04/09/2025 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday, 4 September, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs approved—by 33 votes in favour, 12 against, and 3 abstentions—the provisional agreement updating ‘European Social Fund+’ rules in order to emphasise its role in defence, decarbonisation, and support for EU regions that border Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. EU countries will receive 1.5% in additional pre-financing based on their amended programme budget if they are allocating at least 10% of resources to the new priorities. Border regions can receive pre-financing up to 9.5%. EU countries can also receive a maximum co-financing rate for specific priorities that is 10 percentage points higher than current rates as well as 20% in exceptional pre-financing. The agreement with the EU Council had been reached on 17 July (see EUROPE 13682/22). More information: https://aeur.eu/f/i9d (SP)