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~~5.9.2024~~

05.09.2024

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on ~~the general~~General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 - all sections (2024/0176(BUD))

Dear Mr Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on ~~Employment~~Transport and ~~Social Affairs~~Tourism has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting onof 2324 July 2024, the ~~EMPL Committee~~committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs considered the matter at its meeting on 4 September 2024 and adopted its opinion in the form of a letter, drawn-up under the lead of the EMPL rapporteur for opinion Romana TOMC, at that meeting. It decided to call on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution.

The Committee on Transport and Tourism considered the matter at its meeting of 4 September 2024. At that meeting, it decided to submit the opinion set out below to the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible.

Yours sincerely,

~~Li Andersson~~

(signed) Elissavet VozembergVrionidi

OPINION

1. The EMPL Committee stresses the existing challenges faced by people in Europe, notably increasing cost of livings, inflation in particular high energy, food and housing prices, resulting in growing vulnerabilities, widening social and economic inequalities, and escalating and aggravating poverty as well as the climate and biodiversity crisis and in particular the direct effect of extreme weather events, that are negatively affecting the EU's socio-economic landscape and the working and living conditions as well as the health and wellbeing of people living in Europe thereby threatening sustainable growth and employment. The Committee highlights that this context together with the green and digital transitions and the demographic change will require a robust and commensurate budgetary response in 2025, and therefore, expresses its concern about the very limited margins and remaining flexibilities available in the Draft Budget and calls for mobilising adequate resources for the EU employment and social policies ensuring that the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan and achievement of the Porto Declaration targets is prioritised.

A. Whereas the Connecting Europe Facility for Transport (CEF-T) is the main European instrument for strategic investment in infrastructure development along the TEN-T network that enables the improvement and modernisation of the EU network of roads, railways, inland waterways, maritime routes, urban nodes, ports, airports and terminals as well as transformation thereof into an interconnected, safe, smart and sustainable European transport system; whereas the recently concluded revision of the Regulation on TEN-T guidelines confirmed the obligation to finalise the core network by 2030, the extended core network by 2040 and the comprehensive network by 2050;

~~2. The EMPL Committee believes that in order to overcome these challenges it is essential to increase salaries and promote fair and decent wages and combat poverty at work.~~

B. Whereas the new geopolitical situation brought about by Russia’s illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine highlighted the importance of a well-connected military mobility network with shorter reaction times as well as secure, sustainable, and resilient transport infrastructure and capabilities;

3. The EMPL Committee recalls the EPSR, the EPSR Action Plan of 4 March 2021, including the EU 2030 headline targets for jobs, skills and poverty reduction, the Porto Declaration of 8 May 2021 on social affairs adopted by the Members of the European Council, the Tripartite Declaration for a Thriving European Social Dialogue, and the La Hulpe Declaration on the Future of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

C. Whereas the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes are laying the ground for the longer-term connectivity between the EU and Ukraine and will be fundamental to Ukraine’s reconstruction and integration into the Single Market; whereas CEF has been instrumental to the funding of the critical border needs and taking initial steps toward the integration of Ukraine’s and Moldova’s transport systems into the EU’s TEN-T network; whereas significant progress has also been made in transitioning to the European standard gauge, contributing to the creation of an interoperable EU railway system;

4. Furthermore, the EMPL committee recalls that the EPSR Action Plan aims for the EU to achieve specific targets by 2030, including having at least 78% of individuals aged 20 to 64 in employment, ensuring at least 60% of all adults participate in training annually, and reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million, including 5 million children. However, even achieving these targets is becoming increasingly challenging in the context of projected increases in poverty and unemployment unless specific efforts and support are dedicated to alleviating the current pressure on social protection systems and mitigating the social impact of the crisis, as well as to giving support to refugees and ensuring decent living conditions for all, with access to quality essential services such as health, education and housing.

