1972 - 1983

In 1969, the European Commission started to re-examine the mission and operation of the European Social Fund and prepared the ground for its first reform, which came into force in 1972.The aim of the reform was to extent and strengthen the Fund, as a tool for greater efficiency and flexibility in the management of resources.

The new Fund was given more resources and during the next two years its total budget significantly exceeded the total budget of the previous 12 years. A further innovation was the opening up of ESF aid to the private sector with pilot programmes to promote innovation in training. For the first time, private bodies became eligible for ESF grants to the extent that a public authority guaranteeing the scheme was also contributing.

The largest part of the Fund’s budget, about 90%, was given for action related to vocational training and education.

Special emphasis was given to measures for vocational retraining and re-integration of specific population categories, such as:

• People who left agriculture
• Workers in the textile industry, who had to change economic activity
• Workers in transit
• People coming from socially vulnerable groups
• Unemployed or young persons under 25 years old seeking employment
• Women and workers over 50.

Also, the ESF actions mainly focused on sectors such as:

• Less developed regions or regions where economic development is lagging behind
• Businesses facing difficulty in adaptation to the technological progress

Although the next major review of the ESF was not foreseen until the early eighties, the serious deterioration in the unemployment situation especially for young people and in at least developed regions, led to other amendments in the intervening years. In 1977, during the interval between the first and second reform, the eligible categories of beneficiaries were enlarged to include:

• Migrant workers and their families
• Women over 25 years old unemployed, aiming to re-integrate in the labour market after a long period of unemployment
• Unemployed young people under 25 years old, with a particular emphasis on people who aimed to enter the labour market for the first time.

During the past 50 years the repeated changes in the competences and the operation of the ESF were also connected with the gradual increase "the enlargement" of the "Members" of the European family.

First enlargement
In 1973, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark became members of the European Union. A year later the Action Programme on Social policy was adopted and then, in 1975, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) was born.

Second enlargement
On January 1^st 1981 Greece joined the European family as its tenth member which signified the first Mediterranean enlargement of the Community.

The negotiations of the Accession started when Greece applied for membership to the European Economic Community in June 1975, and they concluded with the signing of the Accession Treaty in Athens on the 28^th of May 1979.