Subheading 1b Economic, social and territorial cohesion 2018 commitment appropriations

Subheading 1b covers EU expenditure on cohesion policy and supports harmonious economic, social and territorial development of EU regions and cities. Most of the expenditure in the subheading is pre-allocated to the Member States and implemented through three European structural and investment (ESI) funds, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF). The resources of these three funds, which include a specific contribution from the CF to the Connecting Europe Facility, are distributed between two objectives: ‘Investment for growth and jobs’ and ‘European territorial cooperation’. The ESI funds make a significant contribution to initiatives directly and indirectly supporting industrial policy objectives (see Box 2 above). In addition, subheading 1b has a specific allocation for the Youth Employment Initiative.