A Synthesis of the Approaches of Member States

TNI-008 Update 15 October 2011

A SYNTHESIS OF THE APPROACHES OF MEMBER STATES

TO

PROMOTING TRANSNATIONALITY AND INNOVATION

WITHIN THE ESF

February 2011

1.  Background

As a follow-up to the request made at the first meeting of the Ad-Hoc Group, Philippe Hatt, Head of Unit DG EMPL B4, wrote to members of the group asking them to forward:

·  A one to two page outline of their country's overall strategic approach to transnationality and innovation. This was to cover the analysis of the situation; objectives of the transnational/innovative actions; priorities for action; means to achieve these objectives; timescale arrangements; monitoring and evaluation arrangements.

·  An advanced extract of the 2009 Report on their Operational Programme containing the specific actions taken on transnationality and social innovation, of a maximum of 3-4 pages.

The first version of this paper, based on replies relating to 19 national or regional OPs, was discussed at the ESF Ad-hoc Group on Transnationality and Innovation on 15 October 2010. Since, then Finland, Lithuania and Romania have replied, and additional information has been provided on ten OPs, often in response to the questions posed in the original paper. This information has been incorporated and the synthesis now covers the countries or regions outlined in the following table.

Belgium – Flanders / The Netherlands
Belgium – Francophone Community / Austria
Bulgaria / Poland
The Czech Republic / Romania
Germany / Slovakia
Estonia / Finland
Spain / Sweden
France / UK - England and Gibraltar
Italy / UK - Northern Ireland
Latvia / UK – Scotland
Lithuania / UK - Wales
Luxembourg

The Summary of Member States’ Approaches to promoting Transnationality and Innovation within the ESF (TNI_009) has also been updated in the light of the new information received.

2.  The Value of Transnationality and Innovation to Member States

In general, the Member States that provided information in response to the Commission’s invitation seem to value the opportunities, which the ESF offers to promote transnationality and innovation.

Looking across these comments, the value of transnationality may be seen as:

·  Avoiding duplication of investment and effort;

·  Encouraging the sharing of practical techniques, exchange of experience, and best practice thus stimulating and supporting innovation;

·  Helping to promote common standards and enabling products and ideas to be validated more widely and at higher levels;

·  Increasing the capacity of the participating administrations and organisations;

·  Contributing towards shaping a European perspective and way of thinking – a true European mindset.

The close link between transnationality and innovation is broadly recognised and this linkage is seen as:

·  Leading to improvements in existing policy and practice;

·  Helping to fill gaps in existing policy and delivery frameworks by supporting the development of new approaches;

·  Helping to avoid expensive policy development and the need to 'reinvent the wheel' by building on innovative and validated good practices.

Thus, both in transnationality and in the linkage between transnationality and innovation, it appears that Member States are very conscious of the fact that savings can accrue in learning from, and building on, the experience of others. For example Latvia talks about transnationality “being a cost-effective means of validating and passing on learning and experience, avoiding unnecessary duplication of experimental work, and providing a broad basis for benchmarking.”

Some Members States, for example Germany, which did not make a direct comment on the value of transnationality, have recognised its worth by the size of the budget that has been allocated to such activities. While newer Member States have indicated that they have welcomed the increased access to experts and service providers from other countries.

3.  Strategies for Transnationality and Innovation

The importance that Member States attached to transnationality and innovation is reflected in the fact that ten (DE, ES, FR, IT, LV, NL, PL, RO, SE and UK-England and Gibraltar) have provided information on their strategies for their implementation and, in some cases, these are quite detailed documents.

Whilst not producing a strategy as such, some other Member States refer to the strategic use of innovation, for example:

“Dans le contexte de la mise en œuvre du programme opérationnel du FSE au Luxembourg pour le seul objectif compétitivité régionale et emploi, le cadre de référence stratégique national concentre les interventions du FSE dans les domaines de la création d'emplois plus nombreux et de meilleure qualité en attirant un plus grand nombre de personnes sur le marché du travail ou vers la création d'entreprises, en améliorant la capacité d'adaptation des travailleurs et des entreprises, et en augmentant l'investissement dans le capital humain. "In the context of the implementation of the ESF Operational Programme in Luxembourg and for the sole objective of regional competitiveness and employment, the national strategic reference framework is concentrating on ESF interventions in the areas of creating more, and better quality, jobs by attracting more people into work or towards the creation of enterprises, improving the adaptability of workers and enterprises and increasing investment in human capital.”

