Helsinki: The European Social Fund Plus is heading into a political contest over how much money and independence it keeps after 2027. Members of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee met national parliaments on 1 October 2026 to discuss the future of the fund for 2028 to 2034, as the Committee of the Regions pushes back against the Commission’s plan to fold it into national plans.
The Commission proposed on 16 July 2025 to bring the fund together with cohesion, agriculture, fisheries, migration and security money under 27 National and Regional Partnership Plans, one per member state. The plans, together with the Interreg plan and an EU facility, would total about €865 billion, and the national plans alone would hold €783 billion. The Commission says the European Social Fund Plus should remain the main instrument to promote and strengthen social cohesion.
The European Social Fund Plus proposal sets a floor for social spending. At least 14 percent of the envelope for the national plans, loans included, should go to social objectives, which the Commission puts at no less than €100 billion. That calculation leaves out direct payments under the common agricultural policy and the Social Climate Fund. The Commission also foresees up to €150 billion in loans for social innovation, microfinance, the social economy and investment in health, education and housing.
The Committee of the Regions disagrees with the design of the European Social Fund Plus. On 2 July 2026 it unanimously adopted an opinion that opposes merging the fund into single national plans and calls for it to remain a self-standing tool. It wants the seven-year budget to rise from €100 billion to at least €124.19 billion in 2025 prices, and it calls the proposed 14 percent minimum insufficient.
Parliament’s employment committee, which still labels the successor to the European Social Fund Plus as ESF+, gave the debate a structured shape on 1 October. The first session asked how the fund can deliver more on quality jobs, adult learning and poverty reduction, while the second looked at its main priorities for 2028 to 2034. Co-rapporteurs David Casa and Marit Maij spoke in the sessions, alongside members of the Romanian Senate, the Spanish Congress of Deputies and the German Bundesrat, and committee chair Li Andersson opened and closed the meeting.
The same morning the committee voted on three other texts. They covered a report on vocational education and training by Brigitte van den Berg, a report on employment guidelines by Li Andersson, and an opinion on mobilising the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for displaced workers in two Finnish regions, drafted by Johan Danielsson.
The European Social Fund Plus will go through co-decision, so Parliament and the Council must both agree before it can start in 2028. The Commission says it will support a swift agreement, but the fight over a self-standing fund and a higher floor shows that social spending will compete with every other claim on the next long-term budget. Employment ministers and MEPs will decide whether the fund keeps its own identity or becomes one chapter in a national plan.
