European Funds for Social Development will accelerate changes in the area of the broadly understood social policy. Mail objectives of FERS include improvement of the situation of individuals on the labour market, improving accessibility for persons with special needs, provision of childcare, improving the quality of education and competence development, social integration, development of social services and social economy, and health protection. ‘Funds to be made available to Poland in 2021-2027 for ESF implementation amount to EUR 15.6 billion, with nearly EUR 5 billion to be spent for support under the European Funds for Social Development (FERS) National Programme’,

Minister Grzegorz Puda said.

The Minister stressed that the signed agreements regulate interdepartmental rights and obligations and set the framework of the cooperation for the next seven years.

Within the framework of the tasks entrusted by the agreements, intermediate bodies will be responsible for selecting projects for funding, supervising, clearing, monitoring and controlling them among other things. This is the next step towards the launch of the programme and the commencement of the actions foreseen in it for the dynamic socioeconomic development of the country.

The European Funds for Social Development 2021-2027 Programme (FERS) is the continuation of the Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development (POWER). It will make further socioeconomic development of the country possible. It is an instrument for Objective 4 – A more social and inclusive Europe.

European Funds for Social Development are a comprehensive and thematically diverse programme. as in the Operational Programme Knowledge, Education, Development in the previous perspective, tasks related to its implementation were assigned to ministries and institutions responsible for individual public policies:  Ministry of Family and Social Policy, National Centre for Research and Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Science, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Digital Poland Project Centre, Center of European Projects and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.

FERS will respond to challenges of the labour market, education, health, childcare and accessibility for people with special needs. FERS will help execute and co-finance projects such as those focused on the improvement of the situation of individuals on the labour market, improving accessibility for persons with special needs, provision of childcare, improving the quality of education and competence development, social integration, development of social services and social economy, and health protection.

‘This is the third full implementation perspective of the European Social Fund and the third national programme co-financed from that fund. It can be safely assumed that, statistically speaking, the effects of ESF support have benefited every inhabitant of our country’,

Minister Puda pointed out.

Funds from the programme will be aimed at a broad section of the population. In particular, they will benefit entrepreneurs, parents of young children, economically active and inactive persons, people with disabilities as well as local governments and social and economic partners.

‘We have good news for Poland. ‘These are further resources to modernise the education system. They will support the development of vocational training, acquisition of digital competences, help increase the availability of psychological-educational assistance and the lifelong learning process. All this to help schools face contemporary world challenges, support the acquisition of competencies of the future and respond to the needs of the labour market’,

Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek stated.

‘Thanks to the agreement on the implementation of the FERS programme signed today, funding of PLN 2.6 billion will be available for further measures to strengthen the health system. We will spend most of funds, i.e. more than PLN 1.3 billion, on postgraduate education of doctors, nurses, midwives and other professions related to health protection. The qualifications of medical staff are vital to the functioning of the healthcare system, so support in this area is important. Resources worth PLN 389 million will be spent on improving the availability of outpatient specialist care for people with special needs. The FERS programme will also make it possible for us to spend more than PLN 895 million to continue very important reforms of psychiatric care and primary health care – coordinated care among other things. Resources under the programme will also help coordinate preventive health care and implement other important measures to help improve the functioning of the Polish health protection system’,

Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski said.

NGOs are the main recipients of the support continued and coordinated by the Chancellery, which amounts to EUR 49 million, which is twice as much as in the 2014-2020 financial perspective. ‘Strengthening civil dialogue and building the capacity of the third sector as a key player in it is of particular importance to the government's policy of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. We will support the establishment and development of the institutional potential of non-governmental organisations, increase their participation in the legislative process and support them in the activities aimed at providing access to people with special needs or socially excluded people and in searching for solutions promoting the building and growth of the network of federations and coalitions. The potential and long-term experience of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in the implementation of projects co-financed under the EFS will enable the effective implementation of actions to strengthen civil dialogue’,

Izabela Antos, Deputy Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, said.