A close relationship between strategy and implementation can be detected from the documentation that has been sent by some Member States.

In Germany, the main pillar for transnational activities is the IdA - Integration Through Exchange programme, which has two priorities.

The first programme priority aims to increase employment opportunities for vulnerable groups of people by promoting transnational exchange and mobility activities.

This is reflected in its implementation, as, since the first call, over 70 project networks have been implementing their concepts with financial support of some 75 million euro from the European Social Fund plus 18 million euro of national co-funding. These projects are improving training and employment opportunities for up to 10,000 disadvantaged young people and unemployed young adults through transnational exchange and mobility. A second call for people with disabilities is being prepared with allocated funding of around 40 million euro.

The second programme priority aims to consolidate the network structures and theme-based cooperative relationships with other EU Member States. This is reflected in the fact that Germany, at Federal or Länder level, takes part in nine of the ESF Learning Networks and leads four of them. Some 4.6 million euro of ESF and Federal funds has been earmarked for the implementation of, and participation in, the transnational theme-based networks.

The General Objectives foreseen within the Technical Assistance Programme in Spain are related to growth and employment objectives with a focus on equal opportunities between women and men, early school leaving, immigration and decentralisation. All these are to be carried out through the development of transnational and trans-regional actions.

At national level, these objectives are being realised through the activities of the Managing Authority that circulates relevant information concerning transnational aspects such as Toolkit facilities, calls for proposals in other Member States or potential transnational partners, to the designated Contact Points (CPs) in each Spanish region. It also provides a wide range of support services for CPs and project promoters. At European level, the objectives are being implemented through Spain’s active participation in a variety of Learning Networks on related themes and its leadership of the self-financed Roma network.

France considers that investments in human capital should be made, in particular by stimulating innovation in training schemes and programmes and improving their efficiency. In order to maximise the effectiveness of existing initiatives, inter-regional and transnational co-operation must be enhanced. So, both these priorities are also part of a specific axis of the OP, “Development of human resources, innovation and transnational cooperation.”

This is why the following types of project are funded:

·  Innovative and experimental projects, enhancing the added-value of employment and social inclusion systems;

·  Partnerships for innovation. As a good governance principle, partnerships encourage stakeholders’ synergies, skills gathering, mutual learning and entrepreneurial spirit.

·  Transnational cooperation and mobility. Actions focus on: anticipation and management of economic changes, mobility or vocational training with a European dimension, certification or validation of skills or work experience, lifetime balance.

·  Projects led by small social and solidarity-oriented promoters or entrepreneurs.

For the Netherlands the strategy was, and is, to consider the ESF learning networks as the main vehicle for its transnational cooperation and to link the other transnational activities to participation in these thematic networks. Also, the Netherlands felt that the challenge was not so much in developing new methods, but in making the policies and programmes that have already proved successful, transparent and accessible for the stakeholders.

This is demonstrated by the Netherlands’ leadership of the Age management/active ageing Learning Network, its active participation in the ExOCoP network and the representation on the networks of its relevant policy-making directorates.

In Romania there is a dedicated key area of intervention (KAI) or ‘Transnational initiatives on inclusive labour market.’ This KAI focuses on transnational initiatives as a part of the strategy to share information and innovation on an inclusive labour market with other EU Member States. Indeed, transnational co-operation has shown to be a tool of good governance as well as an instrument to create added value.

Partnerships succeeding in integrating and attracting people into education and training, having as a result the dissemination of innovative initiatives, expertise, results and good practices, will be encouraged within this KAI. Transnational cooperation will cover a wide range of activities, such as: exchange of information and people between administrations, trainers, relevant actors on the labour market and social policies field, adapting and transfer/assumption of expertise from other states, studies and evaluations and joint actions.

