opinion parliamentary committee draft, 17 April 2026

On the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Social Fund as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plan set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRPPlan] establishing conditions for the implementation of the Union support to quality employment, skills and social inclusion for the period from 2028 to 2034

Document BUDG-PA-787632 · (COM(2025)0558 – C100172/2025 – 2025/0239(COD))

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Giuseppe Lupo

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Budgetary assessment 18 paragraphs

for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Social Fund as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plan set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRPPlan] establishing conditions for the implementation of the Union support to quality employment, skills and social inclusion for the period from 2028 to 2034

(COM(2025)0558 – C100172/2025 – 2025/0239(COD))

The Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

The Committee on Budgets,

A.whereas Article 162 TFEU establishes a European Social Fund (ESF);

B.whereas the proposal establishes the European Social Fund as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) for the period 2028-2034;

C.whereas, according to Article 10(5) of the proposed NRP Regulation, a horizontal target for social expenditure of 14 % is set for the whole Fund, excluding the amounts referred to in Article 10(2)(a)(ii) of that Regulation, as well as the external assigned revenue stemming from the Social Climate Fund;

D.whereas there is no clearly dedicated financial amount for ESF;

E.whereas the European Child Guarantee aims to prevent and combat the social exclusion of children in need;

1.Considers that the proposed NRP Regulation merging different policies into one plan per Member State creates unnecessary competition for financial resources between policies, and regrets the weak social dimension of the proposed NRP Regulation; strongly criticises the large margin of discretion left to Member States on the details of specific objectives and their funding, which further risks undermining predictability and accountability;

2.Stresses that the exact level of financial resources allocated to ESF objectives within the proposed NRP Regulation cannot be determined ex ante, as no dedicated envelope is established in the basic act and the effective allocation will depend on the programming choices made by each Member State in the design of their national plans, fundamentally hampering the budgetary authority’s ability to assess, monitor and defend the level of investment in social cohesion throughout the programming period;

3.Considers, therefore, that the ESF must remain a standalone and separate programme with a dedicated financial envelope at a level of no lower than [insert number from the Interim report on the proposal for the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034 (2025/0571R(APP)), in current and 2025 prices], in order to maintain a level of investment commensurate with the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights, its action plan and headline targets; calls on the lead committee to coordinate its amendments to ensure there is no contradiction between the two Regulations;

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4.Considers that sufficient human resources must be available to the programme from the outset and throughout the entire programming period of the next MFF to ensure effective implementation of the Union support;

5.Deplores the lack of a sufficiently detailed indicative budgetary nomenclature for the ESF in the LFDS accompanying the proposed NRP Regulation; considers this will hamper oversight and the budgetary authority’s ability to accurately steer policy priorities in the annual budgetary procedure; expresses concerns that the overly aggregated budgetary architecture would facilitate transfers not subject to budgetary authority decision;

6.Recommends that the proposed ESF Regulation capitalise on the established practice of allocating defined shares of resources to specific objectives, such as social inclusion, youth employment, support for the most deprived, capacity building of social partners and civil society, tackling homelessness and child poverty; recommends, therefore, that the basic act includes a sufficient number of dedicated budget lines to adequately reflect the different policy areas with reference amounts for specific objectives;

7.Insists that sufficiently detailed and sound legislation, with an appropriate level of governance, is a condition for proper budgetary decision-making and adequate parliamentary oversight; recommends introducing provisions to strengthen control over how the budget is mobilised and spent; considers that a ‘steering mechanism’ cannot compensate for any loss of Parliament’s legislative, budgetary or discharge powers;

8.Takes note of the proposed complementarity between the ESF and other funding instruments, especially under the NRPPs, the European Competitiveness Fund and Erasmus+; stresses that enhanced complementarity must not come at the expense of the traceability of expenditure or the prerogatives of the budgetary authority; underlines that the contribution of the ESF to operations financed jointly with other instruments must be explicitly identifiable at all stages of the budgetary cycle; insists that the budgetary authority should retain full control over how resources are combined across instruments and over the effective contribution of each programme to Union priorities, notably through detailed budgetary nomenclature;

9.Recalls the proposal for a Regulation on establishing a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework and other horizontal rules for the Union programmes and activities; underlines that any change in the architecture, objectives and eligible actions under the programme will need to be appropriately reflected in the monitoring provisions under Annex I of the performance regulation, as part of the process of amending and negotiating that regulation.

Amendments 16 paragraphs

As part of its budgetary assessment, the Committee on Budgets also submits the following amendments to the proposal:

Amendment 1

Proposal for a regulation

Recital 25 a (new)

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment
Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment(25a) The provisions of this Regulation as well as its governance arrangements should be conducive to proper decision-making by the budgetary authority and to appropriate parliamentary oversight. In particular, any specification of the European Social Fund internal architecture should be duly reflected in the budget nomenclature through the introduction of corresponding budget lines.

Or. en

Amendment 2

Proposal for a regulation

Recital 25 b (new)

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment
Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment(25b) The implications of this Regulation for the Union budget have been assessed+ pursuant to Article 310(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Sufficient financial and human resources should be provided for its implementation, while considering the impact of the financing on other Union programmes or policies and ensuring its compatibility with the multiannual financial framework, the system of own resources and the corresponding interinstitutional agreement, as well as with the budgetary principles laid down in Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council¹.
Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment⁺ Pro memoria: Budgetary assessment of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets of [date] on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Social Fund as part of the National and Regional Partnership Plan set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRPPlan] establishing conditions for the implementation of the Union support to quality employment, skills and social inclusion for the period from 2028 to 2034 (COM(2025)0558).
Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment¹ Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (OJ L, 2024/2509, 26.9.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2509/oj).

Or. en

Amendment 3

Proposal for a regulation

Article 2 – paragraph 2 a (new)

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment
Text proposed by the Commission	Amendment(2a) The indicative financial envelope for the implementation of the European Social Fund for the period 2028-2034 is set at EUR [number from the Interim report on the proposal for the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034 (2025/0571R(APP), in current and 2025 prices];

Or. en