History
The European Social Fund was created in the founding Treaty of Rome in 1957; it is the oldest of the Structural Funds. While the ESF has always taken higher employment as its objective, it has adapted its focus over the years to meet the challenges of the time. In the early post-war years, it concentrated on managing the migration of workers within Europe. Later it moved on to combating unemployment among the young and poorly qualified.
In the current funding period, 2007–2013, as well as targeting support at those with particular difficulties in finding work, such as women, young people, older workers, migrants and people with disabilities, ESF funding is also helping businesses and workers adapt to change. It does this by supporting innovation in the workplace, lifelong learning and the mobility of workers.
Read more about this topic: European Social Fund
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)