On 16th July 2025, the European Commission presented its proposal for an ambitious and dynamic Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), amounting to almost EUR 2 trillion (or 1.26% of the EU’s gross national income on average between 2028 and 2034). This framework aims to equip Europe with a long-term investment budget matching its ambitions to be an independent, prosperous, secure, and thriving society and economy over the coming decade. It includes funds to help deliver on the European Semester and the European Pillar of Social Rights by investing in people through quality jobs, social inclusion, education, skills, health, housing and social infrastructure.
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COFACE Families Europe advocates for strong European social funds to be invested in services and support for families. This includes work on ensuring the EU funds are in line with the UNCRPD and not funding more institutions, that the funds are used to boost implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, and especially the European Child Guarantee and European Care Strategy. The current European Social Fund Plus (2021-2027) funds family support of different types including early childhood education and care, long-term care, parental support and family centres or hubs in the community.
Structure of the future EU budget
On 16th July 2025, the European Commission proposed a seven-year MFF, from 2028 to 2034. It is structured along main categories of expenditures (‘headings’) and provides for a maximum amount for each of them (“ceilings”). The MFF includes four headings, plus a ‘flexibility instrument’ and a ‘Ukraine Reserve’ that can provide additional funds over and above these ceilings. These elements are specified in the Proposal for a Regulation establishing the Multiannual Financial Framework. The headings of the proposed 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework correspond to the major areas of activity financed by the EU budget, more specifically :
- Europe’s economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture, rural and maritime prosperity and security
- Competitiveness, prosperity and security;
- Global Europe;
- and Administration.
Tracking investments and performance
One of the regulations proposed in the package establishes a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework mainly based on a single list of intervention fields with output and result performance indicators associated with each intervention field. The list of intervention fields and performance indicators includes a number of social indicators which cover early childhood education and care, families in migration, family reunification, long-term care and family/community-based care services, tackling child poverty, and improving access of persons with disabilities to education and employment. These are all relevant fields for the COFACE Families Europe network. This regulation also refers to gender equality assessments.
Overarching common provisions for all funds
The proposal for a regulation establishing the European Fund for economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture and rural, fisheries and maritime, prosperity and security is the overarching horizontal regulation which sets out common provisions for the shared management funds at EU level. This is referred to as the “NRP regulation” (since this fund will be implemented through National and Regional Partnership Plans). It contains a number of relevant horizontal principles (e.g. the NRP Plans must be in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights), and the requirement to allocate 14% of resources to achieving the Union’s social objectives (Article 22). Finally, regarding the implementation of the 14%, Annex VI to the NRP regulation provides guidelines for allocation of resources including a clear reference to the need for Member States to concentrate resources on “targeted actions and structural reforms to implement the European Child Guarantee.”
Sectoral funding regulations
The package of the European Commission also includes a set of sectoral regulations including a proposal for a regulation on the future Horizon Europe programme, a proposal for a regulation on the European Social Fund (ESF) and a proposal for a regulation on the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF).
The ESF and ERDF regulations will complement the NRP Regulation, and be implemented via the National and Regional Partnership Plans. For the ESF, this would be through measures to promote equal opportunities for all, support strong social safety nets, foster social inclusion, intergenerational fairness and fight poverty. With 93 million Europeans at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the new plans will support the most vulnerable, strengthening the Union’s societies and social model. As stated by President von der Leyen: “The National and Regional Partnership Plans will also provide the financial resources for social policies. Here, for the first time there is a target for social expenditure of 14% – so mainstreaming. And also for the first time, we will track social funding across the entire MFF.” Moreover, the proposed regulation specifies the need to “ensure that everyone, including children in line with the European Child Guarantee, have access to essential services of good quality” with a call on Member States to programme ESF resources for the implementation of the European Child Guarantee (Recital 20). However, this is not specified in any article of the regulation, and there is no clear earmarking of the ESF for this policy instrument. Finally, it also specifically mentions the need to invest in support for the demographic transition (Article 5 of the proposed regulation).
The future Horizon Europe programme would have as a horizontal principle to “ensure a multidisciplinary approach, where appropriate, and provide for the integration of social sciences and humanities (SSH) across all components under the Programme, including specific calls for proposals on SSH related topics” (Proposed regulation Article 5). This will be essential for continued study and analysis of the impact of social protection policies, as well as the social and societal impacts of the economy, digitalisation, international treaties (like the UNCRPD and UNCRC) and more.
Next steps
The European Parliament and Council of the EU now need to provide responses and amendments to the different regulatory proposals published by the European Commission proposals, aiming to find an agreement by end 2027. COFACE will monitor this process closely, advocating for a strong European Social Fund and Horizon Europe programme which invest in families and civil society organisations.
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Website on the Next MFF
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The Future of the European Social Fund Plus
