European Aid Fund

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The European Aid Fund (long title: European Aid Fund for the Most Deprived, FEAD) is an important aid instrument of the European Union to combat poverty, social exclusion and discrimination and to strengthen social integration and cohesion in European society and to enable a equal access to opportunities and resources for all Union citizens .

The Aid Fund finances projects or programs in the EU Member States to help people who are most exposed to poverty in the EU. The European Aid Fund is set up for the period January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2020.

aims

In addition to the other funding programs of the European Union, the European Aid Fund is intended to meet the immediate basic needs of affected people in order to enable them to participate in social life again, to get a chance at a job, or to attend a training course to be able to participate.

reasons

The European Union has achieved considerable prosperity for most of its citizens over the past few decades. However, almost one in four EU citizens is still at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Specifically, around 120 million EU citizens are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, around 50 million live in households in which no one can work, and around 40 million EU citizens are directly affected by severe material hardship. B. not have a meal with meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent food every other day, although this is defined as a basic requirement by the World Health Organization . In addition, around 4.1 million people in the European Union were homeless between 2009 and 2010.

Combating poverty and social exclusion is also at the heart of the EU's Europe 2020 strategy . Caritas Europa has found that poverty has risen in two out of three EU member states since 2010.

history

The creation of a European aid fund for the most disadvantaged people was not provided for in the original version of the 1957 EEC Treaty . Above all, the European Commission in conjunction with the European Parliament carried out a number of pilot projects and programs to combat poverty and exclusion in the European Union (then European Economic Community ) between 1975 and 1994 , although there was no clear legal basis for this (see e.g. B. the European food aid program for the needy , MDP from 1987.). That is why these measures in this area have been challenged again and again - also by Germany.

In 1999 with the amendment of the EU treaties by the Treaty of Amsterdam , the elimination of social exclusion became a goal of the newly introduced social policy of the European Union (Article 19 TFEU). A Social Protection Committee was set up in 2000 to encourage cooperation with the Commission and between Member States. This now made it possible to provide support for people without reference to labor market or environmental issues, as was previously imperative due to the European Union's lack of competencies in this area.

The Lisbon Strategy, launched in 2000 , established a monitoring and coordination mechanism that included setting targets, determining the poverty rate using indicators and benchmarks, guidelines for Member States and national action plans against poverty. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) was also used, in line with practice in other areas of social policy .

With the Recommendation of October 2008 on the active inclusion of people excluded from the labor market, the Commission updated Council Recommendation 92/441 / EEC and recommended that the Member States «design and implement an integrated comprehensive strategy for the active inclusion of people excluded from the labor market, which combines adequate income support, inclusive labor markets and access to quality services » . Under the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, a new common objective in the fight against poverty and social exclusion was to reduce the number of Europeans living below the national poverty line by 25%, bringing them to over 20 million People would be lifted out of poverty. However, the number of people at risk of poverty and exclusion is still high: it only fell significantly for the first time in 2017 (by 1.5 million compared to 2016 (Eurostat)).

In December 2010 the European Commission founded the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion. An annual convention has been held within the platform since 2011, bringing together politicians, key stakeholders and people affected by poverty. As a result of the banking, financial and economic crisis since 2007, the number of people at risk of poverty in Europe has increased significantly. The European Commission therefore adopted two further initiatives in 2013 (“Social investment for growth and social cohesion - social investment package” and a proposal to strengthen the social dimension in the framework of the governance of economic and monetary union).

In March 2014, the European Parliament and the issued advice to Regulation (EU) No 223/2014. On the European support fund for the most disadvantaged people . The European Aid Fund directly replaces the European Food Aid Program for the needy .

In April 2017, the European Commission introduced the European Pillar of Social Rights . This is intended to respond to the increasingly flexible labor markets with a view to better working and living conditions. With the European Pillar of Social Rights, a number of legislative and political initiatives have been launched, such as the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on transparent and reliable working conditions or the package on social justice (European Labor Authority, access to social protection) .

Beneficiary group of people

The Member States of the Union define who are actually the most disadvantaged in the sense of the European Aid Fund for the Most Deprived. In principle, the EU member states are bound by the rather open definition in Article 2 no. 2 of EHAP regulation tied that most disadvantaged "individuals (individuals, families, households or from these people assembled groups) are, their need for support on the basis of objective criteria determined was; these criteria by the competent national authorities, after consulting Stakeholders and avoiding conflicts of interest, or defined by the partner organizations and approved by the relevant national authorities, and they may include elements that allow targeting the most deprived persons in specific geographical areas .

The EU member states and the European Commission are obliged to all forms of discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation when accessing the fund and the programs and projects supported by the fund prevent (Article 5 para. 1 sub-para. 2) and that respect for the dignity of the most disadvantaged persons is preserved (Article 5 para. 14 FEAD Regulation).

