Newsletter June 2021

Highlight

Study on intergenerational fairness

Our findings in the recently published Study on intergenerational fairness show that young adults (18-24) in most European Union countries experienced the strongest decline in disposable income during the economic and financial crisis from 2007-2014 while older generations (65+) saw the strongest relative income growth. The decline in young adults’ income was primarily driven by a drop in employment (market) income which was only marginally counteracted by automatic stabilisers like unemployment benefits or policy changes.

In addition, we used microsimulations to analyse what effects of different policy reforms would have had on the intergenerational distribution of income during this period. We find that an unemployment benefit for young adults with no qualifying period would have counteract the unequal growth in income. The combination of a tax on top income earners and financial support for households below the at-risk-of-poverty rate would have strongly reduced poverty and inequality while redistributing income from the prime-working age population (25-64) to younger and older age groups.

Bridge Building in the Spotlight

Updated review of Western Balkan economies regarding the EPSR

The European Centre is currently updating the six reviews of the Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, & Serbia regarding the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). The European Centre team is working with country experts to create high-quality reports to monitor the countries’ achievements and reform efforts of social rights as candidate and potential candidate countries and preparing a comparative overview report for 2021. Within the framework of the Employment and Social Affairs Platform 2 (ESAP 2) project that is implemented by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and funded by the EU. The European Centre was also engaged as the international expert organization in the reviews prepared in 2018/19 and coordinated the 2020 reviews.

New projects

New project: Bridge Building Peer Reviews and Trainings

The project builds on the need for mutual learning between countries of the Bridging (BB) Function. The European Centre offers Peer Reviews and Training dedicated to specific topics in social welfare. By implementing mutual learning activities in more

New project: Situation Analysis of children and adolescents in Moldova

The European Centre team will support UNICEF Moldova in drafting the Situation Analysis of children and adolescents in Moldova. The Situation Analysis examines the degree of realization of children’s rights, investigates the unequal more

New project: Start of Ridersurvey

The European Centre is happy to annouce the start of a new project, the Ridersurvey. The project aims to collect novel data on bicycle food delivery drivers' working conditions and perceptions of trade unions in Austria via an online survey. The more

New publications

New report: Study on Intergenerational Fairness

The new report on the Study on Intergenerational Fairness presents findings from research into intergenerational fairness in European Union countries. The team analysed changes in the income of different generations during the crisis from more

EESPN newsletter: November 2021 issue

We would like to introduce the November 2021 issue of the EESPN newsletter. We feature new projects, calls & publications on new social policy measures relevant to the Bridge Building (BB) region. Read more more

A&W blog: Barriers instead of support? Non-take-up of housing allowance in Upper Austria

Tamara Premrov, Michael Fuchs (European Centre) and Roman Raab (Chamber of Labour Upper Austria) analyse the extent of and socio-demographic characteristics associated with non-take-up of housing allowance in Upper Austria. Read the A&W more

Upcoming & past online events

EU conference on 12-13 July 2021: Long-term care and pension adequacy in an ageing society

Ricardo Rodrigues was invited to the roundtable discussion that will mark the launch of the “2021 Long-Term Care Report” prepared by the European Commission and the Social Protection Committee. His intervention reflected on more

BB Peer Reviews & Trainings kick-off: Implementing mutual learning activities

The Bridge Building (BB) Peer Reviews and Trainings project kicked off yesterday. Andreas Schaller, Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection of Austria and Anette Scoppetta, European Centre were opening the more

2021 BB Summer School: Hosting of two virtual Schools

The European Centre received a large number of qualified applications for participating in the 2021 Summer School on Evaluation in Social Policies. Despite a competitive process, more applicants than expected met the criteria. Therefore, our more