What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Added:8. Recalls the importance of improving self-employed people’s access to social protection and calls on the Commission to use the European Semester process to monitor national implementation of the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed, including the country-specific recommendations; recalls, as the rate of self-employed professionals in the cultural and creative sectors is more than double that of the general population, the need for targeted measures for the sector; welcomes, in this context, the announcement of an EU Artists Charter aimed at highlighting the main fundamentals and commitments for fair working conditions in this sector, but urges the Commission to advance its publication to 2026, as these represent long-standing issues;

Added:9. Calls for an EU directive on a framework for minimum income schemes, with the purpose of safeguarding the right to a decent life and ensuring that every person in need in the EU is covered by a minimum income scheme; recalls that such a directive, in compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, would address gaps in the EU social acquis by contributing to the goals of reducing poverty while fostering the active integration of people who are absent from the labour market;

Added:10. Regrets that the objectives of the EU Roma strategic framework are not being more actively pursued by Member States and are not receiving sustained attention in the European Semester process, particularly in the country-specific recommendations; emphasises the strategic framework’s goal of halving the employment gap between Roma and the general population and ensuring that at least 60 % of Roma are in paid work by 2030; urges Member States to adopt an integrated, equality-focused approach and to ensure that public policies and services effectively reach all Roma, including those in remote and rural areas;

Added:11. Recalls with concern the persistent disability employment gap of around 24 %, and, on the other hand, the EU’s objective of transitioning from institutional to community- or family-based care for all people concerned; calls on the Commission to address the disability employment gap through the European Semester, including in the country-specific recommendations, and to update the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with new flagship initiatives, including a European disability employment and skills guarantee; reiterates its call on the Commission to put forward an action plan on deinstitutionalisation covering all groups still living in institutions, including children, persons with disabilities, people with mental health issues and people experiencing homelessness; stresses that progress on deinstitutionalisation should be monitored within the European Semester, and calls on Member States to make full use of ESF+ and other EU and national funds to finalise this process, develop community-based services and invest in prevention;

Added:12. Welcomes the permanent inclusion of the social convergence framework in the European Semester; stresses its importance, together with the Social Scoreboard, for identifying risks and tracking progress on upward social convergence, reducing inequalities, strengthening social protection systems and promoting decent working conditions and supportive measures to ensure fairness in the transition; calls on the Commission to further develop innovative quantitative and qualitative analysis tools under this new framework in order to make optimal use of it in future cycles of the European Semester; calls on the Commission to analyse the risks to upward social convergence highlighted in its 2025 joint employment report, including employment outcomes of under-represented groups, early school leaving and adult learning, and poverty, in the second stage of the analysis, and to discuss with the Member States concerned the measures undertaken or planned to address these risks; notes that addressing the challenges identified in the joint employment report will contribute to achieving upward social convergence;

Added:13. Calls on the Commission to improve and update the Social Scoreboard, making sure it reflects the drivers and impacts of inequality, including equal opportunities, quality employment, wealth distribution, access to public and social services, adequate pensions, housing and homelessness, mental health, discrimination and the social impacts of environmental degradation and climate change; calls on the Commission to treat in-work poverty as a warning signal within the Social Scoreboard and to propose country-specific recommendations where such trends persist; stresses the need to address challenges flagged as ‘critical’ or ‘to watch’ in the Scoreboard, including early school leaving, housing cost overburden, the impact of social transfers, the disability employment gap, self-reported unmet needs for medical care, childcare, basic digital skills and child poverty; calls for the inclusion of a social progress index and the Gender Equality Index to better measure inequality, access to opportunities and well-being using disaggregated data; stresses the need for timely, harmonised and transparent data and methodologies to improve evidence-based policymaking and targeted social investments, and for aligning the Social Scoreboard with all 20 principles of the EPSR;

Added:14. Recalls that the AROPE indicator does not sufficiently capture the root causes of poverty and complex inequalities, in particular the inclusion of persons living outside private households, qualitative aspects of poverty and the lived experiences of marginalisation, while also considering that poverty extends beyond insufficient income or material deprivation; calls on the Social Protection Committee to work on renewing the AROPE statistical measure in order to expand it towards a stronger, disaggregated and more multidimensional understanding of poverty and social exclusion;

Added:15. Recalls that social investment can have a positive impact on economic growth, productivity and competitiveness, while contributing to fiscal sustainability and promoting upward social cohesion, living and working conditions, and the inclusion of vulnerable groups; calls on the Commission and the Member States to treat social investment as foundational to sustainable growth and to focus on investments that have proven their effectiveness in terms of growth, productivity, job quality and increased labour market participation; calls on Member States to make full and targeted use of the Recovery and Resilience Facility until 31 December 2026 to address the challenges identified in the country-specific recommendations; requests that the Commission provide guidance on leveraging private investment and public-private partnerships to close social infrastructure gaps; welcomes the launch of the Social Investment Knowledge Hub to enhance mutual learning and technical assistance, continue improving the timeliness and availability of social indicators, reduce delays in assessing poverty and inequality trends, and enhance Member States’ access to data for policy evaluation and impact assessment;

Added:16. Recalls that the social economy is a key component of social investment, playing a unique role in developing inclusive and innovative solutions at the local level, contributing to quality job creation, the provision of affordable and accessible social and proximity services, and the green and digital transitions; notes that public support for the social economy is strong, with 88 % of Eurobarometer respondents supporting strategies and legislation to promote it; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen its framework conditions by facilitating access to finance, providing capacity building opportunities and ensuring its visibility, and to reflect the objectives of the social economy action plan in the European Semester, including through country-specific recommendations and the targeted use of EU funds;

Added:17. 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;

