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DRAFT REPORT (2025/2183(INI))

On the European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities – annual report 2026

EMPL-PR-779558

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs · Rapporteur: Nela Riehl

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This draft report concerns the European Semester for economic policy coordination, focusing on employment and social priorities for 2026. It calls for integrating social investment, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and fairness into the Semester. It stresses the need to address poverty, housing, skills, and intergenerational fairness, and to involve Parliament and social partners more in the process.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution that calls for integrating social priorities, the EPSR, and social investment into the European Semester, and for a more democratic process with Parliament and social partners involved.

Key points

  1. Calls for integrating recommendations from the High-Level Group on social protection, the Letta report, and the Draghi report into the European Semester, and for equal involvement of economic and social bodies in EU institutions.
  2. Urges the Commission and Council to strengthen implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and to make its action plan targets benchmarks in Semester assessments.
  3. Welcomes the Commission's ambition to eradicate poverty by 2050 and its intention to propose a quality jobs act, and calls for coherence with measurable targets and country-specific recommendations.
  4. Welcomes the permanent inclusion of the social convergence framework and stresses its importance with the social scoreboard for identifying risks and tracking upward social convergence.
  5. Calls on the Commission and Council to treat social investment as foundational to sustainable growth, as it supports fiscal sustainability and competitiveness.
  6. Emphasizes better integration of the affordable housing plan into the Semester, with a stronger focus on affordable, sustainable, decent housing in country-specific recommendations, and reminds of the goal to eradicate homelessness by 2030.
  7. Emphasizes that investment in education, upskilling, and reskilling is strategic social investment with long-term returns.
  8. Calls for intergenerational fairness to become a structural component, integrating indicators on youth well-being, job access, housing affordability, education, and skills into the assessment framework.
  9. Notes Member States' commitment to invest 5% of GDP annually in defence by 2035, and stresses that such expenditure must be planned in a coordinated manner within the Semester.
  10. Supports a more democratic Semester process with Parliament strongly involved and insists on systematic involvement of social partners, civil society, and regional and local actors.

Who is affected

  • EU institutions (Commission, Council, Parliament) and Member States, which are called to integrate social priorities into economic governance.
  • Social partners, civil society organisations, and regional and local actors, who should be involved in the Semester process.

Figures and deadlines

  • 5.9% unemployment rate in the EU in June 2025
  • 14.7% youth unemployment rate
  • 21% of EU population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024
  • Objective to reduce children at risk of poverty by 5 million by 2030
  • About 2.5 million additional jobs expected from climate transition
  • Target of 60% of adults participating in education and training by 2030
  • EUR 192 billion per year additional investment needs in social infrastructure
  • 5% of GDP annually for defence by 2035

Legal basis: Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union; Articles 9, 121, 148 and 149 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union