Changes from plenary report to adopted text

7. Calls for a strong, reinforced and separate ESF+ with significantly increased public support for instruments in the Member States with the aim of providing for people in vulnerable situations and those most in need in our societies, investing in people and skills, helping to lift people out of poverty and social exclusion, and boosting social investment and social entrepreneurship; insists, therefore, that achieving the ESF+ post-2027 objectives would require an important and substantiated increase in the ESF+ budget in the 2028-2034 ESF+ financial envelope;

8. Calls on the Commission to provide increased, dedicated and well-allocated funding for attaining the objectives of the ESF+ and those of the EPSR and its action plan and headline targets; expresses concerns, therefore, over attempts to split or merge the existing ESF+ with other funds, since that could create serious risks for the implementation of its objectives and those of the EPSR, its action plan and headline targets; warns that unifying, streamlining, centralising or merging funds may not improve their effectiveness; stresses, in this regard, that any possible remodelling of the fund must preserve the effectiveness and the purpose of the ESF+ by serving the objectives of promoting employment, social inclusion, education, training and skill development, and must be managed as close as possible to the beneficiaries;

9. Believes that the ESF+ should remain in a shared management governance model and that therefore it needs to be avoided that a different ESF+ governance leads to losing the priority given to social aspects, including employment, education, skills, training and social inclusion projects, a potential loss of focus, and to the funding not reaching the local level, people in vulnerable situations and those most in need, while increasing the risk of the funds being reallocated for other purposes;

10. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the participation, provision of information to and consultation of social partners, civil society organisations (CSOs), including not-for-profit social services, social enterprises, education and training providers, and representatives of the target groups in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages of the ESF+, to allocate adequate funding for this purpose and to prevent the exclusion of smaller actors; calls on the Commission to respect the partnership principle at EU level, as it is essential to the success of the ESF+ and must be maintained under the next multiannual financial framework (MFF); calls for the CSOs to be involved in the ESF+ Committee, as they are the main implementing partners of the fund;

11. Highlights the need for the ESF+ governance model to allow, while keeping a high level of transparency, for national, regional and local specificities and challenges to be well-reflected in operational programmes, not least by taking due account of the expertise of national and regional stakeholders, including civil society, and by ensuring that the funding goes to organisations and activities that target people in need;

12. Highlights that the availability of and universal access to quality public services such as early childhood education and care, education and health, as well as access to adequate, affordable and decent housing and essential services such as affordable energy, sanitation, water and healthy nutrition, are necessary conditions for ensuring equal opportunities and improving employment levels, improving living and working conditions and fighting poverty and social exclusion; underlines the role that the ESF+ can play in this regard; draws particular attention to the situation of older people who, due to rising living costs and the declining purchasing power provided by their pensions, are living in or are at risk of falling into severe poverty, which often leads to them being deprived of basic needs, such as food, housing and access to care facilities, resulting in the loss of social dignity;

13. Notes that the current ESF+ programme was adopted before the emergence of the crises that have led to high inflation and an increased cost of living, and therefore require higher public and social investment, such that the existing ESF+ cannot meet current needs; calls on the Commission, therefore, to ensure that a comprehensive, stable and large-scale needs-and-rights based budget, which takes into account inflation, the increased cost of living, poverty rates and the need for access to affordable housing, is guaranteed for the ESF+ in the next MFF;

14. Underlines that the post-2027 ESF+ should invest in tackling enduring social challenges and stay close to the general and specific objectives set out in the current ESF+, while being capable of responding and adapting to changing socio-economic circumstances; 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 in close cooperation with local and regional authorities and organisations; highlights the need to share best practices on the most efficient and transparent implementation of the ESF+; highlights the need to continuously assess the impact and effectiveness of ESF initiatives;

15. Stresses that the post-2027 ESF+ should first and foremost address structural social and economic challenges; expresses its concern that the ESF+ has been repeatedly used as an emergency response tool and underlines that this approach poses a risk for the longer-term policy and investment objectives of cohesion policy and also poses the risk that the people for whom cohesion policy is intended cannot be sufficiently reached;

16. Calls on the Commission, therefore, to protect the budget allocation of the ESF+ so that it can be used for its main objectives and beneficiaries and to propose a financial reserve instrument that enables the EU to respond rapidly and in a flexible manner to social emergencies and crisis situations, complementing the ESF+ and other cohesion funds, either built on the success of the temporary EU instrument launched in 2020, entitled ‘Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE)’, or be it an EU unemployment reinsurance scheme, or based on the EU Solidarity Fund, designed to be mobilised to repair damage caused by natural disasters or public health emergencies; calls on the Commission, therefore, to ensure its sufficient funding with a view to the increased risks in these areas due to climate change;

Objectives, priorities and budget

17. Underlines that horizontal principles, such as gender equality, anti-discrimination based on sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, nationality, or racial or ethnic origin, and freedom of movement, should be integral to the ESF+; stresses the importance of an intersectional approach throughout the entire development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the fund;

18. Stresses the importance of the social inclusion of persons with disabilities and insists therefore that the ESF+ supports the employment of persons with disabilities through work and training placements, especially in facilitating transitions from sheltered workshops to the open labour market;

