European Parliament own-initiative report on the ESF+ post-2027

As part of the reflections and contribution to the design of Cohesion Policy beyond 2027, the European Parliament is working on an own-initiative report on the European Social Fund Plus post-2027. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs is taking the lead of the procedure, as responsible committee, with Marit Maij (Socialists & Democrats) as rapporteur. The Committee for Regional Development is also involved in the process, with Kathleen Funchion (The Left) as designated rapporteur.

Following the presentation of the draft report on 24 October 2024, the report has been discussed within the Committees and amendments have been tabled by both Committees. The vote of the final report, following the consideration and acceptance/rejection of the amendments, is schedule at the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on 6 February 2025 and at the European Parliament plenary on 10 March 2025.

The Draft Report include the following messages:

Insists that the ESF+ must continue to be a key instrument for supporting the Member States, people and regions in strengthening the social dimensions of the Union;
Calls for a strong, reinforced, stand-alone ESF+ with significantly increased public support. It expresses strong concerns over the attempts to split or merge the existing ESF+ with other funds, as well as about changes in ESF+ governance;
Calls on the Commission to ensure that a comprehensive, stable and large-scale needs and rights-based budget is guaranteed for the ESF+ in the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
Underlines that the ESF+ post-2027 should invest in tackling enduring social challenges and stay close to the general and specific objectives set out in the current ESF+; emphasises the importance of the fund’s principles of shared management, clear objectives and thematic concentrations, and that most of the fund should be spent as close as possible to those using the fund;
Underlines that horizontal principles, such as gender equality, anti-discrimination, and freedom of movement, should be integral to the ESF+; stresses the importance of an intersectional approach throughout the entire development and implementation of the fund;
Insists that the ESF+ should target the most disadvantaged people in our societies, regardless of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, or racial or ethnic origin – in particular marginalised communities such as Roma people, people with disabilities or chronic diseases, homeless people, children and elderly people;
Stresses that addressing child poverty requires appropriately funded, comprehensive and integrated measures, together with the implementation of the European Child Guarantee at national level, and insists that it constitute a central pillar of the EU anti-poverty strategy; repeats its previous demands for the ESF+ post-2027 to include a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion for the European Child Guarantee; insists that all the Member States should allocate at least 5 % of their ESF+ resources to the European Child Guarantee and at least 10 % for those Member States with a higher portion of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion;
Urges the Commission to raise the earmarking for social inclusion beyond the current 25 % and the earmarking for food aid and basic material assistance for the most deprived persons to 5 %, in response to rising living and food costs;
Insists on dedicating support to ensure decent living conditions for all, with access to high-quality essential services; calls for the EU anti-poverty strategy, outlined in Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s political guidelines for the 2024-2029 term, to be implemented via the ESF+, with its binding poverty-reduction targets, national living wage indices and reference budgets used as benchmarks, applying a multidimensional approach;
Shares the ambition to prioritise the tackling of the housing crises, and insists that the ESF+ post-2027 should enhance timely and equal access to affordable, decent, sustainable and high-quality services promoting access to housing;
Emphasises the need to ensure sufficient financing of the ESF+ post-2027 for high quality and public education for all, skills development, upskilling, reskilling and lifelong learning, and for the addressing of skills shortages, ensuring that individuals can successfully navigate labour market transitions;
Calls for a strengthening of efforts to support the implementation of the Youth Guarantee with an increased earmarking for all Member States that dedicate at least 15 % of their ESF+ resources; repeats in this context its call on the Member States to ban unpaid traineeships;
Calls to ensure the participation of social partners, civil society organisations and representatives of the target groups in all design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages of the ESF+;
Stresses that the implementation of the EPSR and the reforms needed to comply with the country-specific recommendations in the European Semester are also dependant on the strong support of the ESF+ for certain policy measures, especially those related to strengthening social welfare systems, ensuring inclusive and high-quality public education, reducing child poverty and eradicating homelessness;
Calls for an increased co-financing rate of at least 90 % for measures targeting the most deprived implemented by CSOs, and at least 70 % for those implemented by social enterprises;
Calls for strong and more effective social conditionalities in rules on public procurement and concessions, with effective sanctions;
Calls for the reduction of the administrative burden, notably by simplifying the application processes for accessing funds and the reporting procedures for organisations.

EURoma will follow the process of discussion and approval of the report and contribute based on its experience.

In the initial report we miss further reference to the Roma population among the vulnerable groups target of the ESF+ and to the EU Framework for National Roma Strategic Framework (NRSFs) as a reference for the actions related to Roma equality and inclusion. Increased attentions needs to be paid also to the role of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), alone and in combination with the ESF+, crucial in areas such as housing. We are glad to see that some of these issues have been addressed in the amendments tabled.