The European Court of Auditors found in its 05/2019 report that in reality half of the Union Member States audited by the Court of Auditors do not target aid to a specific vulnerable group or poverty situation. According to the criticism of the Court of Auditors, however, in order for the European Aid Fund for the most deprived of poverty to generate added value for the EU alongside other funding programs, it must be geared towards the people who need support most urgently, or support towards the extreme forms of poverty.

Financial resources from the European Aid Fund

The earmarked funds of the European Aid Fund for the first funding period from 2014 to 2020 amount to around 3.4 billion euros (Article 6 (1) FEAD regulation). This is complemented by 15% national co-financing, which Member States must contribute in accordance with their national programs.

The European Aid Fund is used as a food aid program in most of the EU Member States. 83% of the funds are used for food aid in the EU Member States. This is made possible by the regulation on the European Aid Fund (EU 223/2014), which allows member states to finance food aid largely in the same way as under the earlier European Food Aid Program for the needy (MDP). Only four EU member states ( Denmark , Germany , the Netherlands and Sweden ) have so far decided to focus their programs on specific measures for social inclusion (so-called type II operational programs ). These measures therefore only account for 2.5% of the fund volume. In Germany, the main focus of funding is immigration and homelessness (advice and benefits in kind), while the school starter package project with specific benefits in kind was introduced in Austria .

For the next programming period after 2020, the European Commission has therefore proposed to integrate the European Aid Fund into the new European Social Fund (ESF +), which, among other things, aims to pursue specific goals to combat material deprivation .

FEAD programs

The Union Member States can choose between two different types of Operational Programs (OP) or they can choose both types of programs:

  • Type I operational programs include food aid and material assistance (examples):
    • Delivery of food packages,
    • Supporting organizations that provide hot meals for the homeless or distribute sleeping bags and toiletries to them, or
    • Promote school lunches for children living in poverty or support their families.
    • accompanying measures aimed at alleviating the social exclusion of the most disadvantaged people. This can include measures such as personal hygiene advice or cooking classes, but also the provision of information about the available national social assistance programs .
  • Type II operational programs are measures aimed at the social inclusion of clearly defined groups among the most disadvantaged people. Such measures should be clearly linked to national social inclusion strategies and can range from advisory activities similar to those available in the accompanying measures under OP I to social inclusion measures such as those offered under the ESF .

Funding process

National programs, projects or measures proposed by the public sector or civil society bodies are collected from the Union Member States . The European Commission approves these national programs if they comply with the funding guidelines and requirements of Regulation (EU) 223/2014. The EU member states can therefore largely decide for themselves what kind of assistance they want to provide to which people or not. So z. B. Food or other material support or a combination of both. It is also up to the member states of the Union how they organize the procurement of food or material support and its distribution, provided that the criteria for this are objectively and transparently comprehensible.

literature

  • Marie Lecerf: Poverty in the European Union - The crisis and its consequences , European Parliament, March 2016, PE 579.099, ISBN 978 92 823 8855 6 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ engl. : Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived , FEAD; french : Fund européen d'aide aux plus demunis.
  2. ↑ Combating Poverty, Social Exclusion and Discrimination , European Parliament website, May 2019.
  3. ↑ See also recitals 1 and 2 in Regulation (EU) 223/2014.
  4. ↑ European Aid Fund: EU Parliament Combats Poverty and Social Exclusion , European Parliament website of June 13, 2013.
  5. ↑ Special Report No. 05/2019 of the European Court of Auditors , p. 6.
  6. ↑ Special report 05/2019: Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD): FEAD provides valuable support, but its contribution to poverty reduction has not yet been identified , website of the European Court of Auditors of 3 April 2019.
  7. ↑ Lisa Schüler: The new European aid fund takes direct action against poverty , from April 28, 2015.
  8. ^ Antonius Opilio : EUV | EGV | AEU , Dornbirn 2008, Edition Europa Verlag, 2nd edition, ISBN 3 901 924 27 2 ( online Google books ).
  9. ↑ a b c Special Report No. 05/2019 of the European Court of Auditors , p. 4.
  10. ↑ a b c d Combating poverty, social exclusion and discrimination , European Parliament website, May 2019. Point A.
  11. ↑ a b Special Report No. 05/2019 of the European Court of Auditors , p. 5.
  12. ↑ Article 13 of the EC Treaty (now Article 19 TFEU) empowers the Council to take measures against discrimination (e.g. on grounds of race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age, disability or sexual orientation ). In 2003 this article was amended by the Treaty of Nice to allow the adoption of promotional measures. Several directives have been adopted (examples): Racial Equality Directive (2000/43 / EC), Employment Equality Directive (2000/78 / EC), Equal Treatment Directive (2006/54 / EC)
  13. ↑ Special Report No. 05/2019 of the European Court of Auditors , p. 6 f.
  14. ↑ Combating poverty, social exclusion and discrimination , European Parliament website, May 2019. Point C.
  15. ↑ a b Special Report No. 05/2019 of the European Court of Auditors , p. 9 f.