EU funds for human resources development

The new version of Romania’s Operational Programme “Human Resources Development” is to be sent to Brussels on Friday for negotiations with the European Commission, according to the Management Authority – The Ministry of Labor, Family and Equal Opportunities.

The negotiations are under way, and the document on the Human Resources is likely to be endorsed by the end of June, according to the Romanian Labor minister, Paul Pacurariu.

The operational programme document has four chapters – general information on the programme, priority axes, financial plan and contact date of the intermediate bodies. It also includes details about the eligibility of the applicants and the projects. The intermediate organism of the programme for all the country is the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth.

The Sectoral Operational Programme sets the priority axes and the major intervention areas of Romania in the human resources field in order to implement the EU financial assistance through the European Social Fund, within the frame of ,,Convergence” objective for 2007-2013.

The seven priority axes, out of which the second and the first are granted most of the money out of the total of almost 3.5 billion euros, are the following:

1. Education and professional training in the perspective of economic growth and development of a knowledge-based society

2. Connecting life long learning with the labor market

3. Increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises

4. Improving public employment services

5. Promoting the measures of employment services

6. Promoting social inclusion

7. Technical assistance

The main objective of the programme is the development of the human capital and the increase of the competitiveness of the human resources by establishing an agreement between the education and life long learning, on one hand, and the labor market, on the other. The funding will be channeled to schools, universities, other education providers, NGO’s and public institutions.