19. Stresses that more efforts are needed to ensure that persons with disabilities can access quality support and enjoy their rights as described in the UNCRPD; stresses that the upcoming ESF+ should keep prioritising independent living and the transition from institutional care to community-based care, and facilitate home support and personal assistance schemes; calls for the ESF+ to deliver on the European disability rights strategy 2021-2030, and in particular to facilitate the implementation of the upcoming EU Guidance on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community, the upcoming Framework on Social Services of Excellence for Persons with Disabilities, and the Disability Employment Package;

20. Insists that the ESF+ should target disadvantaged people in our societies, in particular marginalised people and communities such as children in vulnerable situations and older people, ethnic minorities, Roma people, persons with disabilities or chronic diseases, homeless people, low-income groups, the long-term unemployed, as well as those living in rural areas, islands or remote regions who face unique socio-economic challenges; underlines that the ESF+ must be inclusive, with special attention given to all kinds of families, people and families in depopulated areas where access to services and opportunities can be more limited, and to children deprived of parental care; further stresses that the ESF+ should encourage the adoption of measures that prevent family separation for families in precarious situations, including parenting education programmes, family-focused therapy and employment training;

21. Stresses that the ESF+ should invest in projects targeting women’s employment and the social and economic inclusion of women, with special attention to single mothers and female-headed households; insists that the ESF+ supports women who are in vulnerable situations and need extra support to (re)integrate in societies and the labour market, including women who are victims of gender-based violence, including economic violence; calls for a cross-cutting gender approach along the ESF+;

22. Calls on the Commission, in the light of current challenges, to include in the specific objectives of the ESF+ the promotion of the just transition, ending homelessness, the promotion of social enterprises in the social economy and the socio-economic integration of people in vulnerable situations, including migrants, young people, older people and those living in areas impacted by demographic decline and persons with disabilities or chronic diseases, as well as those coming back to the labour market after a longer absence;

23. Stresses that reaching the EPSR’s targets on poverty becomes challenging, unless specific support is dedicated to developing medium to long-term solutions to lift people out of poverty and to tackle the structural causes of inequalities, making them more resilient to upcoming challenges, addressing current gaps in national social protection systems and therefore reinforcing welfare systems, and mitigating the social impact of crises in a targeted manner; insists on dedicating support to ensure decent living conditions leaving no-one behind, with access to high-quality essential public 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 go beyond policy proposals and to allocate better funding in the upcoming MFF dedicated to social justice across funds, and to ease the delivery of the ESF+ on the ground; underlines the role of the ESF+ in implementing the strategy;

25. Urges the Commission, in line with the two general objectives of the fund and to reflect their importance on an equal footing, 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;

26. Welcomes the Commission president’s announcement the delivery of a European affordable housing plan and the launch of a pan-European investment platform on affordable and sustainable housing; shares the ambition to prioritise the tackling of the housing crisis, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, and emphasises that the post-2027 ESF+ should enhance timely and equal access to affordable, decent, accessible, inclusive, sustainable and high-quality services promoting access to housing, including measures such as social housing and affordable rental schemes; believes that all Member States must invest a sufficient amount of their ESF+ resources into tackling homelessness and asks the Commission to propose a significant earmarking for this;

27. Emphasises the need to ensure sufficient financing of the ESF+ post-2027 for high-quality, accessible public education and training for all, as well as the social right for workers to participate in skills development, upskilling, reskilling and lifelong learning, and for the addressing of skills shortages and brain drain, ensuring that individuals can successfully navigate labour market transitions without facing any type of discrimination, particularly workers impacted by the digital and green transition, and promoting specific actions for older workers to make the most of senior talent and experience; calls in this context for close cooperation between key actors, including educational institutions, employers, workers, governments and local authorities;

28. Underlines the potential of the ESF+ in fostering innovation and digital skills, while supporting workers affected by the digital and green transition by aligning educational and training programmes in a targeted way with the evolving needs of key sectors and ensuring access to lifelong learning opportunities, so that workers of all ages can continuously adapt their skills to meet the new employment needs of a rapidly changing economy; stresses the need for more subsidies and development of programmes that support workers in the digital and green transition, including retraining and reskilling of workers;

29. Insists that measures aiming to improve access to the labour market and promote skills acquisition should be designed in a way that promotes and recognises the autonomy of individuals, anticipates future skills needs and targets employees at risk of future job-loss; recalls in this context the wide range of skills-enhancing initiatives undertaken at the EU level that can provide useful guidance to the development of education and training programmes at the national and regional level;

34. Calls for the ESF+ to boost the effective implementation of the European care strategy in all Member States by investing in quality community-based and home care services and infrastructure, long-term care and support for persons with disabilities and older persons with support needs, and quality early childhood education and care through community-based, child and person-centred, high-quality, affordable and accessible public care systems that promote the autonomy of persons in need of care as well as their dignity and that of carers; calls for further investment in support for carers, formal and informal, while at the same time ensuring decent working conditions for workers in the care sector, including adequate salaries, via a Care Deal; calls on the Member States to make full use of ESF+ funds to reinforce and finalise the deinstitutionalisation process so as to ensure that every person can live in a family or community environment;

