Structural funds and funding education

Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund

The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are the financial instruments of European Union (EU) regional policy, which is intended to narrow the development differences among regions and Member States. For the period 2007-2013, the budget allocated to regional policy amounts to around € 348 billion, comprising € 278 billion for the Structural Funds and € 70 billion for the Cohesion Fund. This represents 35% of the Community budget and is the second largest budget item.

There are 2 Structural Funds:

• the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is currently the largest; the creation of infrastructure and productive job-creating investment, mainly for businesses;
• the European Social Fund (ESF) the integration into working life of the unemployed and disadvantaged sections of the population, mainly by funding training measures;

In order to speed up economic, social and territorial convergence, EU created a Cohesion Fund in 1994, which is for countries whose per capita GDP is below 90% of the Community average. The purpose is to grant financing to environment and transport infrastructure projects.

Three new objectives:

• the "convergence" objective to accelerate the convergence of the least developed EU Member States and regions by improving growth and employment conditions;
• the "regional competitiveness and employment" objective to anticipate economic and social change, promote innovation, entrepreneurship, environmental protection and the development of labour markets;
• the "European territorial cooperation" objective to strengthen cooperation at cross-border, transnational and interregional levels in the fields of urban, rural and coastal development, and foster the development of economic relations and networking between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);

Structural Fund and Cohesion Fund support for the three objectives always involves co-financing. The rates of co-financing may be reduced in accordance with the "polluter pays" principle or where a project generates income. All projects must of course comply with EU legislation, particularly with regard to competition, the environment and public procurement.

The Lifelong Learning Programme: education and training

opportunities for all

The European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme enables people at all stages of their lives to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as helping to develop the education and training sector across Europe. The programme funds a range of actions including exchanges, study visits and networking activities. Projects are intended not only for individual students and learners, but also for teachers, trainers and all others involved in education and training.

There are four sub-programmes which fund projects at different levels of education and training: Comenius for schools; Erasmus for higher education; Leonardo da Vinci for vocational education and training; Grundtvig for adult education

COMENIUS: currently focusing in particular on:

• Motivation for learning and learning-to-learn skills; Key competences: improving language learning; greater literacy; making science more attractive; supporting entrepreneurship; and reinforcing creativity and innovation; Digital educational content and services; School management; Addressing socio-economic disadvantages and reducing early school leaving; Participation in sports; Teaching diverse groups of pupils; Early and pre-primary learning;

ERASMUS actions include support for:

Students: studying abroad; doing a traineeship abroad; linguistic preparation.

Universities/higher education institutions working through: intensive programmes; academic and structural networks; multilateral projects.

Universities/higher education institution staff: teaching abroad; receiving training abroad.

Business : hosting students placements; teaching abroad; participating in university cooperation projects.

LEONARDO Da VINCI:

• enables organisations in the vocational education sector to work with partners from across Europe, exchange best practices, and increase their staff’s expertise. It should make vocational education more attractive to young people and, by helping people to gain new skills, knowledge and qualifications, the programme also boosts the overall competitiveness of the European labour market.
• improve the quality of training systems by developing and transferring innovative policies, courses, teaching methods, materials and procedures.

GRUNDTVIG: practical learning for adults:

• covers not only teachers, trainers, staff and organisations working in the sector, but also learners in adult education. These include relevant associations, counselling organisations, information services, policy-making bodies and others such as NGOs, enterprises, voluntary groups and research centres.
• range of activities, including particularly those supporting adult learning staff to travel abroad for learning experiences, through exchanges and various other professional experiences, larger scale initiatives involve, for instance, networking and partnerships between organisations in different countries.