‘In cooperation with the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, we have negotiated more than PLN 7 billion for measures related to broadly understood social policy and family support. Among other things, resources from the European Social Fund Plus will help improve the quality of life of the most deprived social groups including people with disabilities and families with young children. Thanks to the flagship project Maluch +, more than 100 thousand new childcare places for children under three will be created in nurseries, children’s clubs and  day care centres’,

Anita Czerwińska, Deputy Minister for Family and Social Policy, said.

‘Nearly PLN 1.4 billion has been allocated to support entrepreneurs under the FERS programme. The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development will allocate these funds on improving the skills of employees in enterprises. In particular, training and advisory services of key importance from the perspective of individual sectors of the economy will be financed. Additionally, entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from assistance in adapting to increasingly dynamic labour market changes. In line with the PAED’s mission of supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their activities, entrepreneurs in periodic difficulties will also be able to count on special attention. First calls for projects implemented by PARP under the FERS programme will start this year’,

PAED President Dariusz Budrowski stressed.

‘Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego has many years of experience in implementing social programmes. Thanks to such programmes, more than 8.5 thousand entities have already received approximately PLN 800 million worth of preferential loans for an improvement of accessibility in buildings, development of social economy or establishment of a business among other things. These activities help us fulfil the mission of BGK, which is to support the socioeconomic development of the country and now, thanks to resources obtained from FERS, i.e. more than 260 million euros, we will be able to implement it with even greater dynamism’,

Tomasz Robaczyński, BGK Management Board Member, said.

‘The Centre of European Projects will continue to support domestic bodies in establishing contacts with foreign partners to work out new solutions thanks to which ventures implemented by Polish beneficiaries will be more effective and the established cooperation will result in mutual benefits in the future. Thanks to the Agreement signed today, The CEP can start its work under the Programme. We are ready to proceed with IP tasks as soon as possible. Our plan is to announce two calls for projects this year while the call for experts to evaluate funding applications is in progress and will end on 20 January’,

Director of the Centre of European Projects Leszek Buller stated.

‘We will implement the project of Digital Development Clubs under the FERS. We will create a place in each municipality in Poland where it will be possible to develop citizens' digital competences. The signed agreement is the first step towards the implementation of this project. The Digital Development Clubs project supplements other activities of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister’s Digital Affairs (KPRM Cyfryzacja) in the area of development of the telecommunications infrastructure, state e-services, cybersecurity and digitisation of resources, which we will implement with the help of EFDD and CEP resources’,

Digital Poland Project Centre Director Wojciech Szajnar said.

‘NCRD will implement actions under two FERS priorities: I – Skills and III – Accessibility and Services for Persons with Disabilities. The implementation of the planned activities will offer the possibility to universities to create new courses, engage practitioners to teach and improve the competences of academic staff among other things. We also envisage the continuation of initiatives initiated in the previous financial perspective including the “third mission” of the university and the accessible university’,

Dr Paweł Kuch, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development, summed up.

The implementation of measures under the FERS was entrusted to 9 Intermediate Bodies:

• Ministry of Family and Social Policy in the area of childcare for children under 3, labour market, equal opportunities, supporting the social inclusion system, support for people with disabilities and their families and social dialogue (EUR 1.6 billion planned for all the measures)
• National Centre for Research and Development in the area of higher education and science (the planned budget amounts to more than EUR 722 million)
• Ministry of Health in the area of health (funds amounting to more than EUR 590 million at its disposal under EFSD)
• Ministry of Education and Science in the area of education (EUR 347 million planned for the measures)
• Polish Agency for Enterprise Development in the area of support for entrepreneurs (nearly EUR 309 million assigned to these measures)
• Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego in the area of repayable instruments (EUR 262 million)
• Digital Poland Project Centre in the area of digital competences and digital accessibility improvement (more than EUR 252 million planned for such measures)
• Centre of European Projects in the area of transnational cooperation and transnational mobility programmes (nearly EUR 209 million)
• Chancellery of the Prime Minister in the area of civil dialogue, support of civil society organisations, i.e. NGOs (nearly EUR 50 million)

As in the previous financial perspective, the implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) will take place on the regional level as part of 16 regional programmes implemented by voivodship authorities and on the national level through the national EFSD programme.