The synthesis report, written for the European Commission by Magdi Birtha is building on evidence from 29 country reports on existing frameworks, definitions and assessment systems and procedures that are in place to measure the quality of social services used by persons with disabilities. 

This book presents the issue of access to information in the posting of workers. The authors identify and assess the practices and challenges of construction companies involved in the posting of workers.

The aim of this policy brief is to present the main challenges that sending construction companies may face in accessing information when providing services under the posting of workers regime, and the good practices that information providers have adopted to overcome these difficulties.

This report summarises insights gained during the Bridge Building Policy Review “Policy measures to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on vulenrable groups” and aims at further sharing these with a wider audience.

In this INFO-POW policy brief, we ask the following questions: What are common information gaps in posting, why do they matter, and how to address them? We present original cross-national data which maps extant information channels on posting from five countries: Austria, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Kai Leichsenring and Alexandre Sidorenko have edited a book that takes stock of and opens new perspectives to salient issues at the interfaces of ageing and social policy. Based on contributions of more than 30 well-known interdisciplibary scholars from gerontology, economy, political sciences, sociology and other social sciences they propose a future-oriented research agenda designed to inform and stimulate social policy responses to ageing and longevity.

This report provides information on how the partnership principle is currently being implemented in the Bridge Building (BB) countries of the European Centre.

This policy brief focuses on the categorisation of tax and benefit family policies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in five EU countries, based on data sourced from the Eurofound Policy Database and EUROMOD 2018-21 reports.

This survey manual is developed in the context of the INFO-POW project, which aims to assess the channels of information and their use in the posting of workers. The research team set up a 15-minute online survey targeted at construction companies.

The policy brief is based on research conducted in the INFO-POW project, which consisted of three methods of data collection: a mapping exercise, interviews with national stakeholders, and a survey.

The comparative study presents findings from original empirical research collected through an online survey about the access to information of posting and receiving companies regarding the posting of workers. The survey manual details the process of preparing and implementing the survey.

This policy brief summarises the current state of scientific knowledge about the problems caused by alcohol consumption and about ways and means to reduce these.

This policy brief is based on empirical evidence collected in the frame of the INFO-POW project and builds on the case of Slovenian posting undertakings in the construction sector.

This report summarises insights gained during the Bridge Building Policy Review “Gender Equality and Care for Relatives” and aims at further sharing these with a wider audience.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the PETI Committee, discusses the impact of the ongoing cost-of-living and energy crises on the standard of living for persons with disabilities.

This country report for Austria co-authored by our colleagues, Sonila Danaj, Elif Naz Kayran, Eszter Zólyomi, Nicolas Prinz, and Leonard Geyer aims to present the perspectives of posting and receiving companies in the construction sector in terms of access to information on the posting of workers. The report is based on three data collection methodologies: a mapping exercise of the channels of information available, expert interviews with the national stakeholders, and a survey with posting and receiving companies based in Austria.

This country report for Belgium co-authored by Lynn De Smedt and Frederic De Wispelaere aims to present the perspectives of posting and receiving companies in the construction sector in terms of access to information on the posting of workers. The report is based on three data collection methodologies: a mapping exercise of the channels of information available, expert interviews with the national stakeholders, and a survey with posting and receiving companies based in Belgium.

This country report for Slovenia co-authored by  Mojca Vah Jevšnik and Kristina Toplak aims to present the perspectives of posting and receiving companies in the construction sector in terms of access to information on the posting of workers. The report is based on three data collection methodologies: a mapping exercise of the channels of information available, expert interviews with the national stakeholders, and a survey with posting and receiving companies based in Slovenia.

This country report for Italy co-authored by Rossana Cillo and Fabio Perocco aims to present the perspectives of posting and receiving companies in the construction sector in terms of access to information on the posting of workers. The report is based on three data collection methodologies: a mapping exercise of the channels of information available, expert interviews with the national stakeholders, and a survey with posting and receiving companies based in Italy.

This country report for Slovakia co-authored by Lucia Mýtna Kureková, Alexandra Moran, Lucia Kováčová, and Ivana Studená aims to present the perspectives of posting and receiving companies in the construction sector in terms of access to information on the posting of workers. The reasearch is based on three data collection methodologies: a mapping exercise of the channels of information available, expert interviews with the national stakeholders, and a survey with posting and receiving companies based in Slovakia.

This article was developed based on the results of the Rider Survey project and analyses why food delivery riders in Austria become trade union members. The article was published in the journal Economic and Industrial Democracy.

This policy brief shows that posting companies, posted workers, and receiving companies, when looking for information about the posting rules, do not consult only the so-called single official national website of the host Member State but also frequently use other information channels. This informaiton is based on empirical evidence collected in the frame of the INFO-POW project.

This report summarises insights gained during the peer review hosted by the Republic of North Macedonia. It aims at further sharing the main challenges faced discussed during the peer review with a wider audience. It also includes a list of key messages from the event.

In this policy brief, we discuss different types of support measures for young carers and young adult carers (16-29 years) and cover general measures such as awareness-raising, identification and individual support.

This year's annual report provides an overview of our activities, research projects, publications, webinars, peer review meetings, trainings and media presence in the area of social welfare.

Final report

The book chapter discusses a specific form of professional relationship between actors in labour market and social policy, namely partnership. Partnership can be distinguished from other common forms, such as coordination and cooperation, by a close relationship between partners. Partnerships are recognised as drivers of (social) innovation at the EU level, in particular in labour market and social policy.

This chapter presents the experiences of a country with a well-established welfare state during the Covid crisis. Austria’s labour market, key infrastructures and health system were stabilised by unprecedented policy measures. However, the pandemic also highlighted a number of major shortcomings of the regulatory framework of social and health policy responses. A special focus is being put on long-term care as this sector has been hit particularly hard in terms of mortality, related structural shortcomings and political debates.

In this report we analysed the effects of an increase of the minimum pension top-up in Austria with the tax/benefit-microsimulation model EUROMOD based on latest EU-SILC data.

The final outputs of the FELM project have been published in a final report that includes a regulatory, quantitative and qualitative analysis of third-country companies and workers' access, trends and characteristics in the European construction market.

The technical report for the Info-POW mapping tool and dataset.

This report examines the effects of changing social care models, evolving user needs, and the increased use of digital tools and technologies on the skills and training needs of workers in social care services.

In this policy brief, we explore challenges and barriers persons with disabilities (PwD) face to full social inclusion and propose policy options to address them through investment in and better access to (vocational) education, public funding of personal assistance, and improved data collection for evidence-based policy making.

