“I do not understand an MFF, a community budget, without such an important fund as the European Social Fund,” said Iratxe García Pérez, leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament during the last plenary session.
“[The Commission] won’t have a blank check from the Socialist group,” she warned, hinting the fund will be a red-line in negotiations. She added to POLITICO: “We need to adapt to new challenges, and competitiveness is part of it, but not at the cost of leaving behind the EU’s social cohesion. Farmers, industry and business also benefit from social spending.”
The Socialists, the second-largest group in the European Parliament, accuse the center-right-dominated EU executive of railroading its pro-business and deregulation agenda into the next seven-year budget.
Last week, Socialists and liberals threatened to pull the plug on von der Leyen’s informal pro-EU majority after she controversially sided with the far right in canceling an anti-greenwashing law.
Inside the Berlaymont, the Socialist commissioner for social rights Roxana Mînzatu ― who is in charge of the European Social Fund — is fighting a rearguard battle to save it.
Mînzatu and her three fellow Socialist commissioners, however, are outnumbered by 14 commissioners from the EPP who are keen to steer the EU’s €1.2 trillion cashpot towards new priorities such as defense and industry.
