Since 2000, in all 26 German OPs, programmes and measures can be found, that address the local level in terms of employment, social cohesion and lifelong learning. For the previous period (2000-2006) mainly programmes which were based on the “Local Social Capital”-approach and local employment strategies, emerging from the TEP (“Territorial Employment Pacts”) initiative of the European Union were identified. In the current period (2007-2013) a broad variety of roughly 50 programmes were found. It seems that LEIs in Germany are much more a programme and project-related funding approach rather than a systematic and coherent ESF-strategy. However, we can observe the trend, that programmes are longer-lasting and partly shifting decision-making to the local level. The involvement of local and sub-regional or regional stakeholders in the Programming and in particular in the implementation phase is widely accepted. Vertical co-operation between the federal and/or Federal State level, the (sub-) regional and local level has been established increasingly during the last decade. The leading role in LEIs is played by local authorities steering the process, because they are expected, amongst others things, to foster sustainability. However, they need capacity building measures; furthermore, support for intermediate bodies to do their work is required. Moreover, reductions in terms of administrative burdens of ESF-co-financed projects are urgent. The share of LEIs in terms of budgeting varies between 1,2% and 40% within the different OPs.
AEISL (January 2011)
AEIDL is contracted by the European Commission in order to provide technical assistance related to the European Social Fund’s Transnational Cooperation and Innovation strands. The views expressed by AEIDL experts remain informal and may not in any circumstance be regarded as the official position of the European Commission.
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