This policy brief focuses on the role of National Human Rights Bodies in assessing the horizontal enabling conditions in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) compliance of EU funds.

This report summarises insights gained during the policy review and aims at further sharing these with a wider audience.

In this research note, we present the results of the InCARE survey on attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care (LTC) for selected Balkan countries (Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and the Republic of Moldova), the first data of this type collected for these countries.

The guide aims to assist the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Tajikistan to build up integrated case management.

These instructions have been drafted based on the specific request of the Armenian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs within the project “Improving coordination of social protection and employment service delivery in Armenia and Tajikistan” and aim to assist the implementation of new processes for integrated policy approaches in Armenia.

This working paper uses longitudinal data from 1960 to 2010 from 19 developed democracies to evaluate the relationship between the changing dynamics of two different trade union power resources characteristics, i.e., associational and institutional powers, and the extent to which they relate to the socio-economic rights policy for foreign workers.

By use of the data collected through the InCARE survey, this report offers insights into informal carers’ general assessment and experienced barriers regarding the accessibility, affordability, and quality of LTC services and general practitioners (GPs) in Europe.

This report documents the outcomes of the peer learning dialogue (hereafter PLD) on challenges and solutions in preventing, detecting and proving undeclared work in new forms of work, such as work through digital labour platforms.

This research note presents novel data collected on attitudes, experiences, and expectations on LTC of individuals living in Moldova and the policy implications for the further development of the Moldovan LTC system.

This article investigates the extent to which the observed sex differences in older adults’ disabilities can be attributed to sex differences in socioeconomic status.

The Peer Review Moldova Report on “Social Assistance Benefit - The design of the social assistance benefit in Moldova: Improving targeting and supporting employment” was drafted based on the host and peer country information provided and discussions held during the peer review which took place 6-7 September 2022 (online).

This very first research note published by the European Centre presents the study on the working conditions of app-mediated food delivery workers (riders) in Austria conducted by us and financed by the “Digitalisierungsfonds Arbeit 4.0" of the Chamber of Labour Vienna.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss findings from the InCARE survey on attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care in Malta. They find that that there is a mismatch between preferences and expectations for receiving care in the community, aggravated by affordability and availability barriers.

InCARE has launched a third national factsheet "Attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care in North Macedonia" available in English and Macedonian.

The Peer Review Kosovo Report on “The integrated policy approach applied for vulnerable groups of society with the Active Inclusion Integration Platform (AIIP) of the Republic of Kosovo” was drafted based on the host and peer country information provided and discussions held during the peer review which took place 21-22 June 2022 (online).

Our expertise, activities, projects, publications and presentations are showcased in this Annual Report of Activities 2022.

This chapter is a contribution to the book "Posted Workers. La condizione dei lavoratori in distacco transnazionale in Europa" and it focuses on posting in Austria by giving an overview of the posting trends, the governance system, and the main challenges in the Austrian context, specifically wage and social dumping, OSH, and rule enforcement, before providing a few concluding remarks.

This chapter is a contribution to the book "Posted Workers. La condizione dei lavoratori in distacco transnazionale in Europa" and it focuses on the under-researched topic of occupational safety and health vulnerabilities (OSH) of posted workers across the EU.

The comparative report of the Posting.STAT project discusses definitions, data collection and analysis, followed by comparative findings on the scale, characteristics and impact of intra-EU posting, the impact of intra-EU posting on the economic actors involved, scale and characteristics of infringements related to intra-EU posting, and provides conclusions and recommendations on the importance of statistics in evidence based policymaking. 

The conference to celebrate the 2021 European Day of Persons with Disabilities brought together more than 400 politicians, high-level experts and disability advocates.

In this brief, we discuss how posted and other hypermobile migrant construction workers suffer from marginalization in both the labour market and in access to social insurance, with variations between biographically different groups of posted workers.

This article investigates how widowhood and living arrangement transitions are associated with the use of home and community-based long-term care among older European women and men with care needs.

This article focuses on how the distribution of care tasks between formal and informal carers has a significant impact on the well-being of carers and on how efficiently care is delivered to users. It explores how task division in care for older people differs between two neighboring countries with different forms of familialism: Slovenia (prescribed familialism) and Austria (supported familialism).

The final report of the SMUG project focuses on the relationship of posted workers with social insurance institutions. 

This report outlines the results of our survey on the working conditions and trade union attitudes of food delivery riders in Austria.

This chapter presents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of informal caregivers.

This article aims to present how the pandemic has made hidden inequalities in live-in migrant care work more visible in Austria, Italy and Spain.

Drawing on interviews from the SMUG project, this policy brief argues that many posted workers do not conform to the directive’s definition of a posted worker. Workers are often hired for posting, have genuine posting careers or move across categories to find job opportunities.

This policy brief shows how timely sharing of collected data could effectively support and better guarantee the enactment of labour standards in the sector of posted construction workers.

This policy brief aims to present an EU-SILC based index designed to capture multidimensional child poverty in European cities and discusses the results for Vienna.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss the social protection of transnationally mobile construction workers in terms of rules, structures, and practices.

In this policy brief, the author will address two questions in connection with the 20th anniversary of the MIPAA: "What is the correct designation of the jubilee year: celebration, observation, or recognition of failure?" and "What needs to be done next in international policies on ageing?"

Article by Danaj and Geyer published in the Special Issue on Posting by CESifo Forum

This policy brief analyses the current limitations in ageing-related health, labour market and gender policies in Hungary, Estonia, Germany and the Netherlands.

This is the second policy brief in a series of two special issues about the socio-economic effects of population ageing in Europe. This brief will synthesise challenges around long-term care provision related to population ageing with a focus on tangible policy proposals to activate solutions in the area.

Fifteen years after the Special Eurobarometer 283 on Health and long-term care in the European Union, the results of the cross-national InCARE survey bring to light significant changes in the attitudes, expectations and long-term care experiences of Europeans.

InCARE has launched a second national factsheet "Attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care in Spain" available in English and Spanish.

Eighteen months into our joint work, the InCARE consortium prepared a contribution to the on-going call for evidence for the European Care Strategy. It includes a summary of results and learnings derived from a rapid evidence review on social innovation in long-term care.

Ricardo Rodrigues and Selma Kadi have published an article titled "life course pathways into intergenerational caregiving" in The Journals of Gerontology - Series B. The article is co-authored with colleagues from the University of Ljubljana.

