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17 Amendments of Thomas MANN related to 2011/2035(INI)

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal to improve coordination between the cohesion fund and the European Social Fund by means of a common strategic framework; considers it especially important, however, that the specific objectives and flexibility of individual funds should not be restricted at implementation level and that the overall administrative burden should be drastically reduced;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)

1b. Is of the opinion that the Common Strategic Framework is a very good instrument for making connections with other core policy areas of the European Union, in particular the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2a. Insists that the European Social Fund must remain part of cohesion policy; only in this way can integrated strategies for resolving economic and social problems be developed and implemented;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)

2b. Firmly believes that coordinating plans and programmes between regional, national and European levels has proved worthwhile and insists that this be continued;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)

2c. Stresses that the agreed targets must be fund-specific and tailored to the relevant operational programme in each case; strongly opposes subdividing European goals without taking into account specific characteristics and problems;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 d (new)

2d. Welcomes the fact that operational programmes (OPs) covering all target areas have also been set up at national level for the ESF for the first time in some Member States for the 2007-2013 funding period;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 e (new)

2e. Stresses the fact that the Member States and regions must be given sufficient freedom within the operational programme to orientate their range of measures to their specific challenges and long-term regional development strategies, taking into account national and regional characteristics;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 f (new)

2f. Calls for a sharp increase in investment in the knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation, since they maintain and increase European competitiveness; in this context, welcomes the considerable investment in the knowledge triangle from the ESF and the ERDF which is taking place in many Member States;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Stresses the fact that the ESF provides crucial support for employment market policies ~~and~~, that Member States should use the ESF for investment in skills, employment, education and retraining activities, and that the ESF plays an important part in boosting social inclusion;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Calls for the effectiveness of the ESF to be increased through more results-oriented action and to this end considers that ex ante setting of clear and measurable targets and outcome indicators ~~is need~~directly linked to the purpose of the funding (output indicators) is needed; takes the view that these targets and indicators should be clearly defined in good time prior to the provision of funding, so that both the Member States and the Commission can comment on the results achieved;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4a. Takes the view that measures to improve the effectiveness of the ESF should primarily be based on incentives rather than penalties;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

5. Asks the Commission to improve the visibility of ESF action, to make the allocation of funding under the ESF more transparent and to make the ESF more accessible and capable of providing more support for integration into the job market, particularly by setting up lifelong training to help workers adapt their skills to the needs of the job market;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)

5b. Rejects any move to introduce impact indicators, since the real impact of measures is often only felt some considerable time after their implementation has been completed and is therefore difficult to measure;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)

5c. Takes the view that the failure to achieve targets should not be penalised by cuts in funding, since this might result in unrealistically low targets being set or in decisions being taken not to support high- risk groups; points out that in the context of ESF funding, for example, there is a real danger of social integration measures being targeted on groups which are highly likely to achieve such integration;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)

5d. Takes the view that the eligibility rules should continue to be set at national level;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Considers that better harmonisation between the various Structural Funds should be achieved and that in particular the synergies between the ESF and the ERDF should be improved; calls, therefore, for an approximation of the rules governing the provision of funding under the ERDF and the ESF;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)

8a. Calls for cross-financing between the ERDF and the ESF pursuant to Article 34 of the General Structural Fund Regulation (Regulation (EC) 1083/2006) to be greatly simplified and facilitated so that more integrated concepts can be developed;

2011/04/27
Committee: EMPL