European Commission proposes removing mandatory funding for child poverty

The European Commission has proposed eliminating the requirement for member states with high child poverty rates to allocate at least 5% of the European Social Fund Plus to combat the issue. This change is part of the proposal for the 2028–2034 EU budget.

Child rights organizations have expressed concern that this move could lead to a loss of funding for prevention programs in favor of other priorities. In contrast, the European Parliament supports maintaining the obligation and suggests increasing the threshold to 10% for countries where child poverty exceeds the European average.

A recent report by Save the Children indicates that over 19 million children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. While Romania has seen an improvement, with the risk rate dropping from 41.5% in 2021–2022 to 32.4% in 2025, it remains among the countries with high exposure to these issues.