Press Release: The European Structural and Investment Funds 2021-2027 - Funding Opportunities for Libraries

18 May 2020

 

(Preliminary to the First European Report on Sustainable Development Goals and its implementation  in European Libraries)

 

The EBLIDA Executive Committee requested the EBLIDA Secretariat to draft a Paper focused on the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) 2021-2027.

The magnitude of the Covid-19 crisis and its possible impact on library activities may prompt a response which cannot be funded through ordinary funding; ESIF 2021-2027 could prop up strained library budgets in the post-Covid 19 age.

“The preparation of a European library agenda in the post-Covid 19 age will require additional funding in order to carry out ordinary library activities and to consolidate the trends experimented with during the crisis. ESI Funds may be an appropriate financial instrument; we have to stimulate ground-breaking developments in libraries and be open to novel directions which cannot be covered by ordinary library budgets”, said Mr Ton van Vlimmeren, President EBLIDA.

The European Structural and Investment Funds 2021-2027 report focuses on two funds which are likely to be relevant for libraries: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).

“In order to use these Funds, European library policy-makers should operate both at local, national and European level. The whole library ecosystem should be re-considered within the broader framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, maintains Giuseppe Vitiello, EBLIDA Director. The EBLIDA ESIF Paper focuses on the main ESIF objectives - a smarter Europe, a greener, carbon free Europe, a more connected Europe, a more social Europe, and a Europe closer to citizens – and delves into the specific ERDF/ESF+ objectives. It also describes the way ESIF works, its normative framework and the related implementation process. At the end of the Paper a series of Synoptic Tables link ESIF specific objectives to library best practices detected in Sustainable Development Goals implemented in library projects.

Download the Report: The European Structural and Investment Funds 2021-2027: Funding Opportunities for Libraries

[Open Access publication, licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) which permits the widest possible dissemination to EBLIDA members and the European library community.]

 

 

 

< back to overview