FEAD Regulation - introducing specific

measures for addressing the COVID-19 crisis

Webinar EUROCITIES, 22 April 2020

#SocialRights

Budget: 3,8 bn EUR (current prices) from cohesion allocation

Shared management

General objectives: promote social cohesion and enhance social inclusion

and contribute to achieving the EU2020 poverty reduction target

• -> contribute to poverty reduction

• Specific objective: contribute to alleviating the worst forms of poverty by

providing non-financial assistance to the most deprived persons

FEAD: Facts and figures

2 types of Operational Programmes

a) Food and/or Basic Material Assistance (OP I)- 23 Member States

• Purchase and distribution of food- annual reach 12,5 million people

• Purchase and distribution of basic material assistance (clothes, sleeping bags, school

supplies, etc.) 1 million people

• Accompanying measures

b) Social Inclusion of the Most Deprived (OP II)- DE, NL, DK, SE

• Non-material social inclusion activities outside active Labour market

• Reaches about 35,000 people (dedicated target groups)

FEAD: Scope of support

• Article 2(2) of FEAD Regulation: Persons whose need for assistance is

established according to a set of objective criteria

• Defined at national level (in the OP or later)

Examples: people covered by minimum income scheme; homeless persons;

disadvantaged children; migrants, marginalized communities

FEAD – who are the most deprived ?

• Article 2(3) of FEAD Regulation: through partner organisations (public

bodies or non profit organizations)

• For OP I: Deliver food or material assistance (multiple levels possible);

Provide accompanying measures; May also purchase assistance

• Exclusive list of eligibility of expenditure

• For OP II: undertake social inclusion activities for the most deprived

• Role of cities/ municipalities

FEAD – Implementation on the ground

• Stakeholder exchanges: 18 FEAD network meetings from 2016 until 2019

• FEAD Community: Mutual learning on implementation challenges and next

MFF

FEAD – Networking and Community

• Ensure the most deprived continue to receive FEAD assistance in a safe

environment

• Enable Managing Authorities, partner organisations and other actors involved

in the implementation of the Fund to react quickly to the emerging additional

needs of the target groups

• The most deprived are exposed to further hardship stemming from this crisis.

Reasons and objectives of the FEAD covid-19 amendment proposal

• Ensuring quick and effective crisis response by the FEAD (e.g early

eligibility of actions, flexibility for OP amendments, broadening scope of

eligibility)

• Providing flexibility and liquidity (e.g reporting, control and audit

requirements, temporary increase of co-financing rate)

• Alignment with CRII package (ESI Funds)

Key elements of the proposal

• Modification of key elements of the OP I not subject to COM decision

(only notification) - Article 9(4) FEAD

• Expenditure for operations for fostering crisis response capacity to the

COVID-19 outbreak is eligible as from 1 February 2020 (including when the

OP must be amended) – Article 22(4) FEAD

Alignment with CRII package (ESI Funds)

Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (1)

Food and basic material assistance may be provided through (electronic)

vouchers or cards:

• Rationale: Such indirect delivery reduces contamination risks

• COM proposal: only electronic vouchers for food and/or basic material

assistance, as in the ESF+ Regulation proposal

• EP and CL amendment: also other forms of vouchers are allowed

N.B: preparation costs for vouchers (and meals) are also eligible under Article

26(2)(c) as in ESF+ proposal

Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (2)

Provide protective materials and equipment to partner organisations

(Article 26 (2) (a))

Rationale:

• enables buying protective equipment for partner organisations outside

technical assistance

• Allows continuation of traditional delivery schemes in safe environment

Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (3)

Eligibility for suspended operations and operations that cannot be fully

implemented (Articles 26a, 26b, 26c)

• Rationale: introduce specific provisions regarding the eligibility of costs

incurred by beneficiaries in case the delivery of food/basic material

assistance or social assistance is delayed as well as for suspended and not

fully implemented operations.

• Differentiation between FEAD OP I, OP II and Technical assistance

operations.

• No similar provision in CPR

Providing flexibility and liquidity

Provide protective materials and equipment to partner organisations

(Article 26 (2) (a))

Rationale:

• enables buying protective equipment for partner organisations outside

technical assistance

• Allows continuation of traditional delivery schemes in safe environment

Ensuring a quick and effective response to COVID-19 outbreak (3)

Deadline for Annual Implementation report extended to 30/9/2020(Article

13 (1))

Co-financing rate of 100% on Member State request (Article 20(1a))

• Applicable for the accounting year 2020-2021, provided that the programme

amendment is approved by the Commission at the latest before the

submission of the final application for an interim payment

• Requires a programme amendment

• Need to notify the financial table; from the subsequent accounting year `reset`

financial tables to normal

Alignment with CRII package

Providing flexibility and liquidity (ctd)

Lighter control and audit trail requirements (Article 30 (1a))

• Rationale: Reduce administrative burden; provide flexibility for compliance

with certain management and control requirements (eg audit trail

requirements during confinement periods)

• Based on an analysis of potential risks

• Applies only to FEAD OP I type programmes

Providing flexibility and liquidity (ctd)

• COM proposal adopted 2 April, as part of the CRII Plus package

• COREPER 8 April, Presidency compromise text

• EP Plenary adoption, 17 April

• Council adoption (Wednesday 22 April, tbc)

