60 YEARS OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND

On March 25, together with the whole Europe, European Social Fund, which is the oldest fund, celebrated its 60 years’ anniversary. European Social Fund Agency in Lithuania, which is entrusted to administer the ESF funds from 2004 also salutes European Commission, all Member States, and its employees together with the stakeholders with this anniversary.

European Social Funds is the most important instrument for investing in people. It helps people retrain for new jobs or assists them in finding jobs for the first time. It also looks out for the more disadvantaged in society who may be socially excluded or at risk of being so, providing them with opportunities to find or get back into work. The ESF invests in better education opportunities and also supports the improvement of public services to the benefit of job seekers, workers, and companies.

Since 2004, 1,2 million of Lithuanians participated in ESF funded projects, out of which 300 thousand unemployed and those at risk of unemployment. With the help of funds, more than 125 thousand unemployed found jobs and having begun to promote the volunteering in projects about half a thousand young people volunteered in different fields of activities.

More than 3 thousand people suffering from addiction to psychoactive substances diseases participated in rehabilitation programs, out of which 522 addicted people continued training and successfully were employed. Up to 3 thousand participants with disabilities completed vocational rehabilitation programs and more than half of them were employed. Integral assistance at home was provided to 2 769 persons.

Over half a million of all ages of the population studied, gained qualifications and received graduation certificates. The activities of ESF funded projects involved more than 400 thousand pupils, students, scientists, researchers, teachers, academics, research institutions administrative staff. More than 47 thousand civil servants and employees from public administration institutions improved their administrative capacities. Also, aiming to improve the administration and increase the efficiency of public administration 182 systems in the municipalities and other public administration organizations were implemented. Finally, 2164 detailed and special territorial plans with the purpose to develop the infrastructure in the municipalities were prepared and 56 local development strategies were elaborated and approved.

Currently, the third period of the ESF investments accelerates in Lithuania. According to the 2014-2020 period of EU investments action programme Lithuania has been allocated 1.35 billion euros. European Social Fund Agency administers the biggest part of the allocated amount i.e. 1.04 billion euros. During the new programming period for 2014-2020 ESFA will administer investments which will be focused on promoting em­ployment, reducing social exclusion, education, increasing the competences of human resources.