Transnational cooperation on the implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) has a long- standing and successful history. It aims to foster the replication of initiatives that work well and increase the scale of innovative practices. Transnational cooperation also focuses on improving social cohesion and economic recovery after the COVID-19 related crisis. These areas are crucial for the wellbeing of people across Europe.
ESF Transnational Cooperation Platform
To foster transnational cooperation, the European Commission launched the ESF Transnational Cooperation Platform in 2020. The platform builds on work conducted by nine thematic networks operating between 2015 and 2019. It aims to:
- Improve cooperation between stakeholders in all Member States – sharing information, knowledge, and experience with the aim to develop joint solutions to common challenges
- Build the capacity, skills, and confidence of managing authorities and other stakeholders to apply new knowledge and transfer practices with the support of peers from other countries
- Inform EU and national employment policies and reforms, harnessing experiences from the ground
Communities of Practice
To increase the thematic focus and concentrate on ESF implementation, four Communities of Practice have been created. These enable members to share concerns, problems or passions about a topic, allowing deeper knowledge and expertise. They also empower members to help each other to solve problems by applying a practical approach.
Find out more about each community of practice and the activities undertaken by the Transnational Cooperation Platform:
- Community of Practice: Employment, Education and Skills
- Community of Practice: Results-based Management
- Community of Practice: Social Inclusion
- Community of Practice: Social Innovation
Online information and networking
The ESF Transnational Cooperation Platform has an essential aim: mutual learning. It provides the possibility to actively participate in study visits, peer reviews, peer-to-peer trainings, workshops, webinars, and EU-level conferences tailored to your interests and needs.
Cross-cutting events
The aim of this peer workshop was to explore opportunities for enhancing and reinforcing capacity building of social partners with ESF+ support. Building upon the social partner peer review held in Brussels in June 2019, the workshop included representatives of the social partners and managing authorities from Member States in which social partner capacity building has been identified as a key issue in the 2020 European Semester Country Reports. Using practices from Member States to generate discussion, the event focused on how learning from different national experiences of social partners capacity building could be maximised to ensure improvements in the 2021-27 programming period.
- Agenda: European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) Peer Workshop with Social Partners (2021) - English (195 KB - PDF)
- Executive summary: European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) Peer Workshop with Social Partners (2021) - English (187 KB - PDF)
Providing support to disadvantaged young people to be able to integrate into the labour market and society has become critically important as young people have been one of the hardest hit groups by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) initiative aims to support young people integrate in their home country following a supervised work experience in another EU country. It targets those who have difficulties finding a job, are in long-term unemployment, have insufficient school performance or vocational skills, a migration background, or live with disabilities. This webinar was an opportunity for ESF+ managing authorities and stakeholders to learn more about the new ALMA programme, existing support and tools including those available from TLN Mobility, and the next steps for this new initiative.
Pre-event resources
In preparation for the webinar, participants received several resources and background materials. These resources are available below:
- TLN Video Competition - English (YouTube)
- German programme IdA (2015 - 2021): Successful work with young people across borders - German (YouTube, with English subtitles)
- Coordinated Call on ESF Transnational Mobility Measures for Disadvantaged Youth and Young Adults. Manual of Guidance - English (428 KB - PDF)
- Unlocking Potential: A manual for successful transnational work with disadvantaged target groups (IdA - Intergration durch Austausch) - English (1.58 MB - PDF)
- Key facts: TLN-mobility network - English (82 KB - PDF)
- Presentation: ESF Transnational Programme. IdA - Integration through exchange - English (1.06 MB - PDF)
- Presentation: The Swedish ESF Council - Peer review on supporting disadvantaged young people to take part in mobility - English (221 KB - PDF)
- Coordinated Call on ESF Transnational Mobility Measures for Disadvantaged Youth and Young Adults. Mandatory Common Minimum Requirements - English (498 KB - PDF)
- Summary report: ESF TCP Peer Review on supporting disadvantaged young people to take part in mobility (2021) - English (173 KB - PDF)
Webinar resources
The European Social Fund Transnational Cooperation Platform conference will be an important milestone in acknowledging and promoting the work carried out by the members of the Communities of Practice over the past two years.
The European Social Fund Transnational Cooperation Platform EU-level event is an important milestone in acknowledging and promoting the work carried out by the members of the Communities of Practice over the past two years.
The conference will also be the opportunity to introduce the new setting to support transnational cooperation in the programming period 2021-2027 and ensure a smooth transition towards the ESF+ Social Innovation initiative, the new approach to foster transnational cooperation.
During the event, managing authorities and ESF+ stakeholders will have the possibility to flag topics that they would like to keep discussing in the future as well as provide feedback about approaches and ways of working together in the four Communities of Practice on:
Registration
The online conference is open to members of Communities of Practice and others who wish to know more about European Social Fund transnational cooperation.
Please register if you would like to follow the full conference programme and actively contribute to working group discussions. Places (up to 150) will be subject to confirmation by the European Commission.
To ensure a good mixture of participation, we kindly ask you to register no more than two participants per organisation. The event will be in English.
Register here
Live streaming
The opening session (10.00 - 11.15 CEST, 31 May 2022) will be web-streamed on this page. Interested participants can follow that session via live streaming and ask questions without any registration.
Please check this space for the livestream link on the day of the event.