One of the objectives of the England and Gibraltar strategy was to engage policy-makers in the selection of themes for innovation and then to feed back the results of the innovation to them, thus creating the conditions for mainstreaming workable and cost-effective new practice.

Now, the following six themes have been selected and policy-makers are members of the national networks of projects on each of these themes: ICT; Social Enterprise, Active Inclusion; Demographic Change; Employer Engagement; Skills for Climate Change.

In terms of completing the picture, could other Member States explain how their strategies have been translated into action in ESF projects and related transnational activities?

4.  The Provisions within the OP(s) for Transnationality and Innovation

The range of provisions made for transnationality and innovation that were reported are outlined below.

Transnational and inter-regional cooperation:

·  A dedicated priority (BG, DE [national and 2 Länder], ES [13 out of the 3 national and 19 regional Operational Programmes], IT [2 national and 21 Italian regional OPs] and FI);

·  A separate, dedicated priority axis and also eligible expenditure/horizontal priority in other priority axes (BEnl, 3 DE Länder, and CZ );

·  Horizontal principles/priorities across all axes (11 DE Länder, EE, FR, LT, LU, AT, PO, RO, UKni, UK-Scotland);

·  Supported by an activity or measure in the OP (LV and RO).

Innovation:

·  A dedicated priority axis or sub-axis (BEnl, AT and FI);

·  Horizontal principles/priorities across all axes (LU, PO, UKni, UK-Scotland).

Transnational and inter-regional cooperation or innovation:

·  An obligation for projects to have a transnational element (SE);

·  An obligation for certain projects to have both a transnational and an innovative dimension (UK-England and Gibraltar).

The Czech Republic has a special support scheme in its transnational calls for proposals – Innovative Projects. Three potential types of innovation are taken into account: product innovation, process innovation and outside-the-organisation innovation. Besides a separate innovative support scheme, innovations are seen as a cross-cutting theme in the other two support schemes: Thematic Networks and Local Partnerships.

While each Member State has obviously chosen provisions that are appropriate to its own situation, one question that might be profitably pursued is whether a dedicated priority or even an obligation for projects to have a transnational element, any guarantee of more or better quality transnational or innovative activity.

5.  The Transnational and Innovative Activities that are funded

In terms of the transnational projects which are supported, there are examples of collaboration between:

·  ESF authorities such as Managing Authority, Certifying Authority, Audit Authority and members of the Monitoring Committee;

·  Several individual projects such as the transnational arrangements under EQUAL;

·  Networks focusing on specific issues and topics.

However, Germany and Italy are also promoting personal mobility to improve the skills and enhance the employability of participants through a period of work experience and/or training abroad.

The types of activities that are supported include:

·  Exchange of information and experiences, e.g. study trips;

·  The organisation of international seminars and conferences;

·  Joint activities such as training, stocktaking and analyses;

·  Transferring, incorporating and/or adapting models and products;

·  Development of new products and tools;

·  Exchange of experts, key personnel, staff and participants.

For the newer Member States, there is often an emphasis on using transnational cooperation to increase their access to experts, service providers and other sources of knowledge and experience on their priority themes. In a number of Member States, themes have been chosen for transnational collaboration and in the majority of instances they reflect priorities in the respective OPs.

The link with OP priorities is also reflected in the innovative projects that are supported. Many Member States outline economic objectives for their projects such as promoting entrepreneurship, the anticipation and management of change or the modernisation of the labour organisation. Countries also have themes that are at the crossover point between economic and social objectives such as ‘flexicurity’ and helping companies to retrain and retain workers. There were also some more social themes such as early intervention to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. In some instances, this was coupled with educational reforms, particularly in the newer Member States, but UK – Wales also has an OP priority that is concerned with offering more innovative ways of engaging young people in education, training and work experience.

At the last meeting of the Ad-hoc Group it was suggested that a paper or annexe should be prepared that mapped out the current transnational measures that were being supported through each OP. For that reason Annexe A contains an outline of the transnational and innovative activities that are being funded by each Member State which responded to the Commission’s original request.