The updated reviews relate to the progress made with regard to the (EU) European Pillar of Social Rights in the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia & Serbia – countries striving to become EU Member States.

This Policy Brief introduces an evaluation approach to assess policy impact of research and development projects. This approach was applied on selected European Centre projects to show whether and how these activities have triggered policy relevance and impact.

Due to the challenge of combining care responsibilities with employment, informal carers are often vulnerable to reducing their labour market attachment, or leaving the job market entirely, and subsequently sacrificing income. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting employment cuts, informal carers may have been particularly vulnerable to deterioration in their socioeconomic situation.

Covid-19 has had and will continue to have, at least for the time being, a huge impact on many aspects of life. We are continuously being confronted with the negative consequences of the pandemic for our economy, welfare, mobility, health systems, social life, public health, mental health etc. In view of the significant negative influence which alcohol consumption has on public health and social welfare, we briefly review the relationship between Covid-19, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm.

This Policy Brief portrays two large-scale international projects which take on the ageing challenge, one focusing on tackling ‘ageism’, and the other one on improving multilevel governance and evidence-based decision-making for ‘active and healthy ageing’ (AHA).