Posting.STAT country report on Austria

This research includes data from the Det_Caremix project in the newest article (open access) published by Selma Kadi and Ricardo Rodrigues together with colleagues from Jyväskylä University, University of Ljubljana and Tampere University in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

This factsheet presents results on attitudes, experiences and expectations for long-term care in Austria based on the InCARE survey carried out from September 2021 to February 2022.

This report focuses on both loneliness and social isolation, it presents different aspects of these from a European comparative analysis and offers policy recommendations.

In this short study we calculate the effects of raising the net replacement rate of unemployment benefits in Austria from 55% to 70%. The focus is on poverty risk, employment effects and the costs of the reform for the years 2019 and 2020. The calculations are performed using the EUROMOD microsimulation model based on EU-SILC data.

This project report is about welfare policy responses to crime committed in youth gangs. In a literature review we were concerned with the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency and respective prevention measures to reduce the number of young people who join youth gangs.

This policy brief takes stock of the Bridge Building (BB) and Eastern European Social Policy Network (EESPN) initiatives by capturing stakeholder feedback from the focal regions, i.e. the Western Balkan region and the Eastern Partnership countries.

This is the final policy brief in a series of three about youth gangs and the prevention of youth crime.

This policy brief focuses on the main difficulties encountered by the Italian public authorities when monitoring the posting of workers.

The policy brief discusses practical implications of the revised EU Posted Workers Directive for employers posting workers from Hungary.

The policy brief describes the main characteristics of the posting of citizens of North Macedonia to EU and non-EU member states, with a main focus on the construction sector.

In this working paper we investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive interplays with and is influenced by other EU and national rules and regulations on labour law, migration law, social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss the tension between national anti-dumping measures and the judicial regulation of posting by the European Court of Justice decisions.

The policy brief focuses on social security coordination by framing it in the context of free movement of labour and services in the EU.

In this policy brief we summarise the main challenges Slovene companies face while posting their workers to other EU countries as well as give recommendations and possible solutions for these challenges.

Posting workers as a concept is not straightforward and it is often confused with some forms of emigration. This policy brief explores four situations related to the concept of posting.

The policy brief presents the main obstacles Slovak employers face in the posting of workers and policy recommendations addressing these obstacles and improving the implementation practice in the posting.

Our expertise, activities, projects, publications and presentations are showcased in this Annual Report of Activities 2021.

This second policy brief in a series of three about youth gangs looks at preventive social policy measures to reduce juvenile delinquency and gang crime.

There is little empirical evidence on non-take-up of housing allowances. This policy brief discusses general determinants, covariates, and consequences of non-take up of social benefits as well as potential policies to address them.

This is the first policy brief in a series of three that brings together findings from a scientific literature review on the problem of juvenile delinquency and gang crime.

In this policy brief some of the 'frequently asked questions' about the SWaPOL training will be addressed.

This policy brief looks at loneliness and social isolation as factors influencing the wellbeing and inclusion of older people

This Handbook for Trainers was produced as part of the project SWaPOL - Social Work and Policing, an education and training project co-funded by the EU-programme “ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnerships for Vocational Education and Training”.

This training curriculum is a direct output of the project “SWaPOL – Social Work and Policing”, funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme on Strategic Partnerships in Vocational Education and Training.

As a contribution to the ongoing debate, this study uses the EUROMOD microsimulation model to calculate the net costs of a job guarantee for the long-term unemployed in Austria and the effect of such a guarantee on poverty and inequality.

This report presents findings from research into intergenerational fairness in European Union countries carried out by the European Centre in cooperation with Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and researchers from the London School of Economics.

The SMUG consortium has signed a Joint Controller Agreement (JCA) in which all the partners agree to the protocol for data collection, processing and protection based on the European standards as stipulated in the GDPR. The details of the Privacy Notice that are part of the JCA are made available to all interested parties in the document downloadable from this page.

In this study we estimate the non-take-up rate of housing allowance in the region of Upper Austria.  

In this short report, we step back, take stock and synthesize the key insights that can be derived from the decades long journey of promoting social innovation in Europe, with a view to supporting policy-makers and organizational stakeholders that wish to engage directly in the implementation of social innovation initiatives in long-term care.

This Policy Brief summarises the key lessons arising from a decade of European experiences. The InCARE project team argue that local innovators should shift focus away from 'best practice' initiatives and towards defining the 'best fit for purpose' initiatives.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Slovakian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice.

This policy brief highlights the importance of examining unmet needs in long-term care (LTC) to ensure the right to affordable and good quality LTC. It presents findings from the DET_CAREMIX project which investigated experiences of caregiving and -receiving in Austria and Slovenia among care-mix users

In this policy brief we summarize the main insights from the DET_CAREMIX project that aimed to gain a better understanding of how dependent older people and their families make choices regarding care arrangements in LTC, with a particular focus on gender and socioeconomic inequalities in care.

The concept and policy framework for active ageing turns twenty next year. Will this anniversary be an occasion to celebrate the achievements of international actions on ageing? Or will it become just another occasion to reflect on “uneven progress” in advancing towards a society for all ages – a goal set also twenty years ago by the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing? Alexandre Sidorenko, Senior Adviser at the European Centre, argues that, as of today, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the latter scenario seems the most plausible.

This Policy Brief highlights key issues of national policies in preventing and tackling homelessness in ten EU countries (selected based on their representativeness for different welfare types) and provides related recommendations.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Slovenian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice. 

In this policy brief we focus on the six 2020 reports covering EPSR indicators in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, & Serbia.

The European Centre has conducted a study by order of the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs that aims to provide a comparative analysis of national policies and their outcomes in preventing and tackling homelessness across ten EU countries

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Serbian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Italian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Austrian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Hungarian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with North Macedonian rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice.

The report presents findings from a study that aimed to investigate how the Posting of Workers Directive and other EU regulations interplay with Polish rules and regulations on social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law, and to identify existing gaps in implementation and practice

This policy brief aims to examine what data currently exist on the homeless population and homelessness policy outcomes, as well as discuss the most pressing issues regarding data collection.

The report presents a tool for the assessment and evaluation of what is a good/promising practice in the context of non-residential community-based services for older people.

This policy brief aims to present a multi-dimensional framework that builds on a rights-based approach to monitor and review the extent to which states upheld the right to housing and ensure access to adequate housing, social security and healthcare.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights limitations of long-term care (LTC) systems in Europe, which continue to be divided between health and social care, and between formal and informal care. This article focuses on Austria’s LTC sector and its critical features that became visible during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report is based on a collaboration of the European Centre with the European Social Network (ESN) to examine how public procurement and quality assurance policies can improve (or decline) access to quality long-term care services. 

