On the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2026 - all sections

12.Deplores the fact that in 2024 24,2 % of children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; reiterates Parliament’s repeated call to urgently increase the funding of the European Child Guarantee with a dedicated budget and to ensure adequate public investment in policies that have a direct and indirect impact on children’s lives; calls in this regard on all Member States, not only those affected by child poverty, to allocate at least 5 % of the ESF+ resources under shared management to support activities under the European Child Guarantee in 2026 as well as making full use of existing funding possibilities under the EU budget, such as ReactEU and the RRF to eradicate child poverty;

13.Underlines the crucial role of civil society working on social inclusion, gender equality and equal opportunities when it comes to shaping and monitoring the implementation of legislation; stresses that this is particularly important for the groups that are the most vulnerable as they ensure policies and initiatives effectively address their needs and facilitate their access to different social services; calls on the Commission to ensure sufficient, stable and transparent funding for the civil society organisations;

14.Underlines the important role of social partners and social dialogue for social cohesion in Europe and for the European social model; reminds that the support for fostering social dialogue is one of the principles of the EPSR; believes, recognising the importance of social partners, that the EU should promote their role, considering national diversity, and facilitate social dialogue and collective bargaining in line with Article 152 TFEU; regrets the repeated cuts by the Commission and the Council to related budget lines and believes that, considering existing socio-economic inequalities, more support for social dialogue and collective bargaining, for social partners and for training measures for trade unions will be needed in the coming years;

15.Emphasises the need for more specific policy responses to mitigate the impact of demographic challenges with an ageing population across the EU due to declining fertility rates and extended life expectancies; underscores the importance of services and improving skilling and working conditions in the health sector and infrastructure for children and persons with disabilities as well as support at all stages of life so people can stay in family or community environment as long as possible; in this context stresses the importance of the European Care Strategy and calls for adequate funding for related initiatives in Budget 2026; stresses the importance of universal access to public services in order to reduce regional development disparities and to offer equal access to quality education, infrastructure and healthcare for all; calls on the Commission and the Member States to consider impacts on social, territorial and economic cohesion at all levels of public policy decisions;

16.Considers that, in light of the internal and external challenges as well as rapid development of new technologies including artificial intelligence, that a proficient and prepared workforce is essential for enhancing the Union's competitiveness and resilience against external shocks, adapting skills and industrial policies to navigate the just twin transition successfully; recognises the essential role of quality education, lifelong learning, skilling, reskilling and upskilling, vocational education and training (VET) and quality and paid traineeships and apprenticeships available and accessible for all, leaving no-one behind; recalls, in this regard, the need to ensure adequate funding in Budget 2026 for skills policies under ESF+ and the Just Transition Fund, as well as InvestEU, REPowerEU, STEP and the Net Zero Industry Academies as key drivers for strengthening the social and skills dimensions of the Union;

17.Highlights the key role that the Academies will play in disseminating knowledge and skills on net-zero technologies that can enhance the Union’s competitiveness and its global position in net-zero industries and calls for additional appropriations under the SMEs Pillar within the Single Market Programme to ensure sufficient financing for the year 2026;

18.Underlines that Cohesion policy must remain a long-term policy, based on the objectives set out in articles 174 and 175 of the TFEU; expresses its concern that the Union's cohesion funds, including the European Social Fund+, are increasingly used as an emergency response tool, and underlines that this approach risks the longer-term policy and investment objectives of cohesion policy and that the people for whom Cohesion policy supports cannot be sufficiently reached;

19.Recalls the importance of the expertise carried out by the five EU agencies active in the development of the Union's social and employment policy areas, namely the European Labour Authority, the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training and the European Training Foundation, and emphasises that these agencies must be properly staffed and adequately resourced, so that they can fulfil their mandate, achieve their objectives, and perform their evolving tasks; recalls that the tasks of agencies evolve in line with policy priorities and stresses that new responsibilities must be accompanied by corresponding resources; reiterates its call to allow for flexibility for agencies with a high proportion of seconded national experts in the establishment plan to convert SNE posts into temporary agent posts with the aim of ensuring better expertise retention, operational functionality and business continuity;

20.Recalls that pilot projects (PPs) and preparatory actions (PA) play a crucial role in providing information and data collection on the impact of policy initiatives in the fields of social inclusion and employment; repeats its call on the Commission for PP/PA evaluation to be conducted impartially on the basis of legal and financial assessment in a manner that reflects their merit and implement them as they were adopted;

21.Insists that rules governing the use of EU funds must ensure compliance with labour obligations, the highest social rights and democratic principles, ensure quality jobs and be aligned with the EPSR, the SDGs and the fundamental rights of workers; calls for provisions to ensure public money only goes to employers respecting workers’ rights and applicable working conditions;

22.Calls for an adequately funded budget to support equal participation and treatment of women in the labour market; welcomes the development of a methodology to track gender-based spending and considers that the lessons learnt, in particular as regards the collection of gender-disaggregated data to monitor and measure gender budget allocations, women’s participation in the labour market, access to employment and gender pay and pension gaps, should be promoted;

23.Calls for the internalisation of the European Parliament's childcare services, guaranteeing their workers an employment relationship with the Parliament and the guarantee that all their rights will be respected;