The EU programme for employment and social solidarity (NEW UPDATE)

PROGRESS is a financial instrument to support the development innovative and effective employment and social polies in Europe. PROGRESS is complementary to the European Social Fund (ESF) and has as general mission to financially support the efforts made by Member States to create a more cohesive society. Where ESF is more focused on concrete projects at local and national level, PROGRESS is targeted to policy level projects on a EU wide scale.  The programme focusses on five policy areas:

The programme has an budget of 683.25 million euros for the period of 2007-2013. In 2010 PROGRESS supported  252 information and communication events, 427 training sessions, peer reviews and mutual learning events, 161 reports identifying good practices and 78 monitoring and assessments reports.
The long term objectives of the PROGRESS programme are related to the Europe 2020 strategy:

It became a tradition, every year the European Commission focusses on a specific challenge. This way the Commission expresses its commitment for the fight against certain European problems. The year 2010 was the year for combating poverty and social exclusion. This year was focused on key priorities like active inclusion, combating child poverty and focusing on vulnerable groups such as the homeless and ethnic minorities. It was packed with actions to raise awareness of what poverty means today. It was a year for challenging stereotypes and strengthening national political commitments to tackling a problem more acute by the economic crisis. A number of initiatives were established at the end of 2010. For instance a European platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, the European Commission’s  framework for EU-wide action.