Added:18. Emphasises that investment in high-quality, accessible education and lifelong learning is a strategic social investment that is essential for cohesion, inclusion, and preparing the workforce for the green and digital transitions and the defence-related needs of the EU, including through vocational education and training and apprenticeships; welcomes the proposal for a Council recommendation on human capital in the EU and its focus on addressing skills shortages, the use of skills intelligence for the design of skills strategies and the development of a broad set of basic skills, including digital, citizenship and AI literacy, to prepare individuals for modern life; recognises that insufficient investment in human capital hampers innovation, competitiveness and people’s ability to reach their full potential;

Added:19. Highlights the need for EU initiatives on skills shortages to provide stronger support for comprehensive, inclusive education and training systems, including through active labour market policies, individual learning accounts and micro-credentials, and the strengthening of procedures for the validation of non-formal and informal learning; further stresses the importance of improving and facilitating fair labour mobility within the EU and of the role of legal migration and the recognition of foreign qualifications to address skills shortages; is concerned that adult participation in training remains well below the 60 % target in most Member States, particularly among low-skilled workers, older workers, non-EU nationals and persons with disabilities; calls on the Commission to put forward concrete solutions to skills shortages and to address persistent challenges in the upcoming Fair Labour Mobility Package, ensuring that the forthcoming Skills Portability Initiative addresses current obstacles to skills recognition;

Added:20. Strongly believes that an individual right to training for workers during working hours, which addresses the main barriers to pursuing training, can ensure quality upskilling and reskilling, employee training and career development support in order to ensure a predictable and stable supply of skilled workers for employers; stresses the need for tackling the cost barrier by ensuring cost-free training for workers, supported by funding, tax incentives and partnerships; stresses that national institutions and social partners are responsible for the training of employees, and highlights their essential role in the implementation of the right to training; calls, in this regard, on Member States to prioritise and promote training schemes developed jointly by workers and their employers, ensuring that upskilling and reskilling respond to real market demand and contribute to career progression; calls on the Commission to explore and issue guidance on how public-private partnerships between Member States and enterprises can fund the training, reskilling and upskilling of workers, in particular the right to training for individual workers;

Added:21. Emphasises that intergenerational fairness must become a structural component of the European Semester; calls on the Commission, as part of its intergenerational fairness strategy, to integrate indicators on youth and old-age well-being, access to quality jobs, housing affordability, availability, physical accessibility, adequacy of minimum income and pensions, access to quality mental health services, and high quality education and skills into the European Semester’s assessment framework, and to evaluate long-term and distributional impacts of fiscal and reform recommendations; calls on the Commission to assess the long-term economic, environmental and social impacts of policy recommendations, including underinvestment, on future generations; stresses the need to better integrate the impact of demographic transformation and increased longevity into the European Semester; stresses that the demographic change requires policies to increase labour force participation; highlights the need for measures that support active ageing and ensure the long-term sustainability of pension and care systems; considers that country-specific recommendations should promote pensions that ensure a life of dignity, well-being, and access to quality, affordable healthcare and preventive services for all;

Added:22. Stresses that, within the framework of the European Semester, defence spending must be planned in a coordinated, efficient, transparent and European manner to maximise societal benefits; underlines that security-related investment should include societal resilience, including infrastructure with high civilian benefits, social protection, civic education, democratic resilience and protection against disinformation, recognising that social stability and democratic trust are important components of Europe’s security architecture and must be reflected in the Semester’s analysis of long-term reform and investment needs;

Added:23. Underlines that the European Semester recommendations in 2026 will be crucial in shaping the next multiannual financial framework; believes that reforms and investments should be selected for their efficiency and effectiveness in addressing the relevant country-specific recommendations; warns that if EU funding is to be tied to Semester guidance, that guidance must be socially balanced in full alignment with the EPSR, and regional and local actors must play an important role in the disbursement of funds; notes with concern, in this regard, the Commission’s proposal for social spending, which risks diluting focus on employment and social objectives, and calls for a stand-alone and reinforced ESF+ with thematic concentrations;

Added:24. Considers that the EU’s social model is an integral part of its competitiveness and that efforts to simplify administrative burdens for businesses must preserve and ensure social rights; emphasises that job quality and non-cost competitiveness, such as the quality of products and services, can also support productivity and wage growth; highlights the importance of providing greater clarity, proportionality and legal certainty, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed professionals, and emphasises that such approaches should respect the diversity of labour market models across Member States, while supporting sustainable economic activity and quality job creation;

Added:25. Supports a more democratic European Semester process, with Parliament strongly involved in setting economic and social policy priorities and taking economic governance decisions; insists that the formulation, monitoring and follow-up of national reforms must systematically involve social partners, civil society organisations, and regional and local actors, with adequate time and transparency; urges the Commission and Member States to ensure their proper involvement at all stages of the analysis, including within the social convergence framework, in order to strengthen ownership and ensure that EU social rights are a reality on the ground; emphasises that respect for the principle of subsidiarity and national competence remains central to the European Semester; recalls the need for the Commission to ensure that the European Semester and the EU economic governance framework assess the impact of recommended reforms on gender equality and women’s integration into the labour market, and to promote investment in quality public services and care infrastructure;

Added:26. Draws attention to the lack of a transparent methodology for the formulation of country-specific recommendations and of clarity on the criteria used for their selection; warns that this undermines accountability and risks unequal treatment of Member States; calls on the Commission to ensure full transparency on procedures and internal decision making, including the directorates-general involved, and to strengthen accountability and information-sharing with Parliament; is concerned that compliance with country-specific recommendations remains persistently low; calls on Member States to better address recommendations in the fields of employment and social policies; calls on the Commission to reinforce its dialogue with Member States on the implementation of existing recommendations and the Employment Guidelines, including follow-up on current and planned policy actions;

27. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.