Presentation ESF performance report AIR 2016 Evaluation Partnership meeting 7 December 2017 Brussels

Overview performance report AIR2016 Overview of progress made in the implementation Assessment of the performance Overview of progress towards the milestones and targets of the performance framework. Analysis of the contribution to the main EU policy objectives Analysis of the qualitative information on progress in implementation Overview of implementation of evaluations and findings Overview of specific actions undertaken required by the Common Provisions Regulation and ESF Regulation. Assessment of the consistency of reporting by MA and the reporting on progress EaC 7

Financial progress ESF/YEI

Overview outputs and results ESF/YEI Participations 6,479,327 participations in ESF 1,308,716 participations in YEI Gender balanced

Overview outputs and results ESF/YEI Projects: 7,413 projects by social partners or non governmental organisations 5,694 projects dedicated to women in employment 3.975 projects targeting public administration and public services at national, regional and local 197,463 micro and SME enterprises

Overview intermediate results ESF/YEI Common result indicator (immediate) Total ESF Total YEI Total ESF +YEI Inactive participants engaged in job searching upon leaving 129,580 18,846 148,426 Participants in education/training upon leaving 235,887 39,591 275,478 Participants gaining a qualification upon leaving 667,908 82,258 750,166 Participants in employment, including self-employment, upon leaving 617,420 192,977 810,397 Total (CR1-4) 1,650,795 333,672 1,984,467 Disadvantaged participants engaged in job searching, education/ training, gaining a qualification, or in employment, including self-employment, upon leaving 322,206 138,221 460,427

Regional differences Consistently lower project selection rates in MS / regions that would benefit most from ESF Employment (IP8i - figure) Social inclusion (IP9i): less developed regions (26%) more developed (45%) transition regions (44%) Early school leaving (IP10i): less developed regions (18%) more developed (28%) transition regions (33%)

Comparison with 2007-2013 period

Comparison with 2007-2013 period

Progress milestone achievement ESF In 2016, 4 MS passed average milestones (based on average target achievement) More developed: 60% Transition regions: 41% Less developed regions: 18%

Progress milestone achievement (2) In 2016, eligible expenditure 24% of milestone target at EU level 8 MS still below 10% High scores largely due to unreliable targets

Implementation barriers Delays due to a focus on preparation / setting up organisation / programme management, not yet on attracting proposals (mentioned by 138 AIR); Complications with regards to programming requirements/features (e.g. obligations of procedural nature/characteristics of the programme itself, i.e. timing/others) (mentioned by 137 AIR) National contextual factors (political, economic, legal etc.) influencing the performance of the programme (mentioned by 135 AIR). Specific IT issues and complications related to setting up or using the management / monitoring system, are also mentioned by many AIR (respectively 74 and 71 times).

Evaluations 38 ESF/YEI evaluations published in 2016 2 evaluations on YEI, 16 evaluations on ESF and YEI, and 20 solely on ESF. Evaluations in 14 out of 28 MS Poland, the Netherlands, and Germany report the highest number of published evaluations. Most published evaluations focused specifically on IP 8.ii (11) and IP 9.i (4).

Reporting on Actions Specific actions taken to promote equality: mostly horizontally integrated in all actions Actions directed at specific target groups: 22 MS define target groups for specific attention Actions in the field of social innovation: MS do not always explain how this is linked to specific interventions Progress of transnational actions: most MS limit themselves to providing illustrations of ongoing projects, few offer a complete account of all transnational activities

Inconsistencies Consistency in reporting improved in comparison to 2015 We focus on inconsistencies that affect EU aggregations Main area of attention: Low financial targets in performance framework (distorts performance in earlier figures) Selection of intervention fields in line with OP (1% of eligible costs inconsistent with OP)

Conclusions MS are now moving from closing 2007-2013 accounts to reporting data 2014-2020 Current data give some reason for concern, but… …MS often report higher figures in textual parts of AIR than in monitoring data (backlog in entering data)