Further Information : PROGRESS
PROGRESS is the EU's employment and social solidarity programme that covers actions against discrimination, equality, employment measures and the fight against social exclusion.
The EU set up PROGRESS to accompany Member States efforts to promote more and better jobs and equal opportunities for all. The public are looking to the EU to strengthen social Europe so that it can deliver growth and more jobs and fight poverty and social exclusion.
Working alongside the European Social Fund (ESF) it started in 2007 and will run until 2013. PROGRESS has a global budget of € 743,25 million for seven years.
PROGRESS is open to the 27 EU Member States, EU candidate and EFTA/EEA countries. It targets Member States, local and regional authorities, public employment services and national statistics offices. Specialised bodies, universities and research institutes, as well as the social partners and non-governmental organisations can also participate.
Member States have set targets as part of the European Employment Strategy and explained the paths they will follow to achieve them in their national action plans.
The EU carefully designed the new Programme to support this policy development and its delivery in five areas:
- Employment
- Social inclusion and protection
- Working conditions
- Non-discrimination
- Gender equality
PROGRESS will ensure that EU social policy remains on course to face the key policy challenges and concentrate on actions that need a combined European effort. It will work to support Member States to ensure they deliver on their EU commitments and implement and apply EU laws uniformly. To do this, it will work in partnership with governments, but also local authorities, employers, trade unions and the voluntary sector.
PROGRESS has six general objectives. These are:
- To improve the knowledge and understanding of Member states situation through analysis, evaluation and close monitoring of policies
- To support the development of statistical tools, methods and common indicators in the areas covered by the programme
- To support and monitor the implementation of Community law and policy objectives in the Member States to assess their effectiveness and impact
- To promote networking and mutual learning and identify and disseminate good practice and innovative approaches at EU level
- To enhance stakeholder and general public awareness about each policy area
- To boost the capacity of key EU networks to promote, support and further develop EU policies and objectives
PROGRESS funds three types of actions:
- Analysis
- Mutual learning, awareness and dissemination
- Support to main actors
It focuses on activities with a strong European dimension to guarantee an EU added value. These activities are designed to inform policy analysis and development. In this respect, PROGRESS differs from the ESF, which invests in the implementation of employment and social inclusion policies in the Member States.
Examples of what PROGRESS can fund include:
- Europe-wide studies such as research on health and safety at work
- Collecting statistics on the number of workplace accidents and diseases. Compiling European Labour Force Surveys and disseminating the results
- Funding European observatories such as the European Employment Observatory (EEO) to track employment policies and labour market trends
- Training of legal and policy practitioners
- Creation of networks of national experts, such as legal experts, exchanging and discussing issues raised by EU employment law and its application
- Funding of EU networks of NGOs fighting social exclusion and discrimination on grounds of racial origin, age and disability or promoting gender equality
- Public awareness campaigns on EU social and employment policies and laws, including EU Presidency Conferences and the Social Forum
More information on the PROGRESS Programme can be found on the European Commission website.
