What changed

PA_NonLegBud

3.2.2026

OPINION

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

Chair

1. Underscores the persistent socio-economic challenges facing the EU, including the EU’s economic decline on the world stage, demographic change, unemployment, poverty, and economic housing affordability and accessibility;

Committee on Budgets

2. Highlights the essential role of EU programmes in the social fields in supporting the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion and fostering economic resilience;

Subject: Opinion on the guidelines for the 2027 Budget - Section III (2025/2246(BUI))

3. Underscores the importance of implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and achieving its 2030 targets;

Dear Mr Van Overtveldt,

4. Notes, as 2027 is the last year of the current multiannual financial framework, the relatively low take-up of EU funds and calls for the Member States and the Commission to improve the use of EU funds, taking into account the recently adopted amending programmes;

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Foreign Affairs has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. The Committee considered the matter with Matjaž Nemec as Rapporteur for opinion for the 2027 budgetary procedure and adopted the opinion in the form of a letter at its meeting of 28 January 2026 as annexed.

5. Highlights the necessity of providing particular support to women, children, youth, families and vulnerable groups, and advocates for targeted measures to combat youth unemployment and child poverty;

Yours sincerely,

6. Emphasises the lack of policy responses to the impact of the demographic challenges resulting from population ageing due to declining fertility rates and extended life expectancies; underscores the importance of adequate funding for care and support services;

David McAllister

7. Considers that a proficient and prepared workforce is essential to enhance the EU’s competitiveness and resilience against external shocks; recognises the essential role of skills, vocational training and traineeships;

ANNEX

8. Recalls the essential work carried out by the five EU agencies active in the social and employment policy areas and emphasises that these agencies must be properly staffed and adequately resourced to fulfil their mandate, achieve their objectives and perform their evolving tasks.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Notes that the 2027 EU budget will be the last budget during the current multiannual financial framework (MFF); reiterates its view that the funding provided under Heading 6, even after the revision in 2024, has been insufficient to cover the needs related to the various challenges in the European neighbourhood, both East and South, to support crisis-affected regions where the needs are greatest and to invest in partnerships; stresses that a robust external budget is essential to engage effectively with partners worldwide to address the root causes of instability, migration and countering terrorism; underlines the need to strengthen the geopolitical position of the EU; underlines in particular the need for intensified efforts to finance the urgent financial needs of Ukraine;

2. Urgently and unequivocally calls for a substantial and sustained increase in EU funding for humanitarian aid, in order to respond effectively to growing global needs and escalating crises; emphatically underscores the indispensable role of the EU’s humanitarian aid policies and instruments;

3. Demands strengthened, predictable, and long-term support for civil society organisations, recognising their frontline role in delivering life-saving assistance, fostering resilience, and defending democratic values;

4. Insists to ensure that all EU external actions funding systematically addresses the specific needs, rights, and protection of women and girls, while actively promoting gender equality;

5. Stresses the need to ensure the continuity, predictability and adequacy of funding under Heading 6 for the Eastern Neighbourhood; underlines in particular the strategic importance of sustained and increased financial support for Ukraine and Moldova and warns that insufficient funding risks undermining stability, democratic progress and the EU’s credibility as a geopolitical actor in the region; recalls that support for the Georgian civil society should continue regardless of the current freezing of funding to the Georgian government;

6. Calls for enhanced political, economic and sectoral cooperation with Central Asian partner countries, including through increased and better-targeted funding under Heading 6; highlights the growing strategic relevance of Central Asia for the Union’s connectivity, energy security, critical raw materials supply and regional stability.

7. Underlines the need to ensure a balanced allocation of resources between the Southern and Eastern Neighbourhoods in 2027 to support political, economic and social reforms in the region; highlights in particular the pressing need to contribute significantly to the reconstruction of Gaza and to provide additional humanitarian and economic assistance in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; stresses that strengthening the Palestinian Authority and supporting the West Bank are fundamental prerequisites for a sustainable long-term peace process; calls for continued financial support for Jordan, noting its role as a stable partner in securing regional security and the Union’s interests; recalls that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) has up to now been the principal humanitarian assistance structure in Gaza and the West Bank as well as an essential service provider in the region and therefore possesses the unique infrastructure required to deliver vital services across the region;

8. Welcomes that the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans and the new Facility for Moldova as well as the Ukraine Facility provided considerable additional funding to enlargement countries in addition to the important main financing through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) III; insists that the implementation of these facilities must strictly adhere to the approved reform matrix to ensure consistency and tangible impact; underlines that the Reform Agendas, which beneficiaries need to develop, are a promising instrument to speed up transformation and compliance with EU norms; stresses that the 2027 budget must provide targeted support to help national and local authorities in enlargement countries adapt to the revised architecture of the forthcoming MFF, specifically by enhancing administrative capacity to manage pre-accession funds under the new delivery models; calls on the Commission, in the interest of a successful accession process to strictly apply the conditionalities enshrined in the facilities, based on a merit-based approach and tangible reform process; calls on the Commission to withhold funds, either temporarily or indefinitely, if those funds would contribute to the budgets of governments whose actions are significantly undermining the country’s progress towards European integration, particularly regarding democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms; emphasises that the reversibility of funding is an essential safeguard of the enlargement process;

9. Stresses the need to provide the Directorate-General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST), the Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf (DG MENA) and the European External Action Service (EEAS) with increased financial and human resources for the absolutely necessary strengthening of the EU’s visibility and geopolitical position in the world by means of, among others, enhanced digital diplomacy, the fight against disinformation and foreign interference, promoting peace and security, long-term stability and development, human rights and EU values; notes that the structural shift towards geographic programming requires a corresponding organisational reinforcement within EU Delegations; underlines the need to provide adequate resources to both the EEAS and the Commission for strategic communication and countering disinformation and hybrid threats; highlights the need that the funding is commensurate with the role that the Union expects all delegations to fulfil on the ground; notes, furthermore, that the EEAS, with 144 delegations worldwide, cannot be assessed according to the same logic as that applied to European institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg; urges therefore the Commission and the Council not to apply the 2 % logic to the EEAS.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur for opinion declares under herhis exclusive responsibility that shehe did not include in herhis opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.