On the guidelines for the 2027 budget – Section III

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OPINION

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:

1. Underscores the persistent socio-economic challenges facing the EU, including barriers to growth and competitiveness, demographic change, youth unemployment, poverty and homelessness, rising inequalities and access to affordable and decent housing, adapting skills, training and industrial policies to ensure a just twin transition; stresses that such challenges, together with geopolitical instability, higher costs of living and the climate crisis, need to be addressed through strong EU policy, funds and programmes;

2. Stresses that 2026 will be a difficult year for the EU economy because of the geopolitical context; calls for these challenges to be reflected in the 2027 budget; recalls that public expenditure is necessary to ensure upward social convergence; underlines the importance of public services in addressing social gaps in living and working conditions through social investment in the medium and long term, while, at the same time, responding to people’s immediate needs;

3. Highlights the essential role of EU programmes in the employment and social fields in supporting the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion, fostering economic resilience and accelerating the just transition, in particular through a strong European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, Just Transition Fund and Social Climate Fund; calls for adequate resources to be ensured for EU employment and social policies;

4. Points out that the ESF+ is the key driver for strengthening the social dimension of the EU and the main EU instrument for investing in people, promoting high employment levels and fair social protection, and developing a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the transition to a green and digital economy, as well as inclusive and cohesive societies, aiming to eradicate poverty and to deliver on the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights;

5. Underscores the importance of implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and achieving the targets it sets for 2030; stresses that the forthcoming update of the action plan should contain concrete proposals to implement existing priorities, such as eradicating child poverty, and to address new challenges, and that these proposals should be accompanied with adequate support in the 2027 EU budget; is concerned that, if more investments are not made, the 2030 targets will not be met; draws attention to the fact that the ESF+ funding framework was adopted before the current crisis, which has generated higher public and social investment needs that may not be adequately covered by the current funding framework; expresses its concern about the very limited margins available under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework; insists on the need to speed up the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and achieve its 2030 targets;

6. Notes, as 2027 is the last year of the current multiannual financial framework, the relatively low uptake of EU funds and calls on the Member States to utilise remaining EU funds, taking into account recently adopted amending programmes, while respecting the original purpose of the funds, and insists that the visibility of these funds should be increased; urges the Commission to increase technical assistance and other measures to Member States to support an increased absorption of funds;

7. Highlights the need to provide particular support to women, children, young people, older people, persons with disabilities, vulnerable families, refugees, single parents, members of the Roma community and other groups in vulnerable situations; advocates targeted measures to combat youth unemployment, child poverty and homelessness, and to promote gender equality; calls for an ambitious anti-poverty strategy and stresses the importance of adequately funding actions under the strategy in order to ensure its effective implementation;

8. Stresses that in 2024, 24.2 % of children in the EU faced poverty or social exclusion and that the child poverty rate remains persistently high, and is concerned about its impact in the coming years; calls for adequate funding for the European Child Guarantee, with a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion; calls, in this regard, on all Member States, not only those most affected by child poverty, to allocate at least 5 % of ESF+ resources under shared management to support activities under the European Child Guarantee; calls on the Member States to make effective use of other available funds, such as the European Regional Development Fund and InvestEU, to eradicate child poverty;

9. Stresses that in October 2025, the youth unemployment rate in the EU stood at 15.2 %; expresses its concern that youth unemployment rates in the EU are higher than overall unemployment; calls, in this regard, on all Member States, not only those most affected by youth unemployment, to allocate at least 15 % of ESF+ resources under shared management to support youth employment and activities under the Youth Guarantee; urges the Member States and the Commission to prioritise combating youth unemployment, leveraging existing initiatives, such as the ESF+ and the Youth Guarantee, while improving the working conditions and attractiveness of entry-level positions; expresses concern about early career precariousness resulting from abusive labour practices, which undermine young people’s independence, work-life balance and ability to access housing; notes that women and young workers with lower levels of education are more prone to suffering from early career precariousness;

10. Emphasises the lack of efficient policy responses to the impact of the demographic challenges resulting from population ageing, caused by declining fertility rates and increased life expectancies, and from depopulation and brain drain in certain regions; highlights the role of family support instruments; underscores the importance of providing adequate funding for both long-term and early childhood education and quality and accessible care and support services and facilities, and of improving skilling and working conditions in the sector;

11. Calls for the mainstreaming of a gender-responsive budget to better align policies and activities that promote the equal participation and treatment of women in the labour market, and for comprehensive systems to be put in place to monitor and measure gender budget allocations, women’s participation in the labour market, access to employment, and pay and pension gaps; underlines the importance of gender budgeting in all areas of EU policy;

12. Considers that a skilled and prepared workforce is essential to enhance the EU’s competitiveness and economic, social and climate resilience against external shocks and to accelerate the just twin transition; calls for strengthened measures to better integrate under-represented groups into the labour market to increase their well-being, and to mitigate labour and workforce shortages; recognises, in this regard, the essential role of skills, vocational education and training, and paid, high-quality traineeships and apprenticeships; underlines the importance of wage increases to ensure decent living conditions; stresses, furthermore, the importance of strong collective bargaining and the role of social partners in this regard, and in ensuring quality jobs with fair wages, right to training, opportunities for career development and progression, strong health and safety measures, good work-life balance, and non-discrimination in a workplace; warns that wage reductions in relation to inflation increase the risk of reduced purchasing power for workers, potentially worsening living conditions, and that this situation will further strain the capacity of social policies and automatic stabilisers, including national unemployment schemes; underlines, in this regard, the importance of the Minimum Wage Directive; stresses the need to ensure adequate funding in the 2027 EU budget for skills policies, particularly Union of Skills initiatives, funded through the ESF+, and Net-Zero Industry Academies;

13. Stresses that EU funds should only be disbursed where and when EU values and fundamental rights, in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, are fully respected;

14. Recalls the essential work carried out by the five EU agencies active in social and employment policy, and emphasises that these agencies must be properly staffed and adequately resourced to fulfil their mandates, achieve their objectives and perform their evolving tasks; recalls that the tasks of these agencies evolve in line with policy priorities and stresses that any new responsibilities must be accompanied by the corresponding resources;

15. Recalls that pilot projects and preparatory actions are essential for testing new policy initiatives in the fields of employment and social inclusion, including through data collection; repeats its call on the Commission to evaluate pilot project/preparatory action proposals impartially, on the basis of legal and financial assessments, in a way that reflects their merit and to implement them as they were adopted.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur for opinion declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her 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.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION BY THE COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

28.1.2026

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

35

12

0

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL BY THE COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

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