Freek Spinnewijn, Director of the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), expressed his concern, on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 July, about the budget cuts decided by Member States for the European Social Fund plus (ESF+) and for the European Union's Employment and Social Innovation Programme (EaSI).
The agreement reached by the Member States (see EUROPE 12532/2) sets the ESF+ budget at €87.7 billion and €676 million for the EaSI programme.
“Compared to the last European Commission proposal, the ESF+ has been reduced by 10 billion and the EaSI programme has been cut by 26%”, Mr Spinnewijn told EUROPE. This is a real problem, he said, because the EaSI programme, currently endowed with more than €919 million, funds many transnational social inclusion programmes as well as a dozen European NGOs that help the European Commission to implement the European pillar of social rights, he stressed.
The silent European Parliament
The other source of concern for Mr Spinnewijn is the position of MEPs in their resolution regarding the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027. “The European Parliament rejects the European Council's agreement on the next MFF, but fails to express its concerns about the significant cuts in the ESF+”, he regretted.
The European Parliament resolution adopted on Thursday 23 July cites, in fact, a number of programmes and funds that have seen their financial envelope reduced, but does not mention the case of the ESF+ (see EUROPE 12534/1).
And yet the social situation of households is slowly but surely deteriorating. FEANTSA published, on Thursday 23 July, a particularly alarming report on the situation of housing exclusion in Europe: https://bit.ly/3eX1MMM (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)