This report provides methods to identify, categorise and prioritise domains and indicators for AHA based on a pragmatic desk review of existing multidimensional AHA policy frameworks, tools, and methods.

This report summarizes the work carried out to gather and classify AHA innovation evaluation metrics from the long list of indicators identified in Deliverable D.T2.2.1 (report on AHA impact evaluation metrics).

This report summarizes the methods used to develop a governance assessment methodology, explains this framework in detail, and suggests and presents methods to perform assessments of innovations for Active and Healthy Ageing in their target contexts.

Kai Leichsenring contributed a chapter to Christian Aspalter’s ‘Ideal types in comparative social policy’ in which he applies ideal types to long-term care analysis and emerging systems in a global context. 

The study compares the findings from three Con3Post regional reports on mobility and posting flows between EU-sending, EU-receiving and third countries and explores the main characteristics of the trend of posting of third country nationals (TCN) to work in the EU construction sector.

The con3post policy brief in Bosniak.

The Slovenian version of the policy brief.

The Dialogforum ‘Leaving no one Behind’ consisted of four multi-stakeholder workshops on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Austria.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

This Policy Brief describes the trend of posting of third-country workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina via Slovenia to Austria, its drivers, the challenges that the workers face, and the impact posting has on the host country.

To get a comprehensive overview of all our activities, this report highlights projects, publications and conference presentations.

In May 2019, the European Commission launched the #EUvsDiscrimination campaign. A strand of the campaign focused specifically on reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities and this guide presents promising practices.

The article by Michael Fuchs and Tamara Premrov in the Austrian stakeholder magazine ‘Alleinerziehende auf dem Weg’ focuses on challenges and strategies related to single parents in times of the COVID-crisis.

Apprenticeships raise the labour-market entry level for young people—but they need to be available in bad times as well as good.

This report summarizes our work to classify AHA stakeholders and to develop a tool for the identification of actors involved in creating and applying policies as well as in developing initiatives and innovations for AHA in the AS project regions.

This report presents a model for the governance of AHA in the AS. The aim of the model is to strengthen coordination, to support innovation in active ageing and to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of AHA governance in the AS.

In this report, we classify AHA policies, initiatives and innovations to assist AS regional governments; help local governments in identifying initiatives for their territorial context; and support establishing an AHA innovation observatory.

Older people have highly diversified health and social care needs. This study set out to develop a comprehensive overview of long-term care in Portugal from a services delivery perspective that dually captures health and social services.

The Coronavirus outbreak still presents a major challenge at national and local levels across the EU and beyond. Persons with disabilities are among the most affected groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) recently reported that the pandemic continues to affect the provision of essential services such as education, healthcare, community-based support and transport for persons with disabilities. Children with disabilities are facing particular barriers when it comes to accessing education and support, including challenges to take part in distance learning, without their assistants. In some countries, FRA noted that physical, occupational, speech and language therapy services for children with disabilities were suspended (e.g. in Malta) (FRA, 2020).

We investigate the trend of posting third country nationals to work in the EU construction sector and focus on the specific labour mobility patterns between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as a third country, Slovenia as a sending country, and Austria as a receiving country.

This chapter discusses the implementation of Article 19 of the CRPD in Hungary. It studies why institutional care for persons with disabilities is still persistent in Hungary and describes the challenges encountered in the deinstitutionalisation process.

This Policy Brief provides information on different financing systems for residential care in Europe and policy options for mitigating the unpredictability of care-related expenditures are discussed.

Partnership (Goal 17) is central to meeting the targets of the 17 SDGs that make up the UN Agenda for 2030. This article suggests that partnership needs to be articulated as a more vibrant vehicle for supporting the transformations needed to attain the Goals.

At first glance, there is a solid ground for singling out older people during the current pandemic as a special group: the mortality related to COVID-19 is increasing with the age and for those 80 and above years old it is five times the global average based on WHO data. About 95 per cent of those who have died from COVID-19 in Europe were over 60 years, and more than half of them were over 80 years. This tragic statistics has prompted governments to focus their anti-epidemic measures on older persons by often demanding their self-isolation for the period beyond the terms set for younger population.

In autumn 2019, representatives from 17 winning cities of the Access City Award (ACA) met in The Netherlands to exchange best practices and provide mutual inspiration on accessible tourism and better inclusion for persons with disabilities and older people.

This paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems.

The posting of workers describes a process by which companies and temporary work agencies send employees from one EU Member State to another to provide a service in that country for a specific period of time based on dedicated EU Directives. Meanwhile, posted employees remain covered by and pay contributions to the social security institutions of their home country.

This report aims to document the impact of COVID-19 on people who use and provide long-term care and the measures adopted by different countries to contain and mitigate the impact of the virus. Regular updates are provided as new information becomes available.

Being the first Working Paper of the project “Mapping promising social services and policy measures to support the independent living of older people”, this literature review investigates the existing models and tools to define, evaluate and transfer a good practice.

This Policy Brief analyses how partnership is understood and promoted in European Union regulations and programmes.

Readers of this essay are invited to a quiz: try to spot the difference between reality and dystopia!

“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this meeting that we are starting today with a new ritual. As you know, registration with the COVID-19 app is a prerequisite for attending this meeting. Now I ask you for the corresponding ‘electronic handshake’. At the same time, I have to inform you that you are obliged to report immediately if you receive a health warning during our session. In this case the session will be terminated.”

Research projects at the European Centre demonstrate the significance of inter-disciplinary thinking particularly in times of the worldwide Covid-19 crisis. In fact, what is currently designated as a “health crisis” expands beyond medicine and calls for expertise in several other disciplines of the scientific arena such as economics, political science, legal studies, information technology, sociology and philosophy. Hence, expertise in health economics, social welfare politics, law enforcement, technology assessment and ethics is needed to gauge the social consequences in this situation. In the following contribution, I would like to present findings from European Centre’s research together with fresh ideas to underline this inter-disciplinary approach.

Research carried out by the European Centre had already shown pervasive inequalities in access to care as well as in the coverage of health insurance and potential remedies. The Covid-19 crisis brings the evidence to the headlines of the news that social inequalities and the dismantling of health and social welfare systems are killing people. The current crisis also shows that health and social care are not a ‘product’ which can be produced low-cost and provided to those with sufficiently large incomes only.

This Policy Brief provides insights into the characteristics of people using home care services in Slovenia and how these services are used – either alone or in combination with informal care.

This Policy Brief looks at drug treatment and rehabilitation services for young drug users in criminal justice systems

In diesem Policy Brief analysieren wir die Entsendung von BauarbeiterInnen aus Bosnien und Herzegowina über Slowenien nach Österreich, ihre Herausforderungen und Probleme.

