Pillar 3: Technical Support Instrument
Reforms at national and regional level, necessary to address the shrinking of the working-age population, the lack of skills and respond to local market needs.
About the initiative
Following the two 2024 technical support flagships in the field of skills and regional development (see below), the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) has now launched the Flagship on Addressing Demographic Change Through Reforms, to be implemented as of 2025. These flagship projects provide technical support to EU Member States. They have been established based on pressing needs across Member States and are linked to top EU priorities.
The 2024 flagship project on fostering skills development systems was aiming to support Member State efforts, at both national and sub-national level, to advance skills development through wide-reaching reforms. As part of this flagship, Member States were able to apply for support to adapt their education and training systems, strengthen skills governance arrangements, develop methodologies and tools to monitor labour shortages and anticipate skills needs, and implement talent attraction and retention strategies, among other possible measures.
The 2024 flagship project on overcoming barriers to regional development was aiming to support the efforts of the regional authorities, the EU outermost regions and other regions facing constraints such as islands, to define and implement appropriate processes and methodologies to address the development challenges in an integrated manner and by taking into account good practices and lessons learned from other regions.
The 2025 flagship project on addressing demographic change through reforms aims to address some of the pressing challenges posed by demographic change through reforms that range from supporting youth, the working-age population and the elderly at national and regional level, to enhancing the fiscal and data collection capacity of Member States to deal with demographic challenges.
The flagships are launched as part of an annual call for requests from EU Member States. Funding for these projects is provided by the European Commission’s Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the EU programme that provides tailor-made technical expertise to EU Member States to design and implement reforms across a number of policy areas.
So far, under the two flagships on skills and regional development, 28 requests are being selected, across 18 Member States, out of which 9 with a significant regional focus. Project examples from all TSI flagships can be browsed via the interactive map.
More information on the selected projects and results coming from the different Member States are highlighted in the TSI Country Factsheets.
Support provided
Member States applying for support as part of the flagship on Overcoming Barriers to Regional Development were able to choose from among the following reform areas:
- REFORM AREA: Improving the quality of governance and public services.
- REFORM AREA: Strengthening productivity, innovation, and green transition.
- REFORM AREA: Harnessing talent and employment opportunities.
Under each reform area, applicants were able to apply for one or more of the following work packages:
- Work package 1: Diagnosis and identifications of factors holding back a region.
- Work package 2: Strategy and action plan development.
- Work package 3: Peer-learning, capacity building and stakeholder engagement.
Member States applying for support as part of the flagship on Skills were able to choose from among the following reform areas, depending on their needs:
- Reforms to prepare Europeans for the green and digital economies and adapt the education and training systems to the needs of the labour market.
- Reforms to improve the inclusiveness and quality of education and training systems to ensure better educational outcomes for all learners.
- Reforms to modernise tertiary education systems and improve their labour market relevance, with a focus on STEM.
- Reforms to monitor labour and skills shortages and to anticipate the skills and qualifications requirements of the labour market.
- Reforms to increase employee retention, implement talent attraction programmes, and address skills shortages.
Member States applying for support as part of the 2025 flagship on Addressing Demographic Change Through Reforms were able to choose from among the following work packages:
- Work package 1: Addressing skills and labour shortages at national, regional or sectoral level.
- Work package 2: Supporting the working-age population by strengthening social protection.
- Work package 3: Supporting and empowering the young generation through education reforms.
- Work package 4: Supporting an active life and the health and well-being of the elderly population.
- Work package 5: Supporting regions.
- Work package 6: Strengthening Member States’ data collection and fiscal capacities to mitigate demographic change.
How to apply
An EU Member State wishing to receive technical support submits a request to the Commission, via a national coordinating authority, identifying the policy areas and priorities. This request must be submitted by 31 October of each year.
In addition, with the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the adoption of the Communication on the ‘Common Implementation Plan for the Pact on Migration and Asylum’, the Commission has now launched a dedicated call under the TSI to assist Member States with the preparation of their National Implementation Plans.
In line with the Common Implementation Plan, Member States have to establish their National Implementation Plans by 12 December 2024. For this important work, they can count on the operational, technical and financial support of the Commission and EU Agencies, including the support provided through the aforementioned TSI call. The TSI can offer Member States targeted support to carry out situational analysis and identify what needs to be done to implement the Pact. It can make recommendations across a broad scope of thematic areas through the TSI Dedicated Call.