This report maps the implementation progress of the 127 billion euros of European Social Fund (ESF) and Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) investments for 2014-2020 across the EU. It shows that by 2017 most initial difficulties in implementation were overcome and most Member States are now busy catching up in order to meet their milestone targets. However, the results also point to the considerable challenges faced by some countries. So far, implementation is progressing at a slower pace than in the previous programming period (2007-2013). The report explores the various reasons for this. It also shows more specific differences in progress in terms of outputs, results and financial implementation across Member States and types of regions. In particular, less developed regions show a slower progress in the implementation of most of the Investment Priorities, than more developed regions and transition regions. Reducing these differences should be the focus of the coming years to ensure that ESF and YEI can have a positive contribution to the EU’s broader objective of social and economic cohesion in the Union.

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