2025 marks a pivotal transition year for the European Union, with the renewal of major strategic frameworks underway. Alongside the ongoing consultation on an EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, scheduled for adoption in 2026, the Union is set to review and update crucial initiatives such as the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan and its Union of Equality strategies. In her 2025 State of the European Union address, the Commission President also announced the EU’s ambition to eradicate poverty by 2050. This year also brings the first proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s long-term budget.
The European Semester and the MFF reflect the framing set out in the Mario Draghi report on The future of European competitiveness, which envisions Europe’s future as a global economic actor propelled by productivity gains, cost reduction, and technological leadership. At the core of this vision is the dominant belief in infinite growth in a world of finite resources. Competitiveness becomes the mechanism to chase that growth model, through the lowering of production costs, downward pressure on labour, and accelerated decarbonisation, measured against models like the US and China, which are scarcely associated with strong labour rights or social protection systems.
What does this mean for Social Europe? The emerging model offers little space for robust welfare systems or democratic control over economic decisions. Instead, it signals a deepening of deregulation and a sidelining of equity-based policymaking. The additional layering of increased defence spending reinforces a securitised vision of Europe, where security is posited as the main sector for growth. This shift raises critical questions: what kind of society is being built, who bears the cost of securitisation, and whose bodies will be mobilised to enforce this vision?
The 2025 European Semester cycle exposes the growing disconnect between the EU’s stated headline targets under the EPSR and the macroeconomic and fiscal policies pursued. Despite commitments to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030 – including 5 million children – progress remains deeply insufficient. In 2024, at least 93.3 million people in the EU (over 21% of the population) were still at risk of poverty or social exclusion, only 1.3 million fewer than in 2023.
This bleak reality underlines the urgent need to rebalance the Semester, transforming it into a truly Social Semester that prioritises social justice. Unless the EU and its member-states fundamentally reorient their policies towards social investment and protection, the promise of a fairer, more inclusive Europe will remain beyond reach.
This position paper provides EAPN’s analysis of the 2025 Spring Package published by the European Commission on 4 June 2025, making the case for greater prioritisation of social rights and poverty eradication within the European Semester.