6: “Promote employment, inclusion and the fight against poverty”
• Line no. 7: “Fight against educational underachievement and strengthen access to lifelong learning”.

Lines 2 and 5 are examined by the Saint-Martin local authorities, line 6 by the State and line 7 is shared between local authorities and the State. 

LIFE CYCLE OF AN ESF PROJECT

Apply for subsidies

My ESF procedure: for any information, contact us.