D. Whereas the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea has disrupted the global maritime transport network, underscoring the critical importance of ensuring resilient and sustainable maritime supply chains for the Union, in alignment with the objectives of the European Maritime Space as established under the revised TEN-T guidelines;

5. The EMPL Committee points out that the European Social Fund + (ESF+) is one of the key drivers for strengthening the social dimension of the Union and thus, expresses a particular concern with the reduction of the directly managed part of the ESF+ as a result of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) revision, reducing the availabilities and opportunities for further action in line with a sufficiently funded ESF+ in light of the steep increase in cost of living and its impacts on workers and their families. The Committee highlights also the essential role of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF), and calls for Member States to make better use of the reduced funding available, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and Repower EU chapters, the Just Transition Fund (JTF), chapter 5 of the NZIA, the ERDF and the InvestEU programme.

E. Whereas, despite the repeated calls of the European Parliament, membership of Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen area remains limited to the air and sea routes; whereas staying outside of the Schengen’s land borders affects commuters, transport companies and tourism operators, disrupting the free flow of people, goods and services across the EU and ultimately hampering smooth functioning of the Single Market;

6. The EMPL Committee stresses the importance of the Employment and Social Innovation strand (EaSI) of the ESF+ for investment in social innovation and for stimulating labour mobility and regrets the significant cut to this budget line by the Council. The Committee insists that this budget line is restored to the figure proposed by the Commission in its draft budget.

F. Whereas most new legislation applying to the transport sector implies additional responsibilities for the Union transport agencies, which indicates that appropriate funding thereof should match this growing level of their responsibility, but should not come at the expense of the CEF-T envelope; whereas ensuring adequate budget for the transport-related joint undertakings as driving forces behind innovation and development in the field of transport is equally important;

7. The EMPL Committee expresses concern about unemployment rates in the EU, while we see labour shortages in several sectors, and it urges Member States and the Commission to prioritise combating youth and people with disabilities’ unemployment as well as providing training to combat skills shortages in the labour market, leveraging existing EU initiatives. The Committee recognises the pivotal role of vocational education and training (VET) and paid traineeships in young people’s transition to employment, and stresses the importance of investing in their quality including decent working conditions and attractiveness through the ESF+ and in a reinforced Youth Guarantee.

G. Whereas the Commission’s 2021 Industrial Strategy identified tourism as one of the main industrial ecosystems in the EU; whereas tourism was among the sectors hit hardest by several successive crises, including COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine; whereas it is heavily affected by the climate change; whereas addressing these challenges requires a coordinated approach at the EU level and appropriate funding;

8. The EMPL Committee stresses the importance of policies and measures to support the labour market transition and the need to strengthen the competitiveness of our economies in the context of the green and digital transitions. It highlights the role of the Just Transition Fund in supporting workers, the RRF and cohesion policy and their importance for addressing the social aspects of the transition, in particular creation of national social infrastructure and support to jobseekers, including up- and reskilling while ensuring a safety net for those left behind and calls to accelerate their implementation.

1. Calls for an increase to CEF-T funding, notably in view of the cuts from the previous years as well as the rise in construction and raw material prices, which could ultimately augment the foreseen budget of projects; points out the substantial investment needs for the construction, maintenance and upgrading of infrastructure, for increased cross-border transport capacity for a sustainable and resilient air and maritime transport network, and for their efficient use to eliminate bottlenecks and missing links, to support the objective of transport decarbonisation and to provide high quality services to citizens as well as to businesses; in this context, draws particular attention to the funding required for the deployment of alternative fuels supply infrastructure, such as publicly accessible electric recharging pools, biofuels, and hydrogen refuelling stations across the EU’s main transport corridors and hubs;

9. The EMPL Committee considers mental health at work as another major issue of social policy. The pandemic has accelerated new realities and new forms of work brought by digitalisation, including artificial intelligence (AI), job precariousness and insecurity, algorithmic management and an ‘always on’ culture, that bring both opportunities and challenges to the labour market and work-life balance. In this perspective, the Committee welcomes the Commission’s initiative to launch a comprehensive approach to mental health, as well as, the Council Conclusions on mental health and precarious work and the commitment to regulate the right to disconnect.

