The Recovery and Resilience Fund: have social actors been sidelined?
   
How and why did the European Semester end up as the main institutional vehicle of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)? To what extent did this new set-up change the power balance among key actors (e.g., financial and economic actors versus social affairs actors)? And, crucially, have social actors been sidelined in the context in the governance of the RRF? This webinar will discuss the key findings of new research carried out by the European Social Observatory and the University of Victoria on behalf of the ETUI and AK EUROPA.

| English-German interpretation will be available.

Webinar

10h - 11h30

Languages:
EN - DE
  

Analyse van de bevraging van experts en belanghebbenden: Wegwerken van de ongelijkheden in de financiële toegang tot gezondheidszorg
Syntheserapport, Rita Baeten (2021), 28p.
   
The OSE has prepared an action plan, commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV), to reduce inequalities in financial access to healthcare in Belgium. The French version of this synthesis report in Dutch, as well as the full report in Dutch, will be published soon.
| NL | Het OSE bereidde in opdracht van het Rijksinstituut voor ziekte- en invaliditeitsverzekering (RIZIV) een Actieplan voor om de ongelijkheden in de financiële toegang tot gezondheidszorg in België weg te werken. Het volledige rapport in het Nederlands zal spoedig gepubliceerd worden.

Fragmented labour markets in affluent societies: examples from Germany and the Netherlands
Bekker S. and Leschke J. (2021)
   
The employment and social impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have been more severe for some groups of workers such as low-wage workers and workers in non-standard employment. The concept of ‘fragmented labour markets’ highlights the large and growing diversity in employment relationships. Fragmented labour markets are defined as labour markets characterised by an accumulation of insecurities. This OSE Research Paper applies the concept to two affluent countries (DE, NL) and highlights vulnerability in occupations such as personal care and cleaning, particularly among women.

OSE amidst top 100 social policy think-tanks
   
The OSE has been ranked, for the fifth consecutive time among the ‘Top 100 social policy think-tanks’ worldwide by the Think-Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the University of Pennsylvania. The think-tanks in this category are considered ‘leading social policy institutions of the global community’ that provide ‘superior innovative research and strategic analyses’ and ‘excel in research, analysis and public engagement’, more particularly ‘with the aim of advancing debate and facilitating cooperation between relevant actors’.

EU social policy: state of play
   
Bart Vanhercke, echoing the arguments of the recent book ‘Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2020’ expresses concern about the sidelining of 'social actors', the EU's lack of commitment to gender issues, the inadequate response to the rise in in-work poverty and the development of a new social-ecological contract. This is despite an unprecedented coordinated economic response from Member States and the European Commission, in stark contrast to the austerity-driven response to the 2008 crisis.

Non-standard workers and the self-employed in the EU: social protection during the Covid-19 pandemic
Spasova S., Ghailani D., Sabato S., Coster S., Fronteddu B.,Vanhercke B. (2021)
   
The purpose of this study is to map the measures related to unemployment benefits, sick pay and sickness benefits, and special leave arrangements introduced by the EU Member States during the Covid-19 pandemic. The specific focus is on non-standard workers and the self-employed, as well as on the gender dimension.

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Is the ‘European social model’ a reality or an elusive concept?
  
Bart Vanhercke has been appointed as Visiting professor at the College of Europe, a postgraduate institute of European studies. During this academic year, he will be teaching a course on ‘The Social Dimension of European Integration’ to an interdisciplinary group of students from across Europe. The course addresses the interaction between EU economic and social policies as well as the variety of EU social policy instruments. It will ultimately ask this question: is the ‘European social model’ a reality or an elusive concept?

Social policy in the EU 2020: three launch events
   
To mark the publication of the "Social Developments in the European Union 2020", the OSE and the ETUI organised three webinars to discuss the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU's social policy perspectives in different policy areas and the overall EU policy strategy. The video recordings of these webinars, which brought together researchers, policy-makers and actors from trade unions and civil society, are available online.

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2020
Facing the pandemic
Edited by B. Vanhercke, S. Spasova and B. Fronteddu
OSE, ETUI, Brussels, 2021
 
The 21th issue of this OSE and ETUI flagship book analyses the impact of the pandemic on EU social policymaking throughout 2019 and the first half of 2020, and discusses the prospects for Social Europe in different policy areas, including public health, eco-social policies, sustainable development, gender equality and in-work poverty. The ongoing ‘crisisification’ of European policymaking may, ultimately, pave the way for further European integration. 

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