Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025
Venue:
Thon Hotel EU
Brussels
Language:
English
From revival to resistance: testing the resilience of Social Europe in an era of deregulation
Tuesday 19 May 2026, 09:00-13:00
As Europe navigates a prolonged polycrisis that has shifted from exceptional to structural, the resilience of Social Europe is being put to the test. Social Policy in the European Union: State of Play 2025 highlights a growing tension in EU policymaking: as economic and geopolitical priorities take centre stage, social objectives are increasingly reframed through the narrower lens of skills development and labour market activation. The push for competitiveness and simplification adds a further layer of uncertainty to the future of EU social regulation.
Yet the picture is not solely one of pressure and retrenchment. New initiatives—such as the Mobility Package, the European Affordable Housing Plan, and the forthcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy—suggest that social ambitions have not disappeared from the EU agenda, but are instead a return to softer regulatory forms.
This conference brings these dynamics into focus, tracing the trajectory from revival to resistance. Has the social momentum in EU social policy over the past decade been sufficient to build lasting resilience?