2. Calls for sufficient resources to reduce regional disparities by supporting the completion of the TEN-T network in the countries benefiting from the Cohesion Fund; calls for an increase to Just Transition Fund (JTF), which invests in safe, sustainable and resilient transport infrastructure in the most affected – sparsely populated and rural, environmentally vulnerable and disadvantaged – areas, contributing to the promotion of affordable and accessible, smart and sustainable mobility services as well as the up- and reskilling of workers in the transport sector;

10. The EMPL Committee considers crucial to combat workforce exclusion as a consequence of longer periods of sick leave caused by serious non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health and neurological disorders, as well as, rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. It calls therefore for initiatives focusing on the adaptation of workplace, flexible working conditions and strategies to support workers’ return after longer absence.

3. Insists that, following the drastic, more than four-fold reduction of the military mobility budget compared to EUR 6,5 bln. initially foreseen for the whole period of MFF 2021–2027, it is crucial to restore it at least on the basis of the Commission’s original proposal which has received full support from European Parliament; stresses that the Russian aggression demonstrates the need to upgrade the dual use transport infrastructure along the Europe’s military mobility network, adapting, where necessary, parts of the TEN-T infrastructure to a dual use in order to address both civilian and defence needs, paying particular attention to the itineraries needed for short-notice and large-scale movements of military forces;

11. The EMPL Committee underlines that the right to work and employment is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 27 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). It notes, however, that at EU level, only 50.6 % of persons with disabilities are employed, compared to 74.8 % of persons without disabilities. The Committee calls, therefore, for the establishment of a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee in order to boost the participation of persons with disabilities in the open labour market.

4. Stresses the importance of the projects aiming for a greater capacity along the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, which include improvements of the rail, road transport and inland waterways infrastructure between Ukraine, Moldova and the EU, such as works to increase capacity on rail border crossings, new road sections as well as studies and work to integrate the Ukrainian railways into the EU rail system;

12. The EMPL Committee considers that investment in lifelong learning, vocational education and training, reskilling and upskilling is essential to support workers through the green and digital transition and to enhance the Union's sustainable competitiveness and resilience including against external shocks. The committee also considers that the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and the launch of the Net-Zero Industry Academies under the NZIA are important components of the European strategy to bolster investments in critical and emerging technologies and to address labour shortages and skills needs.

5. Recalls that Bulgaria and Romania have continuously acted as key contributors to the internal security of the Schengen area; stresses that their partial accession to the Schengen area negatively affects not only freedom of movement but also the objectives of the EU transport policy and draws particular attention to the economic losses experienced by the two countries as a result of increased transport costs and delays as well as reduced trade and tourism;

13. The EMPL Committee highlights the key role that the Academies will play in disseminating knowledge and skills on net-zero technologies that can enhance the Union’s competitiveness and its global position in net-zero industries.

6. Recalls that the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is a major force behind the efforts to support the resilience and future evolution of the aviation sector, and to guarantee a high level of safe and sustainable air transport; therefore, regrets the decrease in the budgetary allocations for EASA and calls to provide adequate funding to the Agency in view of its new responsibilities, particularly stemming from its role under the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation and the recently agreed reform of the Single European Sky;

14. The EMPL Committee recalls the commitment of the Union to promote the role of social partners and to facilitate social dialogue, in line with Article 152 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and emphasises the need to ensure adequate support for social dialogue and for the capacity of social partners, as well as, the need to guarantee adequate support for information and training measures for trade unions, including in accession countries. It therefore opposes the reduction compared to the previous years for these budget lines in the 2025 budget.

7. Notes that the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) already performs functions that are not covered by its current budget; stresses the importance of ensuring the continuous enhancement of the THETIS-MRV system; recalls the expected upgrading of the Agency’s role and tasks in the relevant fields of response to marine pollution caused by ships, and the possibility of including spills from gas and oil installations; reminds of pending interinstitutional negotiations on the new EMSA regulation aiming to strengthen the Agency’s role in serving EU maritime interests for a safe, secure, sustainable and competitive maritime sector; in this context, calls to provide EMSA with additional resources that are commensurate to its mandate;

