Almost one in four children in the EU grows up at risk of poverty. The fund that helps pay for their schooling, meals, and their parents’ retraining could lose its own budget. On Tuesday, lawmakers on Parliament’s employment committee drew a red line.
Some 19.5 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, according to Eurostat. In Bulgaria and Spain, it is more than one child in three. In Czechia, it is roughly one in seven.
The European Social Fund (ESF) is the EU’s main tool to help children at risk and their parents. It pays for training, support for jobseekers, and programmes against poverty. Now the European Commission wants to change the rules of the game.
One pot for everything
Under the Commission’s proposal for the 2028–2034 budget, the ESF would no longer stand on its own. Its money would flow into a single pot for each country, together with other policies. Every government would agree its own spending plan with the Commission.
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Lawmakers fear social spending would lose out. In one shared pot, a training course for the unemployed would compete with roads and farm subsidies for the same money.
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) voted 40 to six, with 10 abstentions, to keep the ESF as a separate programme. It wants a dedicated budget of €124.19bn that governments cannot quietly move elsewhere. The fund would still run through the national plans, but in its own chapter.
Lead MEP Marit Maij (S&D/NLD) did not mince her words. “The Commission’s proposal to abandon the Fund is completely unacceptable, and I will do everything in my capacity to restore it,” she said.
Five per cent for children
MEPs want governments to ring-fence at least 5 per cent of the fund for the Child Guarantee. This EU scheme aims to give children in need access to education, healthcare, and healthy food. The fund should also help workers retrain, especially in regions hit hardest by the move away from fossil fuels.
The return on investment of the Fund is much higher than the cost of doing nothing. — David Casa (EPP/MLT), co-rapporteur on the European Social Fund
Co-rapporteur David Casa (EPP/MLT) framed it as a matter of simple maths. “The return on investment of the Fund is much higher than the cost of doing nothing,” he said.
The fight is far from over. The full Parliament must still approve the position. Talks with the Council can only start once governments agree on their full negotiating mandate, including the overall size of the budget. That promises a battle, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz threatening to block the budget unless the costs of supporting Ukraine are shared.