35. Recalls that public expenditure is needed to ensure upward social convergence; stresses that the implementation of the EPSR and the reforms under the relevant 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, accessible and high-quality public education and training, care systems and healthcare services, including for mental health, reducing child poverty and eradicating homelessness and those relating to equal treatment and opportunities for women and men, which must be guaranteed and strengthened in all areas, including labour market participation, terms and conditions of employment and career advancement;

36. Recalls that EU policies can deliver the biggest impact when they are coordinated with funding instruments and other strategic frameworks, such as the European Semester and its country-specific recommendations; notes that the effectiveness of interventions funded by the ESF+ depends on the successful implementation of reforms;

37. Underlines that social dialogue and collective bargaining are pivotal for well-being at work and the reduction of in-work poverty, social exclusion and wage inequality; calls on the Commission to allocate consistent, adequate and sufficient financial resources to capacity-building, with the aim of empowering social partners to play a relevant role in areas of their competence, strengthening their capacity to engage in social dialogue both at EU and national level and of enhancing social partners’ actions with an appropriate minimum obligation in all Member States, and to include technical assistance for these three purposes; further insists that CSOs and non-for-profit organisations should, on an equal basis, be guaranteed minimum access to funding to contribute to and pursue ESF+ objectives in the Member States; underlines at the same time the need to develop institutional capacity through strong and professional administration and to foster innovation in public sector management;

38. Stresses the importance of employee-owned cooperatives, social enterprises and other alternative business models in reaching EU goals of inclusion; underlines that it is of the utmost importance that small social enterprises, not-for-profit social services and CSOs have access to all aspects of the ESF+; calls for a co-financing rate of at least 90 % for measures targeting the most deprived, and at least 70 % for all other actions implemented by small entities with limited capacity, such as CSOs, not-for-profit social services and social enterprises, in order for them to have access to funding while preserving a minimum number of different co-financing rates;

Functioning of the fund

39. Calls on the Member States to ensure coordination between regional and local authorities and organisations and their involvement in projects financed from national budgets and insists on the need to maintain the partnership approach of the current ESF+, which is key to strengthening the quality of the programmes financed under the ESF+; reiterates the need to adopt rules to manage the fund in cooperation with local actors that are closest to people’s needs and can develop place-based solutions that best suit their specific territories; highlights the need to involve regional and local actors in the implementation of the fund;

40. Insists that the rules governing the use and the implementation of the ESF+ must ensure and enhance compliance with the rule of law, the EU acquis, the highest EU social standards, social rights and democratic principles, and be aligned with the EPSR, the UN’s sustainable development goals and fundamental human rights and workers’ rights, as also included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU;

42. Notes with concerns that the national governments often hinder efficient implementation of the ESF+ by imposing unnecessary administrative burdens or preventing local actors from managing support under the fund or funding opportunities; calls for the reduction of the administrative burden and bureaucracy, notably by simplifying the application processes for accessing funds and the reporting procedures for organisations, in particular for civil society and social economy organisations, and those of a smaller size; emphasises that beneficiaries, including not-for-profit social service providers, should be consulted for the design of the simplification measures; urges that simplification uphold the fundamental principles of shared management, transparency, accountability and independent scrutiny, as well as the principles of partnership, ensuring the proper administration of public funds;

43. Recognises that excessive reliance on metrics such as the error rate may lead to a greater administrative burden; notes that different metrics, including measurements of inputs, outputs, performance or qualitative measures, may fit different objectives and interventions;

44. Calls on the Commission to provide consistent support and communication to the Member States in order to help them set up individual projects effectively and transparently, including transparent and predictable conditions, which provide legal clarity and predictability to applicants, as well as for the final beneficiaries of the funding;

45. Calls on the Commission to ensure more thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of individual interventions without imposing major new burdens on providers, for instance by simplifying the exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission and by creating evaluation desks at both EU and national levels;

46. Reiterates that digitalisation is one of the important tools to reduce administrative burden and streamline applications for funding opportunities, and that as such it should be promoted and people’s digital skills strengthened; warns, however, that not all people are prepared for digitalisation and that certain groups of people, especially the most vulnerable, such as older people and those living in depopulated areas where access to services and opportunities can be more limited, and the projects targeting them, as well as CSOs, not-for-profit social services and social enterprises, could miss out on funding opportunities as a result;

47. Sees that more work needs to be done for organisations and people to know about all the opportunities that the ESF+ can bring; insists that the Commission and the Member States raise awareness, inform and advise organisations about the opportunities presented by the ESF+ by carrying out information campaigns; sees that there is still a significant knowledge and skills gap, especially for social services, in accessing the current ESF+ and running EU-funded projects; considers, in particular, that the future ESF+ regulation should reserve a technical assistance budget to set up a network of national helpdesks or low-threshold information points offering services such as walk-in job counselling, coordinated at cross-European level in order to effectively deliver the training, guidance and support to organisations on the ground;

48. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen synergies at all levels between projects supported by the ESF+ and by other EU funds;

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49. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the European Committee of the Regions.