15. The EMPL Committee stands for family-policies and social policies and enhanced funding to help children to get a better life and ensure work-life balance to all workers. The Committee acknowledges the critical role of family and child benefits, in particular for vulnerable households, as part of fair and inclusive social protection systems, which need to be adapted to the variety of family arrangements and provide timely access to social protection and adequate support for all according to Member States’ practices. Therefore, given the rising child poverty rates, the Committee reiterates its calls to urgently increase the funding of the European Child Guarantee and the need to create a dedicated budget. The Committee further recalls its position that all Member States should use at least 5 % of the ESF+ resources under shared-management to targeted actions to combat child poverty and support the implementation of the Child Guarantee, as well as, make full use of other existing funding possibilities under the EU budget, such as ReactEU and the RRF to eradicate child poverty. It emphasises the importance of the European Child Guarantee for the safeguard of essential rights and key services.

8. Deplores that at the time when the EU is set on increasing the share of passenger and freight rail transport, with concrete targets for 2030 under its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the budget of the EU Agency for Railways (ERA) remains unacceptably low; recalls the number of severe rail accidents in the past years and the manifest absence of an adequate incident reporting framework in the EU; notes that the Agency requires adequate resources at the height of its tasks, including its strengthened oversight role in shifting passenger and cargo transport from road to rail, removing cross-border bottlenecks and inefficiencies, deploying European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) and supporting TEN-T completion objectives, especially along cross-border sections; in view of the above, calls for a significant increase to the Agency’s budget to enable better monitoring and enforcement of safety requirements and ensure that the upcoming regulatory obligations defined in the Commission proposal for the rail capacity regulation are met;

16. The EMPL Committee underlines that the EU faces demographic challenges with an ageing population due to low fertility rates and extended life expectancies. In addition, it welcomes the European Care Strategy and calls for its adequate funding in budget 2025. The Committee calls for further initiatives to support formal and informal carers, their working conditions as well as their work-life balance. However, the Committee calls for strong policy responses to address the societal impacts of demographic change.

9. Reiterates that the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) is central to the successful and timely deployment of globally competitive new aircraft with disruptive performance gains for increased sustainability of aviation; welcomes the increase in the budgetary allocation to CAJU, however, calls for an additional increase in view of its needs related to the preparation for the flight demonstration phase and bringing its research closer to the market;

17. The EMPL Committee stresses that women face heightened under- and unemployment and social risks. Achieving the employment target from the Porto Declaration requires ambitious national goals to include women in the workforce. The Committee calls for the mainstreaming of a gender responsive budget to better align policies and activities that promote the equal participation, as well as equal pay, equal pension and equal treatment of women in the labour market.

10. Stresses that the establishment of SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking under the Horizon Europe programme recognised the importance of air traffic management in building smarter, safer and more sustainable aviation; recalls that SESAR 3 JU is expected to contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of Europe’s aviation industry and the establishment of European airspace as the most efficient and environmentally friendly sky in the world; therefore, asks for an increase to ensure the continuity of this ambitious work;

18. The EMPL Committee welcomes that the Commission has further developed a methodology to track gender equality-related spending in the 2021-2027 MFF, which looks at policy design and resource allocation and in particular the presentation of an ex-post gender impact assessment on a more granular level and reporting on volumes. The Committee regrets that the first results of this tracking show the inadequacy of the EU spending in this regard, with only EUR 19 million of the EU budget having a direct positive impact for women and calls on the Commission to assess holistically gender impact and facilitate that all the relevant data is available for the tracking.

11. Recalls that the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) is at the core of transforming the European rail system into a high capacity integrated network and achievement of the Single European Rail Area, which facilitates a shift of passenger and cargo transport from road to rail; calls for a significant increase to support a fast transition to a more efficient and sustainable European rail system, integrated into the wider mobility system;

19. The EMPL Committee calls on the Commission to provide a more detailed tracking methodology for expenditure on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the EU’s social budget based on the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights and to present a Social Scoreboard and well-being indicators to measure the overall impact of different EU instruments.

12. Recalls, as reported in the recently approved TEN-T Guidelines, the importance to finance a masterplan for the development of a European high-speed network to connect EU Capitals and major cities;

20. The EMPL Committee stresses that the European Instrument for Temporary Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) has proved to be successful in fighting unemployment as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and further calls on the Commission to build on the SURE instrument to support national schemes to protect employment and preserve workers’ incomes that can be activated temporarily when a part of the EU experiences an economic shock.

