With the European Commission’s adoption of the last national Operational Program on February 26, the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) has finally been launched, providing a strong signal of EU solidarity towards people that are most in need.

The FEAD will support people at risk of poverty and social exclusion providing immediate material assistance with food, clothes and other essential goods and promoting measures to stimulate social integration.
The FEAD was created in January 2014 and amounts to 3.8 billion of euro that are distributed to around 4 million people.

The budget varies across Member States according to the level of need. Among the 28 Member States, Spain is the country with the highest budget available – around 563 million of euro, followed by Greece with 380 million of euro. Beneficiaries have considerable flexibility in their use of the funds. Within the framework of the national Operational Program, each Member State defines target groups, kind of activities supported, and organizations – either public bodies or non-governmental organizations – entitled to provide the services.

As a complementary fund to the European Social Fund (ESF), the FEAD is specifically targeted for those people that are too detached from the labour market and cannot benefit from the programs activated by the ESF, allowing them to take their first steps out of poverty and social exclusion. The two funds together have been created to achieve the Europe 2020 goal of reducing the number of people in or at risk of poverty by 20 million.