This article presents the Netherlands’ movement of neighbourhood cooperatives that boost the positive energy emerging when citizens are helping each other to realize their aims by a shared utilization of resources with respect to challenges in community care.

This report studies the process of transposition and implementation of the Posting of Workers Directive in the four candidate countries of the Western Balkans: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. 

This project aimed to synthesize existing evidence on cost-effectiveness of interventions in long-term care. Several articles cover the topics of personalization, prevention and rehabilitation, unpaid care and migrant carers.

Integrated care programmes provide care to older people living at home. Plans to improve existing ways of working were designed, implemented and evaluated to enlarge the understanding of what works and with what outcomes when improving integrated care.

Key messages drawn from the Peer Review on the occupational safety and health of posted workers held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Sustainable development is a key challenge in the local, national and global context. Our contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) relevant to social and health policy are highlighted in each of the 26 projects described in this report.

This Policy brief reports on a quantitative and qualitative assessement of people not covered by health insurance in Austria.

The needs assessment provides a review of the capacities of the four candidate countries of the Western Balkans, namely Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, to implement the Posting of Workers Directive (96/71/EC).

This Policy Brief provides a brief overview of the current monitoring and evaluation system of social services in Kosovo.

Job carving and job crafting can be effective strategies to overcome the challenges of labour market (re)integration 

The Rights of Older People Index and the Scoreboard on Outcome Indicators are two newly developed tools that monitor the situation of older people with care and support needs in Europe, based on a human-rights approach.

Building on the disability rights discourse, a conceptual framework for a human rights-based approach to care and support for older persons was developed, together with two tools that can contribute to monitoring policies and their outcomes for older people in Europe.

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of North Macedonia

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of Albania

This Policy Brief presents the current state of affairs of posting in the Republic of Montenegro

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of Serbia

Key trends of labour market transitions and tension fields due to digitalisation and automatisation

This Policy Brief provides insights into the use of formal, informal and mixed care by older Austrians living in the community

Job carving and job crafting can be effective strategies to overcome the challenges of the labour market (re)integration of people facing barriers, and to keep workers employed by creating meaningful and productive employment.

Posted workers face language barriers that significantly limit their capacity to realise and exercise their employment rights

This study assesses the reform of the monetary social assistance benefit with regard to increasing take-up rates.

Key messages drawn from the Peer Review on bilateral agreements and other cross-border initiatives held in Trieste, Italy.

The report discusses the relationship between the concepts of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social innovation’. It summarizes the state of play of EU Member States on innovative practices in the field of entrepreneurship and provides recommendations.

This Policy Brief looks at the fiscal costs and at the change in at-risk-of-poverty rates of different approaches to family welfare

There is a need for Career and Age Management Strategies in all EU Member States. Policy systems need to be adjusted to continuous change by following the holistic approach of the sustainable work concept that includes the life course perspective.

Individual transitions especially due to digitalisation and automatisation processes lead to adjustments of polices towards increased labour market transitions and the coverage of new forms of employment within the existing labour market and social security schemes.

Non-take-up of means-tested benefits is a widespread phenomenon in European welfare states. This study ... 

Key messages drawn from the Peer Review on equal pay and posting held in Magdeburg, Germany.

The Peer Review provided the opportunity to discuss and exchange information on guaranteeing the rights of posted workers and their access to social welfare.

The framework lays out ten main human rights domains relevant to persons with care and supports needs.

The present chapter addresses the potentials of social innovation and active ageing approaches in the area of long-term care for older people. Key drivers and barriers of innovative programmes and practices have been identified.

Continuity, comprehensiveness and coordination are key functions of primary care, as set out in the Declaration of Alma-Ata. Therefore, primary care systems must play a key role in integrating care not only within but also across health and social care systems.

The Albanian case study focuses on examining the existing legal and regulatory framework,

The Montenegrin case study focuses on examining the existing legal and regulatory framework,

The Serbian case study focuses on examining the existing legal and regulatory framework,

The Macedonian case study focuses on examining the existing legal and regulatory framework,

The report compares welfare attitudes in Russia and Europe. It covers public support for changes in social protection systems as well as in current social policies. The vulnerable groups include: the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, working parents, as well as migrants.

This study is based on the Austrian NORDCARE survey and specifically addresses the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in Upper Austria.

A comparative study of the OSH conditions of posted workers in nine EU countries

This report provides insights into the motivation, expectations and preferences of residents and practititioners in paediatrics as well as residents in general medicine in order to understand what drives their career choices.

Based on a systematic review of the methodological literature in the field, this report provides first methodological recommendations for the economic evaluation of eHealth in Austria.

This article is an exploratory investigation of chronic diseases and how to address them based on data gathered from four expert groups, each focused on a common risk factor for chronic disease: smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle.

First insights on the OSH vulnerabilities of temporary migrant workers in Slovakia, particularly posted workers and third country national workers.

First insights on the OSH vulnerabilities of posted workers in Austria outlined in a newly published country report.

The NORDCARE study is based on the international NORDCARE survey and investigates the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg) in Austria.

This policy brief is an attempt to respond to current challenges of social welfare systems in the context of population ageing and technological innovation. It defines Ageing 4.0 as a concept and provides a rationale for such a new policy framework.

This policy brief is based on the results of the NORDCARE survey in Austria. This study investigated the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions in Austria (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg).

This second policy brief based on the NORDCARE study on the working conditions of the long-term care workforce in Austria addresses specific aspects from the perspective of the LTC workforce and highlights those factors that significantly impact their working conditions.

With 17 ongoing and 13 completed projects we were able to cover a wide range of issues at stake, and an extended number of countries in the UNECE Region.

This Policy Brief provides insights into the application of integrated case management by Public Employment Services and Social Services institutions in the Western Balkans.

This study provides a quantitative and qualitative assessment of people not covered by health insurance in Austria.

Decentralization of social services in Kosovo: challenges and recommendations

This report is a situation analysis of the decentralization of social services in Kosovo, which started in 2009 with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between ministries and the individual municipalities.

In this policy brief we investigate the (hypothetical) implementation of the Hartz IV reform in Austria. We present two scenarios and their impact on expenditure and poverty.

This book shows the relation between care-dependent and caregiver(s), the impacts on the family and the larger social context, as well as socio-cultural and political aspects underlying the growing need for and the practice of formal and informal care.

Alcohol offenders under treatment pressure. Discourses on measures for addicted lawbreakers

This discussion paper scrutinises practices of EU Member States concerning risk profiling and outreach activities by building on an extensive literature review on tackling long-term unemployment. 