13. Reminds that hydrogen technologies and systems, particularly those based on renewable energy, have been identified by the Commission as a strategic value chain for Europe; stresses that the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking is key to reinforcing competitiveness of the EU clean hydrogen value chain, in particular with a view to accelerating the market entry of innovative competitive clean solutions, which could primarily be used in hard-to-abate transport modes such as aviation and maritime; cautions against any decreases that could undermine strengthening strategic value chains for a future-ready EU transport;

21. The EMPL Committee insists on the importance of investing in social inclusion and in measures, in particular for people in vulnerable situations, as well as deprived and disadvantaged groups. It repeats its call for an overarching anti-poverty strategy. It stresses that this strategy should include new and additional initiatives to tackle poverty and achieve the 2030 poverty target. It also reminds the EU of its commitment to eradicate homelessness by 2030 and stresses the importance of improving the standard of living of all people living in the EU, as well as addressing social gaps in living and working conditions through social investment, including adequate social services and essential services, quality healthcare and well-functioning public health systems with sufficient healthcare personnel. In this respect, the Committee insists that the rules governing the use of Union spending and funds must ensure and enhance compliance with the highest social rights and democratic principles, be aligned with EU social commitments and objectives, and the fundamental rights of workers. It recalls the obligation of compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU as per the ESF+ Regulation and Common Provision Regulation and calls for provisions allowing public money only for those employers respecting workers’ rights and applicable working conditions.

14. Reiterates the long-lasting and regular call by the European Parliament to include a dedicated budget line for sustainable tourism in MFF 2021-2027 and beyond; stresses the need to support the recovery and modernisation of the sector in the context of the green and digital transition in order for tourism to become more sustainable and resilient; is convinced that this requires a coordinated response at the EU level, reflecting the importance of the tourism sector to the EU economy and workforce, backed by adequate budgetary means.

22. The EMPL Committee expresses concern about the deteriorating situation of access to affordable housing across the EU. In this regard, it welcomes the commitment of the Commission’s President to present a European Affordable Housing Plan, which will include support for and investments in the creation of additional affordable housing. It urges the Commission to proceed with housing as one of its foremost priorities. It also urges Member States to fully utilise the cohesion policy funds available for investments in affordable housing.

23. The EMPL Committee recalls the essential work carried out by the five EU agencies active in the social and employment policy areas, namely the European Labour Authority (ELA), the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and the European Training Foundation (ETF). It considers that these agencies must be properly staffed and adequately resourced, while taking into account inflation, so that they can fulfil their mandate, achieve their objectives and perform their evolving tasks. The Committee calls on the Commission to ensure the expertise of the agencies is used where EU funds can be spent more efficiently compared to alternative solutions. This includes access to programmes such as Horizon Europe for the agencies that have a clear research profile while strictly avoiding double financing of their regular activities.

24. The EMPL Committee reiterates its previous call to support ELA’s call for transforming 15 seconded national expert posts into temporary agent posts and for two additional contractual agent posts - without budget impact, with a view to be able to attract and retain the necessary staff resources to fulfil its tasks and to bring the share of SNEs on ELA’s staff closer to the standard situation of other EU agencies.

25. The EMPL Committee recalls that pilot projects (PPs) and preparatory actions (PAs) are essential to test new policy initiatives in the fields of employment and social inclusion. It recalls however that their assessment is anchored in the interinstitutional agreement and repeats its call on the Commission to evaluate PP/PA proposals impartially on the basis of a legal and financial assessment in a way that reflects the merit of the proposals. It expresses its repeated disappointment over the quality of assessments of the proposals in the recent years and urges the Commission to intensify the dialogue with the Parliament on how innovative ideas could become eligible and to provide detailed, clearer and more transparent feedback and explanations of its assessments. It also recalls that the implementation of an adopted PP/PA must remain faithful to the adopted proposal.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The rapporteur for the opinion declares under ~~her~~his exclusive responsibility that ~~she~~he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.