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Support Center
HELPDESK - SOCIAL SERVICES HELPDESK ON EU FUNDS
Romania
Architecture of funds
Social policies are supported by Policy Objective 4 (PO4) – A more social and inclusive Europe implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights. This objective contains both ESF and ERDF funds and the distribution is done in national and regional programs:
- National programs: Education and Employment Program (POEO); Social Inclusion and Dignity Program (POIDS); Health Program – 3 in total.
- Regional programs: Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Program; Northwest Regional Program; South-East Regional Program; South-Muntenia Regional Program; Regional Program South-West Oltenia; Western Regional Program; Center Regional Program; North-East Regional Program – 8 in total.
Objectives related to social sector
Through the interventions targeted at the level of Policy Objective 4, Romania aims to create those fundamental levers for the development of all economic sectors, namely investments in people and in social fields. In this context, the targeted interventions aim at five major levels:
- ensuring quality and inclusive education at all levels
- adapting the human resource to the dynamics of the labor market and technological progress
- combating poverty and promoting social inclusion through personalized measures
- ensuring quality health services accessible to all
- increasing the role of culture and sustainable tourism in supporting social inclusion and community development
The themes in bold it reveals the most about the social field, while the first one is about education and the last one about tourism and culture.
In view of solving the labor shortage (2), interventions will be financed through which it is targetedinclusion in the labor market of groups with lower participation, such as women who take care of children, but also the activation of disadvantaged groups, such as people from the Roma community, people with disabilities, the elderly, the unemployed, the long-term unemployed, the inactive, including young people from these categories or who do not participate in education or training professional etc.
Also, dedicated interventions are proposed to increase the employment of young people and capitalize on their potential on the labor market,by creating a youth ecosystem that facilitates the identification of vulnerable young people and their motivation to participate in the labor market and in society by providing integrated and tailored measures designed to meet the complex needs they face.
In view of supporting inclusion and promoting the right to social dignity (3), Romania proposes the following general objectives:
- increasing access to social services for the vulnerable population, especially from rural areas through the establishment and development of social services at the local level;
- increasing the quality of social services intended for people belonging to vulnerable groups by ensuring well-trained specialized staff at the local level and adequate infrastructure;
- reducing the degree of social exclusion for vulnerable groups by offering support and accessible services to overcome the difficult situations in which they find themselves;
- increasing the capacity of the national social assistance system to respond to the needs of the vulnerable population by developing the capacity of public and private social service providers at the local level, but also by developing the related infrastructure;
- increasing the capacity of local authorities to identify and assess the social needs of the community in a participatory way and to develop appropriate action plans and respond to these needs, including through the construction of social housing and the avoidance of housing segregation;
- providing independent living services for people with disabilities leaving the institutional system.
Regarding Health (4), the following objectives are considered to be essential:
- remedying the problems regarding Romania’s health infrastructure and the service provision framework that have not been adapted to modern technologies and do not meet the medical needs of the population;
- speeding up the remediation of the main problems identified in the health field which, moreover, require an integrated approach that takes into account both the need to improve primary medical services, prevention, ambulatory care, but also the need to ensure that FSE+ interventions are integrated and coordinated with ERDF interventions
The Health Program targets both major components of the system, that of the curative domain, but also the preventive one. Thus, the interventions are focused on reducing inequalities, targeting vulnerable groups and at the same time improving the effectiveness and resilience of the health system.
Actions specific to the Roma community:
- facilitating the access of marginalized people such as the Roma to health services and health education, including providing support for civil status regulation
- supporting local authorities in order to regulate the situation of informal settlements
- promoting and supporting the participation in education of children from Roma communities.
Expected results
ERDF Expected Results (PO4):
- Supporting inclusion and promoting the right to social dignity
- Increasing the access of vulnerable groups to quality social infrastructure and infrastructure for non-segregated individual social housing, respecting the principles of non-segregation and independent living in accordance with the UNCRPD
- The harmonious development of vulnerable children through interventions in multifunctional centers
- Health
- Increasing access to medical services by improving infrastructure and medical equipment in areas/specialties where it is poor or lacking
- Increasing the quality of medical services in hospitals with a major territorial impact, through investments in infrastructure and equipment
- The Roma community
- Increasing the access of the Roma population, in accordance with the European and national strategic framework, to social, educational, employment and medical infrastructure, in full accordance with the principles of desegregation and non-discrimination.