The use of five illicit drugs (cannabis, heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and ecstasy) was studied in seven European capitals. The findings highlight the impact of two social dimensions on drug consumption patterns: Social class and consumption patterns.

Social enterprises for inclusive local growth in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The present study is dedicated to the genesis of the weaning process and its change of meaning.

The European Centre has conducted a study to discuss the pros and cons of the benchmarking process in the social dimension, its benchmarks and corresponding social indicators.

Provision of affordable housing is a crucial component of social inclusion. 

This thematic discussion paper was written for the peer review on 'Germany’s latest reforms of the long-term care system' that took place on 11 and 12 January 2018 in Berlin.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for a human rights-based approach to care and support services, and attempts to detail what the fulfilment of universal human rights entails when applied to the particular case of older people with care and support needs.

The authors investigate the key concepts of the movement to secure the rights of people with disabilities in order to understand how the disability rights movement can inform the ongoing policy debate surrounding older people’s rights.

Kai Leichsenring and Heidemarie Staflinger (Chamber of Labour Upper Austria) examined the opportunities and caveats to transfer the model of community nursing by autonomous teams to the Austrian realms of home care delivery.

Based on a systematic review of the methodological literature in the field, this research report provides first methodological recommendations for the economic evaluation of eHealth in Austria.

The report shows that there is a lack of well-established partnerships practising integrated case management and that Territorial Employment Pacts are a model well-suited to provide an overall frame for an integrated case management system in the Western Balkans.

More than a dozen of new projects started over the past 12 months, covering a broad range of social welfare issues.

This UNECE policy brief addresses the potentials of population ageing and necessary steps to enable people to live active and fulfilling lives as they age.

The guidelines and toolkit assist Public Employment Services and Centres for Social Welfare in the Western Balkans to build up integrated case management systems.

The report presents the fiscal implications together with the distributional effects and the impact on risk of poverty of a similar reform in Austria.

The study proposes a framework for conceptualising community care. This framework underscores the shifting needs of the person with dementia and of informal carers over the trajectory of the disease, and the changing roles of different stakeholders as a result.

Benchmarking in the social dimension has its pitfalls when focusing on purely quantitative target-setting. Thus, benchlearning processes are suggested, in which analysing the causes for societal challenges, learning from others and action-taking stand in the forefront.

The publication compiles Workshop papers presented at the Launch event ‘Building Bridges in social welfare policy in Eastern Europe’ (19 September 2016; Vienna).

On the one hand, structural factors are crucial in convincing caring employees to take up care leaves. On the other hand, societal and psychological considerations are found to be at least equally important, e.g. to reduce stigma for caregivers at the workplace.

The report explores how housing allowances and mortgage interest tax relief have evolved, against the background of falling disposable incomes and rising housing costs. Market developments and policy responses in European countries are covered.

Ein kooperativ gestalteter öffentlicher Raum fördert mit den Worten der WHO “das Wohlbefinden” der Kooperierenden, so wie der ihn Nutzenden. Darüber hinaus trägt er zur gesellschaftlichen Integration bei und hat eine demokratiepolitische Funktion.

How to define and measure high-quality LTC? Care professionals regard multidisciplinary dialogue, case management, time for interaction with users, and a more holistic approach to care as needed but certain framework conditions hinder development in these areas.

The Policy Brief explores European experiences with (de)institutionalisation in long-term care. It draws lessons from strategies, which proved to be effective, and proposes a set of core principles for successful deinstitutionalisation.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2015 and 2016.

The European welfare state is generally considered to be one of the finest achievements of the post-1945 world. However, it has come under increasing strain from ageing societies, growing unemployment, a deskilling society, and mass migration.

The Policy Brief provides an overview of housing deficiencies in EU Member States and examines the extent to which they are linked to low income. Housing is a key aspect of poverty and social exclusion and its quality has an impact on social relations and employment.

The Policy Brief looks at the portability of pensions and health insurance for pensioners in the migration corridors Austria/Germany vs. Turkey and focuses on the situation in Austria and Germany.

The Active Ageing Index (AAI) has been developed for the EU countries during 2012, the European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. This Policy Brief summarises the results of the latest 2014 AAI for the 28 EU countries.

It is necessary to increase efforts in quality assurance in the context of competitive markets in long-term care. This Policy Brief dwells on experiences in a number of European countries on existing practices of quality assurance in long-term care delivery.

Market-oriented governance and a strong consumerism discourse have stipulated increased competition and choice in the provision of quasi-markets for long-term care services. This Policy Brief reviews underlying political arguments and evidence.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2014 and 2015.

This Policy Brief reviews some of the theoretical insights regarding the make or buy decision as applied to long-term care. This is the first part of a trilogy dedicated to the reliance on markets for the delivery of long-term care.

This Policy Brief summarizes the latest evidence on active labour market policy (ALMP) spending and Employment Protection Legislation across the OECD countries and discusses the diverging roles of left parties and trade unions in determining ALMP spending.

This Policy Brief describes the most important features of the SORESI model which enables estimation of outcomes of policy reforms for social target groups (e.g. persons at risk of poverty, materially deprived, in households with no or low work intensity).

Quota systems exist in the majority of EU countries in order to commit employers to hire a certain share of employees with disabilities. However, evidence shows that quotas only provide small incentives to hire disabled people.

Preventing avoidable unhappiness should be given priority as a policy goal – even more so than maximizing happiness. We show that unhappiness varies a great deal more across social groups than (high levels of) happiness.

We present a four-dimensional snapshot indicator of intergenerational justice. Three dimensions measure policy outcomes that leave legacy burdens towards younger and future generations, the fourth welfare states’ overall pro-elderly bias in social spending.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2013 and 2014.

This Policy Brief reports on an exploration of German care home providers’ experiences to move (or not to move) their activities to Austria in the context of EU regulations.

“With his Welfare in an Idle Society? Bernd Marin has set a ‘gold standard’. Congratulations! Nobody who will give new thoughts to re-designing Social Security can go past this encyclopaedic opus.” (Bert Rürup)

Building on ample research in 13 European countries, evidence is provided for how the construction of long-term care systems can be taken forward by practitioners, policy-makers and stakeholder organizations.

The research note presented here provides an overview of existing research into the effects of caring on the employment and health of carers, and into the benefits already available to carers in Europe. These include care services, cash benefits and leave for carers.

This report explores the extent to which there has been an increase in unmet needs due to affordability and unavailability of services before and during the recent financial and economic crisis and identifies vulnerable social groups.

