Seventy-two percent of European Social Network (ESN) members consider access to EU funding programmes crucial for developing and improving their services for people in need, according to a recent ESN members survey. The future of these EU funding programmes is highly dependent on the next EU Multi-Annual Framework (MFF), which will start in 2028. As the European Commission prepares the EU long-term budget in a time of economic uncertainty, with many competing public investment needs, it is vital to maintain EU financial support for social services.
Investing in social services crisis preparedness
With an uncertain international environment and the increasing impact of climate change, the next EU budget should invest in social services’ crisis preparedness and resilience. This should include funding for capacity-building in frontline public social services to better address emergency situations related to public health crises, conflicts, or natural catastrophes. Such investment is essential, as evidenced by the 2024 floods in Spain, during which local social services had a central crisis management role, especially in protecting the most vulnerable groups in the population.
While there is increasing political momentum for investments in defence and economic competitiveness, such increase should not happen at the expense of EU social funds and programmes. This has also been raised in the European Parliament's recent Report on the Future EU Budget, which highlighted the importance of Europe’s social dimension and the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Social services are key in cushioning the effects of crises and therefore ESN calls for investment in social services programme and the workforce as they contribute to societies’ competitiveness and resilience. They are also key to addressing long-term challenges such as ageing populations and social inequalities.
EU funds driving social services' development
EU funds and programmes like ESF+, INTERREG, ERDF, CERV, ERASMUS+, EaSI, FEAD, and HORIZON EUROPE are critical resources for developing and improving social services. The programmes behind these acronyms help our members promote and test innovative social services solutions, engage in international knowledge exchange, build new capacities, and learn from best practice exchange.
ESN members are dedicated to the transition to a community-based social care model, hence the future MFF should continue to promote the transformation of the social care sector through programmes that are person-centred, and this can only happen in the community.
Involving social services for better funding impact
Our members have underlined that future EU funding programmes need to be co-developed with social services departments in public authorities at national, regional, and local levels to ensure they are properly targeted. Their allocation and programming should be based on principles like subsidiarity, shared management, and decentralisation, including participation in decision-making. In this context, ESN welcomes the European Parliament's future MFF report, which calls for the involvement of regional and local actors in decision-making for programming and allocating EU funds and the opposition to European Commission (EC) plans to distribute funds mainly through single national reform plans decided by central governments.
To help advance the co-development of the future EU budget, ESN answered an EC consultation on the future MFF. In our position paper, we advocate for securing a European Social Fund+ with adequate funding to deliver on social inclusion programmes that delivery community and family-based care and support, and on capacity-building for the social services workforce.
For more information, see also the paper the European Expert Group on the transition to community care, launched on the future European Social Fund beyond 2027, and its next month webinar.