FTJ Expected Results:
- sustainable and quality jobs created in the counties affected by the transition to climate neutrality;
- jobs maintained in the economy as a result of the implementation of measures to substantially reduce GHG emissions in industry;
- people benefiting from qualification/retraining/specialisation/updating skills for integration into a low-carbon economy.
The mechanism for ensuring complementarities and synergies between the funds covered by the Partnership Agreement
In the first stage, they were established 5 working groups for the 5 policy objectives, made up of partners from public institutions that are responsible for developing policies in the field covered by the policy objective and partners from civil society, the academic environment, the business environment, etc. Then they were established working groups for Programs (the selection method was a national call regarding the expression of interest in participating within the partnership structures established for the elaboration of the OP and PA from May 2020).
Coordination Committee for the management of the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027 (CCMAP 2021-2027) was created, the members are the public authorities whose coordination is the elaboration and implementation of public policies, as well as the representatives of the socio-economic partners, ensuring a balanced composition, with the appropriate representation of both the public environment – according to the structure The Government, through the relevant public authorities and institutions, as well as the private sector, in July 2020, the final list of the composition of this committee being published.
The main attribution of this Committee is to ensure the strategic coordination of the implementation of the European funds related to the Cohesion Policy 2021-2027, respecting the coherence of the interventions, the complementarity and the synergies of the investment priorities in all phases of programming and implementation, in order to use these funds efficiently and effectively . This committee will include on its agenda a permanent topic related to ensuring complementarities with other funding sources (PNRR, etc.).
An extensive public consultation process was carried out in August 2020, with consultations taking place at the level of all partnership structures, with the participation of approximately1000 participants. A particular interest was shown by the academic environment (universities, research institutes, including in the medical field, women’s organizations, social partners, organizations active in the field of the social economy, organizations for Roma or people with disabilities, chambers of commerce, institutions from the health field and various organizations active on environmental issues.
What is new?
https://oportunitati-ue.gov.ro/ – “single entry point” of funding sources, being the interface between the institutional environment and beneficiaries/potential beneficiaries, as well as a main tool at the Romanian level for identifying potential national partners or from EU member states, for presenting examples of good practices in the main areas of available funding and highlighting synergies and complementarities.
Thematic concentration
Member State complies with thematic concentration requirements for Planned ESF+ programmes. Romania has agreed on the following thematic:
- Social inclusion, programmed under specific objectives (h) – (l) – 25.89%;
- Support to the most deprived, programmed under specific objectives (m) – 12.61%;
- Support to youth employment, programmed under specific objectives (a), (f) and (l) – 12.50%;Â
- Support to tackling child poverty, programmed under specific objectives (f), (h) – (l) – 5.75%;
- Capacity building social partners and NGO’s, programmed under all specific objectives except (m) – 1.21%
Actions planned to reinforce administrative capacity of the implementation of the funds covered by the Partnership Agreement
Both at the national and regional level, major importance is given to measures to strengthen the management and control system of European funds, taking into account both the lessons learned and the new responsibilities and institutional structures established for the period 2021-2027 ( IBs). Romania will ensure the requirements regarding the e-cohesion policy through the IT system. Most of the measures are focused on strengthening the administrative capacity in order to facilitate the work of the management authorities without much consideration for the beneficiaries.
Useful links:
Synthesis of operational programs:Synthesis of Operational Programs 2021-2027 (gov.ro)
Documents related to the 2021-2027 programmingPeriod 2021-2027 (gov.ro)
The circuit of European fundsThe circuit of European funds (gov.ro)
Helpdesk: Helpdesk (gov.ro)
2014-2020 leaflet brochure_18 April_low_res (gov.ro)
2014-2020 statistics MFE 2014-2020 – Date MySMIS2014 (APEX) (fonduri-ue.ro)
Project call calendar:| Ministry of European Investments and Projects (gov.ro)
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