This publication from the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (Vienna) is the result of the joint effort of a group of authors from the ECV, Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per Anziani (INRCA) and WHO Regional Office for Europe*.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2012 and 2013.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2011 and 2012.

The aim of this Brief is to explore (i) housing problems, such as poor housing quality, overcrowdedness, housing cost overburden, and (ii) access to basic local services, including public transport, postal and banking services across the EU27.

This final report of the Active Aging Index project provides a detailed description of the methodology adopted in constructing the Active Ageing Index 2012, as well as the concept and definition used for the purpose of measuring active ageing outcomes and capacities.

The aim of this Brief is to estimate the degree of social exclusion at EU level, and to identify the country clusters related to this, and also to present the level and the trend of poverty on a country level.

Most advanced democracies are currently experiencing accelerated population ageing, which fundamentally changes not just their demographic composition; it can also be expected to have far-reaching political and policy consequences.

In the context of a gloomy European economic climate, this Policy Brief examines the picture for the current generation of older people, with particular reference to their exclusion from material resources and other forms of exclusions for older people.

Relating prevention with long-term care is often thought of as something contradictory. It generally provokes the question whether preventive or activating measures are still feasible or even existent for a person already in need of long-term care.

Preventive activities to reduce alcohol-related problems and/or alcohol consumption are mostly taken by the state and occasionally also by other stakeholders. They largely explain changes in alcohol consumption in European countries.

This Policy Brief is an output of the European project ‘Quality Manage­ment by Result-oriented Indicators – Towards Benchmarking in Resi­dential Care for Older People’. It informs about approaches and project results.

The Policy Brief analyses the occurrence of risk-of-poverty and social exclusion among the migrant population, and the trends in poverty rates between 2004 and 2007 based on the EU-SILC survey.

The aim of this Brief is to analyse the level of poverty and the trends of poverty across the European Union. The rate of poverty varies between 9% and 26% across EU Member States.

This book presents an engaging overview of the future research challenges for economists and other social scientists concerning population ageing, pensions, health and social care in Europe.

The Policy Brief examines the well-being of disabled older persons living in European countries, by analyzing various social dimensions such as satisfaction with present situation and living standards, future optimism, respect and social contacts.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2010 and 2011.

This Policy Brief aims to present information, on the one hand, on the current picture of public and private expenditure on long-term care for older people and to discuss the challenges of financing care.

This Policy brief examines the interrelated aspects of the fiscal and economic policy as well as the impact of population ageing on the sustainability of public finances in the wake of the recent economic crisis.

The dilemmas facing the European Union countries associated with population ageing have until recently been articulated in two ways: 1) the financial sustainability of public welfare systems, and 2) the adequacy of retirement incomes and basic social services.

The book explores the relations between the vertical rescaling and horizontal governance arrangements emerging from changes in the territorial organisation of social policies. It outlines different scenarios in EU countries and Switzerland.

Concerns about the fiscal sustainability of long-term care servic­es and more self-conscious and demanding carers' movements across countries have pushed informal care (provided by relatives and friends) into the limelight.

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.

The book explores difficulties that women face in working life and retirement – and what could be done to achieve more gender equality and fairness for women and men alike. What is good, bad, best for women under these or probable future circumstances?

The book analysed income distribution and poverty, including the effect on inequalities other than in income, such as benefits in kind, or social services more generally, or in housing costs. Non-monetary indicators of exclusion include e.g. material deprivation.

Despite growing concerns over ageing and its social and fiscal impact, surprisingly scarce information is available on basic indicators concerning long-term care for dependent older people. The present publication seeks to fill this gap.

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.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2009 and 2010.

Based on the comparison of detailed micro-data and potential entitlements simulated with tax/benefit microsimulation models, the Policy Brief estimates the size of non-take-up of monetary social assistance benefits in Austria, Germany and Finland after 2000.

Microsimulation models have become firmly established as vital tools for analysis of the distributional impact of changes in government programmes. They are used extensively to assess who are the winners and losers from proposed policy reforms.

This book is one of the first systematic collections of studies based on the European tax-benefit microsimulation model, and thus a synthesis of the scientific work of researchers from more than a dozen of countries for over a decade.

This Policy brief outlines hurdles of access to health care for migrants and discusses policy implications.

This book reports on the findings of an empirical study on the situation of drug users, their consumption patterns and drug spending for the five most common illegal drugs, i.e. heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis.

The book describes and quantifies the large socioeconomic changes that have occurred in four new Member States of the European Union (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia), since the early 1990s.

This policy brief outlines hurdles of access to health care for people with mental disorders and discusses policy implications.

‘Binge’ drinking by young people is a social problem that has spread across Europe. The focus of concern has been on their drinking and on the behaviours and harms associated with it in relation to public health, public safety and public order.

Leading experts examined welfare across countries and social policy domains. This is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art account of the progress that has been made since 1989, and the main challenges for welfare state regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.

The conspicuous alcohol consumption by young people in groups, here called ‘juvenile alcohol scenes’, is at the focus of attention. We compared a metropolitan and a rural area in the wine-growing East of Austria.

This Policy brief discusses the sensitivity of these estimates to the measures used and explores the underlying patterns across the vulnerable groups and the likely causes of poverty in these countries.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2008 and 2009.

This book studies how ageing factors such as ill health and disability become ever more important in determining the personal well-being of older people. These factors have financial implications not captured by an analysis of pension income alone.

The study draws the success story of a regional drug policy that is based on the organisational combination of the drug-related activities of the city ("cross-sectional policy") and the professionalisation of the drug services, with the aim of social reintegration.

This Policy brief summarises the policy experience of the tax credit system in the United Kingdom, with the aim to understand better the challenges underlying the tax credit policy to be initiated in Austria.

Since 2000, the European Centre has accompanied the preparatory process for the introduction of a long-term care insurance in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Alto Adige (Italy).

The country reports contain sections on: key features of national tax-benefit systems, identification of appropriate data sources, requirements for tax/benefit-microsimulation, specific modelling issues, presentation of the model.

This Policy Brief discusses population ageing and its possible implications as well as public policy responses to the challenges posed. The focus is on Europe as a region and how individual countries as well as the EU and the UNECE could deal with them.

Many EU Member States made efforts to break down the discrimination barriers with respect to disability and to consider people with disabilities as an integral part of society and the workforce. We use the statistics of employment status as drawn from administrative registers.

Evidence suggests a U-shaped relationship between age and happiness, when controlling for income and other personal characteristics. However, it is not ageing as such which results in declining happiness, but rather the circumstances associated with ageing.

