I was recently delighted to launch 16 new EU-funded projects with the aim of improving public services for every one of our citizens. Quality of public services impacts a country’s level of productivity, which in turn is linked to prosperity.
Within this context, and acknowledging that public services which help rather than hinder business and job creation are needed across the EU, the European Social Fund provides financial support in areas of employability, education and inclusion while supporting the implementation of national policy reforms and capacity building in the area of public administration.
Another priority area supported through the European social fund is social dialogue.
The government believes that further investment is essential for social partners and civil society bodies to develop the necessary socio-economic technical expertise and capacity.
The programme for Malta earmarked an overall allocation of €11 million for these priority areas.
Investment will aim at strengthening the role and capacity of the public administration with a view to improve the efficiency of public service delivery through improved leadership and better utilisation of public resources, simplification and better regulation as well as supporting capacity building for NGOs and social partners.
One critical area in all of this is ensuring that systems, policies, practices and skills are in synergy with changing economic environments as well as abreast with deve-lopments. Every project receiving support will in their given sector be working to improve the performance and capacity of public administration through different measures and actions.
Training will also be directed in areas where infrastructural investment is happening, in order to complement and enable through the implementation of such investments
Projects approved will be enabling strategic interventions, as well as reaching across diverse sectors of public administration through training opportunities.
Moreover, social partners will be supported in also developing e-tools that will encourage more people to get involved, appealing to businesses as well as the general public and interest groups.
The types of interventions planned to support the public administration will be seeking to identify gaps and better understanding obstacles, which hinder efficiency, with the aim to improve service delivery for citizens and businesses.
We’re also ensuring that training opportunities locally and abroad are made available to enhance skills, in particular to improve simplification and internal business processes, as well as in the area of leadership.
Training will also be directed in areas where infrastructural investment is happening, in order to complement and enable through the implementation of such investments, where it will be supporting government reforms in standards in health care, auditing, planning and e-government and in specialised fields such as statistics, culture and the arts.
The type of interventions planned in the area of social dialogue will address capacity needs, to be better positioned to actively contribute towards the formulation of policies both at a national and at a European level, and will include creation of e-tools to better reach members to provide service, information and for consultation purposes.
Research activities will be carried out supporting social partners to better position themselves.
Training will also be aimed at members and their representatives of social partners to improve the potential of issues being raised bottom-up.
These projects will also further strengthen the government’s own services with a view of improving participation in the social dialogue process.
The government issued a call for project proposals under these areas; and further to the selection process we will now have 16 new projects implemented under these ESF priority areas, amounting to €11 million, which overall is set out to providing training to over 4,500 people working in the public administration and with NGOs or social partners.
Aaron Farrugia is Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds and Social Dialogue.