What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Changed:17.18. Emphasises that the Commission’s affordable housing plan should be integrated better into the European Semester, with a stronger focus in country-specific recommendations on affordable, decent and sustainable housing, in particular for low and middle income groups, as well as for persons with disabilities and older persons; calls for strengthened monitoring of Member States’ progress in ensuring access to adequate, safe and non-segregated housing for Roma communities experiencing extreme poverty; reminds the signatories to the Lisbon Declaration on the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness about the goal to eradicate homelessness by 2030; calls on Member States to combine measures that increase supply, lower building costs and address labour shortages in the construction and housing sector with demand-side support that enables people, in particular households in vulnerable situations, to access affordable, decent and sustainable housing; stresses that national medium-term fiscal-structural plans and investment strategies should support social and affordable housing, the prevention and reduction of homelessness and building retrofits to reduce energy poverty and improve housing conditions, in particular for vulnerable households; recalls that the Social Climate Fund will provide funding to Member States from 2026 to support vulnerable households and micro-enterprises, and stresses the importance of monitoring its use during this cycle of the European Semester; calls for measures to combat speculation and regulate short-term rentals in areas under housing stress;micro-enterprises;

Changed:A. whereas the EU’s employment target of having at least 78 % of people aged 20 to 64 in employment by 2030 is on track to be achieved; whereas in October 2025, the unemployment rate in the EU stood at 6 %, ranging from 2.62,6 % to 10.610,6 % among the Member States, while youth unemployment remains high at 13.213,2 %; whereas unemployment levels and precarious working conditions remain persistently high for young people, women, older workers, low- and medium-qualified third-country nationals, persons with disabilities, and Roma and other ethnic minorities, all of whom face structural barriers to employment; whereas for persons with disabilities unemployment stands at 15.115,1 %; whereas higher levels of employment in the EU should go hand in hand with job quality, decent salaries, wage increases and productivity gains;

Changed:C. whereas 93.393,3 million people, accounting for 21 % of the EU population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) in 2024, which shows that limited progress has been made towards the 2030 EPSR target for poverty reduction, with the trend in more than half of Member States moving in the wrong direction; whereas poverty risks are much higher for women, children, older people, persons with disabilities, the LGBTI+ community, low-skilled people, third-country nationals, Roma, single-parent households, and people living in depopulated areas, and significant discrepancies persist between and within Member States, including between rural and urban areas; whereas this divergence between rising average incomes and persistent poverty levels highlights structural challenges in income distribution, labour markets and the design and coverage of social protection systems; whereas more than 40 million people in the EU, corresponding to around 9.29,2 % of the population, experienced energy poverty in 2024, leading to material deprivation; whereas the insufficient coverage and inadequacy of minimum income schemes, unemployment benefits and family and child benefits, as well as barriers to labour market integration and accessing quality public services such as health, education, care and housing, contribute to the persistence of poverty and social exclusion, particularly among the most disadvantaged groups; whereas without a change of approach to tackling poverty at EU and national level, it will not be possible to reverse the trend; whereas an ambitious EU anti-poverty strategy will be essential to provide responses to the multidimensional phenomenon of poverty;

Changed:D. whereas one child in four is still at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union, which is a higher level than for the population as a whole; whereas insufficient progress is being made towards the objective of reducing the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 5 million by 2030, with the percentage of children AROPE having risen every year between 2019 and 2023 and remaining persistently high; whereas, according to the Commission proposal for a 2026 joint employment report, in 2024 around 19.519,5 million children (24.2(24,2 %) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU; whereas preventive child and family support policies and services, in line with the European Child Guarantee, are essential to addressing the socio-economic conditions that may lead to family separation and child institutionalisation; whereas a dedicated funding instrument for the European Child Guarantee, as well as synergies with other EU and national funds, are of the utmost importance, both in the current and next multiannual financial framework; whereas according to the Commission, the EU needs to invest more than EUR 11 billion additionally per year, to meet the 2030 Barcelona targets for early childhood education and care (ECEC); whereas children who can benefit most from attending ECEC, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, tend to participate least and continue to face barriers to access;

Changed:E. whereas there are still at least 1.41,4 million persons with disabilities and almost 300 000 children living in institutions in the EU; whereas residents of institutions are isolated from the broader community and do not have sufficient control over their lives and the decisions that affect them; whereas despite the fact that the EU has long been committed to the process of deinstitutionalisation, efforts are still needed at both EU and national level to enable vulnerable groups to live independently in a family or community environment;

Changed:F. whereas 1 in 12 workers (8.2(8,2 %) in the EU experienced in-work poverty in 2024, undermining social cohesion, and highlighting that employment does not per se provide full protection against poverty or translate into improved living conditions, due to rising living costs and diminished purchasing power; whereas recent increases in statutory minimum wages, often above 20 % between 2022 and 2025 and above 40 % in several Member States, have helped to protect low-paid workers’ purchasing power and have supported wage growth in low-paid sectors; whereas despite real wages having exceeded pre-pandemic levels in most Member States, several large economies have not yet returned to these levels;

Changed:G. whereas climate change has exacerbated inequalities and particularly affected the most vulnerable groups, which tend to be more exposed to environmental hazards, for example high temperatures, leading to lower standards of job quality, productivity loss and greater job insecurity; whereas the transition towards climate neutrality must be socially fair and inclusive for all, and is expected to create between 1 million and 2.52,5 million additional jobs by 2030, if supported by the right employment and education policies; whereas strong and adequately funded social protection, as well as quality job creation policies, are a prerequisite for ensuring a fair and just transition towards climate neutrality and digital transformation;

Changed:H. whereas the EU faces persistent labour and skills shortages in several sectors, driven by different factors, such as demographic and technological change, skills mismatches, job quality and lack of attractiveness of and investment into quality public services, which has been identified as a key barrier for EU growth and competitiveness; whereas limited career prospects and precarious working conditions of young people in parts of the Union contribute to talent outflows between EU regions and third countries, further exacerbating these shortages; whereas the Commission proposal for a 2026 joint employment report highlights that addressing structural labour market weaknesses through better job quality supports higher productivity, economic performance, social fairness and cohesion; whereas improving workers’ rights, collective bargaining, active labour market policies, access to social protection and skills development opportunities for all, including third-country nationals, as well as targeted activation measures for the 51 million people of working age currently outside the labour force, would help strengthen participation, inclusiveness and competitiveness; whereas by 2050, the EU working population is expected to shrink by up to 18.818,8 million people, which suggests that legal labour migration can help to respond to evolving labour market needs;

Changed:I. whereas in 2022, the rate of adult participation in learning stood at 39.539,5 %, indicating that more effort is needed across most Member States to reach the target of 60 % of adults participating in education and training by 2030; whereas the integrated approach to policy coordination within the European Semester provides the framework to guide the necessary investment in human capital development, education and training systems; whereas further substantial efforts are needed to ensure provision of, and access to, quality training policies, notably for workers in lower-skilled occupations, to promote lifelong learning and strengthen EU competitiveness, resilience and the inclusiveness of the EU workforce; whereas public spending alone may not meet the scale of upskilling and reskilling needs given the transformational challenges the EU is facing; whereas in 2022, the average score for basic skills among 15-year-olds in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) declined compared to 2018, with underachievement disproportionately affecting disadvantaged learners, highlighting the need for reforms and sustained investment in education and training to support future generations and their transition from education to work;