Ramón Peña-Casas (OSE) recently presented at a seminar (EESC, 9 June 2017) some dimensions of the job quality of the low skilled workers in the EU, showing that the jobs they are occupying are from a lower quality than those of worker with higher skills. The seminar titled 'Existe-t-il un futur pour le travail peu qualifié en Europe ?' was organised by the European Coordination Committee – CEC, the European umbrella organisation of bodies of socio-economic insertion.

Presentation
(in French)

Should the accounting rules of the Stability and Growth Pact on public investment be modified ?
Panel debate, 8 June 2017, Brussels  (Languages: NL, FR, EN, DE)
 
The debate will discuss the pros and cons of a new 'EMU-fit' golden rule, introduced via minor changes in the Stability and Growth Pact. Serious consideration should be given to the way public investment is handled, and to making its treatment more favourable.

 


(Programme,
registration)

Bilan social de l'Union européenne 2016
Bart Vanhercke, David Natali and Denis Bouget (Dir.)
 
The 17th edition of this edited volume – published jointly by ETUI and OSE – is now also available in French. The book provides easily accessible information about recent developments in EU and national social policymaking. The harsh reality is that the European project can no longer be considered irreversible. The volume proposes an analytical reading about the EU’s present state of affairs and suggests scenarios to create a new common sense of purpose for the EU. 

Free download
EN - FR

Access to social protection for people working on non-standard contracts and as self-employed in Europe - A study of national policies
Spasova S., Bouget D., Ghailani D. & Vanhercke B. (2017)
 
This new ESPN report demonstrates that while non-standard workers and self-employed may be formally covered by a social protection scheme, in many cases they do not have effective access because eligibility conditions are not tailored to their needs. Recent domestic reforms extend social protection of the self-employed, but they still have lower coverage and receive lower benefits, while their poverty risk rate is an alarming three times higher than salaried workers.

 


Free
download

Was the exclusion of health care from the Services Directive a pyrrhic victory?
A proportionality test on regulation of health professions
Baeten R. (2017)
  
In January 2017, the EC launched a proposal for a proportionality test on regulation of professions, including health professions. The proposal closely recalls Article 15 of the Directive on Services in the internal market. Thispaper shows that the concerns that led to the exclusion of health services from the Services Directive apply in the same way to the newly proposed Directive, and analyses why a proposal that is very similar to the text that provoked strong reactions a decade ago, now seems to pass without much controversy.

Connecting entrepreneurship with policy experimentation? The EU framework for social innovation
Sabato S., Vanhercke B. and Verschraegen G.
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, Vol. 30 (2) 2017
 
This article investigates how social innovation’ made its way onto the EU agenda and how this notion has been creatively used to advance distinct policy goals. It does so by analysing the resources the EU provided to promote social innovation over the period 2006–2014. Over time, social innovation has become a significant vehicle in the European Semester’s focus on the reform of the welfare state.

 


Free
download

Stakeholders meeting (5 May 2017, Brussels) and Final Conference (29 May 2017, Rome)
 
In spite of the current strong emphasis in all EU countries on means to tackle youth unemployment, the participation of older individuals in the labour market remains a significant policy challenge. OSE is participating to an EU-funded project on Policies for an Aged Workforce in the EU (PAWEU) and will organise a stakeholders’ workshop in Brussels to discuss the outcomes of the project. The OSE researchers Ramón Peña-Casas and Dalila Ghailani will also present they key findings of the project during the Final Conference (Rome), together with the Fondazione Brodolini (IT).

Listened to, but not heard? Social partners’ multilevel involvement in the European Semester
Sabato S. and Vanhercke B. with Spasova S. (2017)

This Working paper explores the involvement of national and EU social partners in the procedures of the European Semester, examining the mechanisms for involvement, its outcomes, quality and remaining challenges for effective social partner involvement.

European Semester review: which way forward for a social Europe?
 
With inequality increasing across Europe and the EU not on track to achieve the EU 2020 objectives, the European Social Network (ESN) has again asked the OSE to provide scientific underpinning of its work on the European Semester. The focus will be on the impact of austerity policies on public social services management and provision, territorial disparities and evidence-based policy-making.   > ESN European Semester Report 2017 (PDF)

Balancing protection and investment: structural reforms in five countries
Agostini C., Lisi V., Natali, D. and Sabato S. (2016)
ETUI, Brussels, 124 p.
 
This timely report provides evidence that the EU influenced structural reforms in EU Member States but lacked a coherent agenda to support growth. In such a context, different countries implemented different reform strategies that reflected their (partly) diverging socio-economic models.

 

 
Free download

Sick pay and sickness benefit schemes in the European Union
 
Slavina Spasova, Denis Bouget and Bart Vanhercke contributed to the Social Protection Committee’s In-depth Review on sickness benefits with a report showing that sickness benefit schemes have been subject to reforms in almost all Member States. The Background report was written in the context of the European Social Policy Network (ESPN).

Read the report (PDF) | More info on ESPN project

International Digest - Revue Belge de Sécurité Sociale
 
The OSE was awarded a new contract with the Belgian Federal Public Service Social Security with a view to writing, for the next three years, the ‘International Digest’ for the quarterly Belgian Review for Social Security (RBSS/BTSZ). 

Governing occupational pensions and unemployment benefits:
the state, the market and the social partners in-between?
Natali D., Sabato S. and Mapelli L. with Vanhercke B. (2017)

The paper demonstrates that occupational welfare is not purely the ‘realm’ of the social partners, who find themselves squeezed between the state and market forces. It also shows that the spread of OW is not a synonym of the withdrawal of the state. The governance of OW is both ‘multi-level’ and ‘hybrid’, and increasingly opaque.

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2016 
 
To mark the 17th edition of their flagship publication, the European Social Observatory and the European Trade Union Institute hold a presentation-debate hosted by the Workers' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee.
 
Speakers include Gabriele Bischoff, Denis Bouget, Maxime Cerutti, Sofia Fernandes, Esther Lynch, David Natali, Ruth Owen, Ruth Paserman, Philippe Pochet, Martin Seeleib-Kaiser and Bart Vanhercke.

SUBSCRIBE HERE

EN - NL - FR

    |