This year’s stock-take of Social Europe - Social Policy in the European Union: state of play 2018 - reports on recent EU and national social policymaking with a focus on the game-changing advent of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) one year ago. A dominant feature of this annual review of... Find out more

This new edited volume on occupational welfare in Europe is based on research projects coordinated by the European Social Observatory (OSE) It focuses on recent developments in the field of pensions and unemployment-related schemes in nine countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands... Find out more

The 18th edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play reports on recent European Union (EU) and national social policymaking, with contributions from leading scholars pointing at attempts to move out of the multiple crises hitting the European Union since 2008. The formidable... Find out more

How can we speed up the necessary transition of our economies and societies to a condition of sustainability – by which we mean the possibility of preserving human well-being through time subject to the constraints represented by ecological factors? First of all, by achieving clarity about the... Find out more

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the Memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in Greece and Portugal in the areas of old-age pensions and labour market policies and shows that, compared to earlier economic governance instruments, the MoUs have entailed much greater interference in setting... Find out more

The European Union has gone through a crucial period marked by growing anti-EU sentiments and the difficult implementation of its largely renewed socio-economic governance. After years of in-depth innovations and the hope of reinvigorating the E(M)U social dimension, European institutions have... Find out more

This working paper assesses the impact of the economic crisis on European pension systems and provides a comparative overview of the measures imposed on European pension systems, together with their effects.Focussing on eight countries (representative of different pension models) the study shows... Find out more

This critical working paper looks at the series of political choices, circumstances and windows of opportunity that have enabled one particular vision of the model of EU monetary union to gain acceptance. In the context of this model, political union is not considered an accessible way to manage the... Find out more

Since the early 2000s, the ‘new social risks’ approach has shifted the focus in welfare analysis from so-called old social risks to the so-called new social risks related to recent changes in the labour market and family structures. This approach captures a number of important changes in... Find out more

This working paper assesses the impact on, and challenges to, the ability of welfare systems with different financing mechanisms to cope with the crisis. Additionally, it analyses how the crisis (stimulus measures, austerity packages) contributes to changing the structure of financing systems. It... Find out more