The director of the International Department of the Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Sonia Castañeda, participated today in the seminar “The European Social Fund and the environment: learning from the past, we build the future”, organized by the European Commission in Brussels. within the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities or OPEN DAYS 2008.

The Director of International Affairs of the Biodiversity Foundation has presented the activity of this institution in the management of the European Social Fund (ESF) and has explained how through the Empleaverde Programme the Foundation supports projects to improve employment and the environment in the different productive sectors. He also outlined the lessons learned in the management of the ESF during the period 2000-2006 and the challenges for the future.

The OPEN DAYS 2008 or European Week of Regions and Cities, organised by the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional Policy, is the largest annual meeting on regional and market policy in the European Union. More than 200 regions and cities from 32 countries will participate in it and nearly 250 seminars and workshops will be held within it.

The purpose of this seminar is to share experiences and good practices between different managers of the European Social Fund in the member countries in order to improve the intervention of this structural fund to achieve environmental objectives.

The Biodiversity Foundation has been the manager of the ESF since 2001, first through the Operational Programme “Entrepreneurship and Continuous Training 2000-2006”, and currently in the Operational Programme “Adaptability and Employment 2007-2013”.

The role of the Foundation in this framework is to serve as a bridge between employment policy and environmental policy with a double objective, that the environment and sustainability are the basis for better jobs and more competitive companies and that workers and companies are key actors in the improvement of the environment and in the sustainability of development.

On 29 September, the management of the Biodiversity Foundation decided to sign the 2008 agreements of the Empleaverde Programme through which almost 15 million euros will be allocated to finance 32 projects aimed at improving employment and the environment.