Prevention in the area of sexual and reproductive health is mainly directed towards youth to provide them in time with the appropriate knowledge and behaviour patterns to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted parenthood.

In a European comparison Austria shows above-average levels of both taxation and social expenditures. The analyses carried out show the results in terms of redistribution, which reaches a sizeable dimension.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2007 and 2008.

The policy brief analyses the level of poverty among migrants in 14 European countries. Migrants from outside the European Union are occasionally exposed to a multiple times higher risk of poverty than the "indigenous" population.

This policy brief reports on our research for EU member countries on the transmission of advantages and disadvantages between generations.

The book is an outcome of the project Mainstreaming Ageing: Indicators to Monitor Implementation (MA:IMI) of MIPAA and RIS for the first review and appraisal cycle of the United Nations Regional Commission for Europe (UNECE).

This Policy Brief discusses various pension policy changes that will be beneficial for women, and finds that the most effective policy action to tackle poverty risks amongst older women is through targetted active labour market policies for women.

We examined the per capita consumption of selected illegal substances – heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis – as well as the expenses for drug consumption on the consumer side in six European cities.

The Policy Brief reports differences in the participation of the elderly in the labour markets of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The evolution of elderly employment and the choice of measures have been different after the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

In diesem Policy Brief wird gefragt, ob Eltern heutzutage genügend Zeit für ihre Kinder im Pflichtschulalter haben, u.a. um sie bei schulischen Tätigkeiten zu unterstützen, und welchen Einfluss generell familiale Faktoren auf den Schulerfolg haben.

Do today’s parents have enough time for their children and/or provide sufficient support for their children’s achievements in school? We focus on the time spent by parents with their children and the links between family factors and school achievements.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2006 and 2007.

This policy brief analyses poverty risks faced by the current populations of elderly people in the latest year (ie. around 2003).

I-CUE feasibility studies explore the feasibility of introducing EUROMOD in the New Member States, and thus provide the basis for enlarging the current EUROMOD which covers the 15 member states pre May 2004.

The analyses point to key policy responses necessary to meet the social objectives of sustainability as well as adequacy of pensions in the European Union.

This analysis was part of the 'Evaluation study on the effects of the implementation of the Children's Rights Amendment Act 2001, with particular reference to joint custody after divorce' (commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice).

This policy brief draws upon the empirical evidence from the EU Labour Force Survey, by analysing differences and similarities across the EU25 with respect to the labour force participation among older workers.

This book shows how reforming governments in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been able to prevent massive waves of strikes and protests by the strategic use of welfare state programs such as pensions and unemployment benefits.

Provides an overview of research activities and publications in 2005 and 2006.

The book emerged from a project on integrated health and social care for older persons. After a first book in March 2004, this volume draws on the second project phase that consisted in empirical fieldwork and a cross-national analysis of model ways of working.

In combating social exclusion, the European Commission launched a Peer Review Programme to promote the identification and exchange of good practices in the field of social inclusion policies throughout the European Union.

This publication is a training manual for those who work with older people - It contains a comprehensive training programme with detailed descriptions of all the activities and supporting group materials.

The study examines how alternative measures of poverty in an enlarged Europe could take into account both income and non-income aspects and the extent to which comparative measures of consistent poverty reflect country-specific versus European-wide thresholds.

This book is the outcome of an international conference on ‘Transforming Disability into Ability’. The conference addressed key challenges in disability policy and discussed OECD policy recommendations.

The book provides an overview on European approaches towards integrated social and health care services and policies; furthermore, it provides indicators for successful approaches and models of good practice to overcome the "social-health-divide".

Der vorliegende Bericht liefert eine systematische Analyse des breiten Spektrums an Arbeitsmarktmaßnahmen und Programmen zur sozialen Sicherung für Menschen mit Behinderungen.

Les contextes fluctuants de la protection sociale et du développement humain. Mise en oeuvre de politiques sociales. Priorités et recommandations

This guide records the results of a project which aimed to share good practice in providing learning opportunities for older people between organisations in Austria, Hungary, Ireland and the UK.

Since 2001, all EU Member States developed bi-annual National Action Plans for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (NAPincl). The EU indicators in the field of poverty and social exclusion monitor the achievements of these National Action Plans.

The longer-term sustainability of social insurance systems has become a major issue in all European countries. The debate is generally dominated by a focus on the rising costs of old-age pensions, driven by rapidly changing population age structures.

The report provides a pictographic portrait of an OECD report: share of the population disabled; numbers of people with disability benefits; trends over time; men and women affected by work incapacity; expenditures; employment exclusion, etc.

The impact of Supported Employment depends on functioning partnerships between the stakeholders in this process. Defining relevant quality criteria in Supported Employment from the point of view of the different stakeholders was the main target.

The paper was written as national (Austrian) information concerning suspensions of unemployment benefit payment for the study "Analytical and statistical tools for monitoring EU tax-benefits systems".

This publication documents the proceedings of an International Expert Meeting on Policies and Services for Children: Who are children at risk?; orientations for policies and services for children at risk; models of good practice in policies and services for children at risk.

In reconciling family and working life, time as a resource is precious. Hence, working time regulations for all employees and those for working parents in particular impact on families' discretion with respect to time.

This report provides an extensive analysis of income and consistent poverty in Austria in the late 1990s. Although citizens in Austria are less in danger of poverty than their counterparts in most other European and OECD countries, poverty is by no means marginal.

This publication analyses the main features of institutional settings towards the drug problem. The social perspective is considered essential for the development of effective drug policies and demand reduction strategies.

Pension systems are very much about provision of income security in old age. Therefore, there will be a continuous need to monitor these systems in terms of fulfilling their most important function, i.e. how they provide for a satisfactory standard of living of the elderly population.

The volume presents contributions to a conference of the same title: the situation of irregularly resident migrants in receiving countries; the consequences of irregular migration for the host countries; how to deal with irregular migration politically. 

Neben Diskriminierungsbereitschaft und ihrer Hinnahme bestehen Stereotypen über die Juden selbst ohne feindselige Vorurteile, verselbständigen sich symbolisch und wirken über Zerstörung der Umgangssprache und entsprechende Mystifikationen fort.

How to generate sufficient employment to overcome mass unemployment? ‘Innovative Employment Initiatives’ were the focus of an international expert meeting that was asked to develop suggestions “to promote the goal of full employment”.

How does volunteering contribute to the prevention and combating of social exclusion: Volunteering strengthens individuals and enables them to grow; volunteering means, doing something worthwhile and enjoyable, while strengthening networks and self-confidence.