• Enters into force on the day following the OJ publication

State of play

• Full flexibility to transfer resources for 2020 between the 3 Cohesion policy

Funds (Investment for Growth and Jobs Goal) : ESF, ERDF, Cohesion Fund

(Art. 25a(2) CPR)

• full flexibility for the 2020 allocations

• No minimum share for ESF

• YEI and FEAD: not affected

• Flexibility between categories of regions (Art. 25a(3) CPR)

• Full flexibility on thematic concentration (Art. 25a(5) CPR)

• Increasing EU co-financing rate to 100% (Art. 25a(1) CPR)

State of play Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus(CRII Plus) – COM proposal for CPR (COM(2020)138)

Some examples:

• No more amendments to Partnership Agreements (Art. 25a(6) CPR)

• Deadline for submission of annual implementation reports for all ESI Funds 2019 extended (Art. 25a(9)

CPR)

• Eased use of a non-statistical sampling method for audit (Art. 25a(12) CPR)

• Up to 10% financial flexibility per priority at programme closure (New Art. 130(3) CPR)

State of play Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus(CRII Plus) – Less administrative burden:

The ESF+ components

Support to themost deprived

(FEAD)

European Social Fund + EU priority

actions / experimentation

(EaSI)

Investment in Youth (YEI)

Employment, education andsocial inclusion

(ESF)

Health

Shared management € 100 bn

Reminder:EGF

€ 1,6 bn(outside MFF

ceiling)

Direct mgt € 1,2 bn

Also contributes to other policy objectives, in particular, to PO 1 a

Smarter Europe; PO 2 A Greener, low-carbon Europe

EMPLOYMENT

• (i) Access to employment of all jobseekers

• (ii) Modernising labour market institutions and services

• (iii) Women’s labour market participation, work/life balance, well-adapted working environment, adaptation of workers & enterprises, active & healthy ageing

EDUCATION

TRAINING

• (iv) Improving the quality, effectiveness and labour market relevance of education and training systems

• (v) Promoting equal access to and completion of, quality and inclusive education

• (vi) Lifelong learning, upskilling, anticipating change and new skills requirements

SOCIAL INCLUSION

• (vii) Active inclusion

• (viii) Socio-integration of migrants and marginalised communities e.g. Roma

• (ix) Equal and timely access to services; social protection healthcare systems and long term care

• (x) Social integration of people at risk of poverty;

• (xi) Addressing material deprivation including accompanying measures

Policy Objective 4 - A More Social Europe – Implementing the

European Pillar of Social Rights

Gender equality, equal opportunity & non-discrimination

ESF+ Specific Objectives

• Ensures continuation of support provided by the FEAD in 2014-2020 to OP I:

Addressing material deprivation through food and/or basic material

assistance to the most deprived, including accompanying measures

• Objective of the merge: to promote synergies between ESF and FEAD

support, whilst preserving lighter rules for FEAD-type support:

• ESF+ Regulation and CPR proposals continue to provide for simpler requirements for

this type of operations

ESF+ support for addressing material deprivation (specific objective xi)

The Regulation proposal provides for full flexibility. ESF + support to address material

deprivation can take two forms:

• Specific objective is part of comprehensive ESF + programme

• Specific programme exclusively addressing material deprivation

Relevant derogations in Common Provisions Regulations, such as:

• Performance framework: no targets and milestones

• Exceptions on programming and monitoring

NEW! Electronic vouchers/electronic cards for food and/or basic material

assistance (Article 17 (2))

• May ensure continuation of support provided by the FEAD in 2014-2020 to

OP II: now part of a broader specific objective x – “promoting social

integration of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including the

most deprived and children”

• In “duly justified cases”, addressing the most deprived under specific

objective (x) counts for 2% minimum allocation to address material

deprivation.

• In ESF+ proposal, this falls under Chapter II, General support of the ESF+

strand under shared management (already in 2014-2020 many of the simpler

rules only applied to OP I)

• Common provisions apply throughout

ESF+ support to social integration of the most deprived (specific objective x)

Partnership principle

Social

partners

Civil society

Bodies for

fundamental

rights, gender

equality, non-

discrimination

ESF+

programming,

implementation,

monitoring and

evaluation

ESF+ resources for

capacity building of

partners

PartnershipCPR - Article 6 - Partnership and

multi-level governance

ESF+ - Article 8

1. Each MS organises partnership

incl.:

• urban and other public authorities;

• economic and social partners;

• civil society

2. Involvement at all stages (PA,

preparation, implementation,

participation in monitoring

committees)

3. Continuation of ECCP

4. COM consults partners min. once

a year on programme implementation

• MS to ensure participation of

social partners and civil society in

the delivery of employment,

education and social inclusion

policies under ESF+

• Member States to allocate

appropriate amount of ESF+ in

each programme for the capacity

building of social partners and

civil society organisations.

• Recital 26

• Partnership for innovation

(art.13)

ESF+ programming state of play

• Spring 2019: informal dialogue with Member States

started

• November 2019: COM letter to Member States on

partnership and transparency

• Q3-Q4 2020: expected submission of Partnership

Agreements and programmes

→ formal negotiations can start

References:

- FEAD website https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1089&langId=en

- COM proposal FEAD amendment:

https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1089&furtherNews=ye

s&newsId=9638

- CRII Plus press release

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_20_574

- ESF+ COM proposal

Thank you !