Brussels: The European Social Fund should survive as a stand-alone programme worth €124.19 billion in the 2028 to 2034 budget, the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee said in a vote published on 10 November 2026. MEPs rejected the Commission’s plan to fold the fund into wider national spending envelopes and set out a position built around skills, jobs and children.

The committee backed its report by 40 votes to 6, with 10 abstentions. It then approved a mandate for talks with the Council by 41 votes to 14, with one abstention. The lead MEPs are David Casa of the EPP from Malta and Marit Maij of the Socialists and Democrats from the Netherlands.

The European Social Fund vote matters because the Commission’s proposal for the next long-term budget merges many programmes into National and Regional Partnership Plans. Critics argue that this design would leave social spending competing directly with roads, farms and defence inside each capital’s single plan. Maij called the Commission’s proposal to abandon the fund completely unacceptable.

MEPs want a different structure. Under their text, the European Social Fund would run through dedicated chapters within the partnership plans, with its own budget line. Member states would keep the ability to finance active labour market measures, reskilling, upskilling and social services. Regions hit hardest by decarbonisation would get particular attention as industries change.

Child poverty sits at the centre of the committee’s plan for the European Social Fund. MEPs want at least 5% of the fund reserved for measures under the European Child Guarantee, with sufficient, stable and predictable resources. Allocations would follow needs identified at national and regional level, rather than a single formula set in Brussels.

The committee also names youth unemployment and social inclusion as priorities. Casa and Maij argue that a dedicated European Social Fund gives managing authorities, charities and training bodies the planning certainty they need for multi-year programmes. Without it, they warn, social projects could lose out each time a government redraws its spending plan.

The European Social Fund vote fits a wider push by Parliament on the 2028 to 2034 framework. Lawmakers want a larger overall budget and new sources of revenue for the EU, as Parliament’s position on the long-term budget sets out. On the same day, other committees voted on the European Competitiveness Fund and the Connecting Europe Facility.

Several hurdles remain. Parliament must first adopt its position on the partnership plans regulation, which the committee calls particularly important for the fund’s future. The full house will then vote on the committee’s report at a forthcoming plenary session. Talks with the Council can start only once member states agree their own mandate, including overall budget levels.

Those talks will be difficult. Several net-payer governments favour the Commission’s simpler single-plan model and a tighter overall ceiling. A Parliamentary Research Service briefing sets out the stakes of the reform for cohesion and social spending across the bloc.

For workers, trainees and families who rely on these programmes, the outcome will shape support for most of the next decade. Parliament’s message is clear: the European Social Fund must keep its own identity, its own money and a guaranteed share for children, whatever form the next EU budget finally takes.