The European Commission revealed the next long-term EU budget and there is one glaring omission: working people.
Following the announcement today of the EU’s seven-year budget known as the Multiannual Financial Framework, The Left in the European Parliament notes the failure of the Commission to protect workers and social protections in the new €2 trillion budget.
The Left expresses significant concern over the decision to merge farming and regional spending programmes into country-specific national plans. The group also criticises the significant increase in defense funding at the expense of social measures, with new dedicated defense spending, the possibility to divert other funds to military aims and a tenfold increase in military mobility measures.
Although the European Social Fund (ESF+) remains a standalone fund, this is a pyrrhic victory as the resource has been gutted drastically. The Left calls for a strong standalone ESF+ with double the funding currently allocated.
The Left’s coordinator on EMPL Leïla Chaibi (La France Insoumise, France) added: “A renationalisation of EU funds threatens to strengthen governments’ grip on funding. By giving the priority choices to national governments, the Commission risks putting social actors under significant political pressure. We risk turning essential voices of social justice into tools of political convenience. This shift could pave the way for cuts to social spending, healthcare, education and housing, to increase defense budgets. In times of growing inequality and environmental crisis, we must strengthen social solidarity, not militarise our priorities.”
The Left’s rapporteur on ESF+ Estrella Galán (Sumar, Spain) said: “Slashing the funding of the main pillar of social funding at a time when the EU is drastically falling behind on its own social targets is an act of self-delusion at best and self-destruction at worst. We need to double the European Social Fund, not cut it. How can we justify reducing support for jobs or education, and diverting those resources to the defence sector, while wealth inequality continues to grow? If the Commission insists on going down this path, they will find us firmly opposed.”
The Left also regrets the failure to include a €20bn European Child Guarantee, which would have a significant role in combatting child poverty and social exclusion.
