Housing quality is correlated with a nation’s affluence. The use of objective criteria for assessing the need for space may be flawed, and the EU-indicators pursuing social inclusion need to be harmonized with strategies of environmental sustainability.
This Policy Brief has explored pension sustainability in EU countries. It examines the financial sustainability of public finances, followed by a look at the likely evolution of pension incomes and an analysis of the reshaping of pension systems.
On average, older people face a higher poverty risk rate than the total population. Countries with low poverty risk rates for older people have a good social safety net in the form of a basic pension or of minimum guaranteed pensions.
Europeans belong to the largest consumers of illicit drugs: ca. one fifth of the global heroin, cocaine and cannabis supply, as well as one third of the ecstasy production. But the vast majority has never tried any illicit substance.
Welfare-to-work programmes have long been pursued in European countries. The UK had shown more interest in learning from the US workfare model, and its policy design and the experience of the past 10 years offer a number of insights for other countries.
