Convergence and social cohesion
Upward convergence is of utmost importance for the European Union project. For given economic and social indicators, upward convergence means that Member States are on average improving their performance by moving towards a policy target or a societally acceptable direction, while they are reducing the disparities among them. In this way, the lower performing countries are catching up towards the best performing ones, while both are growing.
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From idea to action: Measuring regional conditions for the freedom to stay
This article examines why the 'freedom to stay' should sit at the heart of EU regional policy and how Eurofound's new six-dimension index measures the conditions that enable it, revealing that no region excels across all of them and making the case for tailored, place-based strategies to reduce territorial disparities.Social cohesion and inclusive participation in a polarised Europe
This report investigates the dimensions of polarisation in Europe, offering a 20-year perspective based on data from the European Social Survey. It examines trends and national variations in polarisation on various issues, looking at how European values and attitudes have changed over time.Monitoring geographical disparities: Regional convergence
This report examines the ‘right to stay’ across EU regions, exploring why some communities thrive while others decline. Examining the issue in six critical aspects – access to essential services, labour market opportunities, environmental quality, digital connectivity, housing availability and institutional effectiveness – the research maps the combination of factors that either encourage people to remain or drive them away.Eurofound continues to operate as a centre of expertise for monitoring and analysing the key trends and determinants of achieving upward convergence in living and working conditions and strengthening economic and social cohesion in the EU.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to the economic and social resilience of the EU, highlighting the fragility of any progress in convergence patterns already achieved. The current challenges brought about by the digital and green transitions as well as the demographic crisis and the new geopolitical tensions, renew the concern that upward convergence could slow down and justify the continuation of this monitoring exercise. Focusing on convergence of outcomes and performances of the EU Member States and regions, Eurofound monitors convergence in socioeconomic factors, employment, working conditions and living conditions.
The research provides an important insight into the challenges and prospects in the area of social cohesion and convergence in the EU, helping to ensure its economies and societies are resilient to future shocks. The research aims to assist policy action to support sustainable upward economic and social convergence, to reduce multidimensional inequalities and to develop initiatives to strengthen social cohesion, helping to address the challenges facing the EU, national and regional levels brought about by the crises of recent years.
The Agency reports regularly on trends in upward convergence in the socioeconomic dimension, as well as in the dimensions outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights at Member State and regional levels, while also comparing the EU with other developed countries. The EU convergence monitoring hub gathers the latest information on convergence in a diverse range of social and economic issues, including analysis of indicators drawn from the Eurostat indicators of the Social Scoreboard accompanying the European Pillar of Social Rights as well as Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) and European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) indicators.
During 2025–2028, Eurofound continues to yearly monitor the state of play of upward convergence in Europe with regular publications addressing particular aspects of economic, social or institutional convergence. New research aims to investigate the development of geographical disparities and convergence. New research also puts the focus on the trends in and dynamics of disparities among regions to map the performance of European regions across time along the dimensions of the right to stay. Additionally, it looks at how divergence and low performance affect social capital and institutional trust in different geographical areas of the EU. Research also explores the social implications of the transition to a climate-neutral economy, focusing on sustainable behaviours, distributional effects and social cohesion.
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Convergence monitoring hub
This online resource summarises Eurofound's research on convergence, explains the different dimensions of convergence and provides access to the convergEU app, allowing researchers to perform their own analysis on convergence.convergEU app
The web-based tool 'convergEU' permits the analysis of upward convergence for the full set of indicators part of the Social Scoreboard accompanying the European Pillar of Social Rights as well as for a selected set of Eurofound indicators drawn from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) and the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). In five easy steps, the web-based tool can create a full upward convergence analysis.&w=3840&q=100)
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The EU is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic but is facing strong geopolitical pressures due to a conflict on its doorstep and the crumbling of established alliances and economic relationships. For these reasons, maintaining internal social cohesion and trust is crucial to support the EU project. When there are diverging performances among Member States and inequalities increase within Member States it is a concern for various reasons. First, because it contradicts the expectation that deepening European integration leads to growing cohesion at national and pan-European level. Secondly, because a worsening of disparities may spread the feeling of social injustice and unfairness among citizens, fuelling anti-European sentiment and undermining the European project.
The EU’s cohesion policy and its goals of promoting regional development and convergence could be informed by Eurofound research on geographical disparities and convergence of the EU, whose objectives align with the European Pillar of Social Rights and its aim to act as a compass for upward convergence in the EU.
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
25 April 2024
The political dimension of social cohesion in Europe
This report investigates the political dimensions of social cohesion in Europe, offering a 20-year perspective derived from 10 rounds of the European Social Survey. It scrutinises trends and regional variations in political participation, examining correlations with levels of institutional distrust and discontent. In addition, the report explores political engagement amid the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising insights from the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey. Unemployment emerges as the primary driver of political disengagement, a pivotal finding of the analysis.
Furthermore, the report uncovers significant disparities in political engagement across European regions. Regions with well-educated populations tend to exhibit higher levels of political activity, and economic prosperity and migration rates have only a modest influence on political activity.
The report also highlights the variation in institutional distrust across regions. Nordic countries display markedly lower levels of distrust in their institutions than continental countries, whereas in eastern European and Mediterranean countries levels are markedly higher.
2 August 2023
Green, clean and keen to converge? A convergence analysis of environmental quality of life in the EU
This report explores the dynamics of the environmental performance of the EU Member States and the extent to which the disparities in their performance have narrowed since the early 2000s. The report is a product of cooperation between Eurofound and the European Environment Agency, with the technical expertise in convergence of the former meeting the expertise in European environmental issues of the latter. It focuses on three levels of analysis: headline indicators, residential-level indicators and household-level indicators. In order to explore the multifaceted issue of environmental quality of life in the EU, the report investigates environmental indicators through a convergence analysis. The results suggest that the EU is on the right track to becoming carbon neutral, although the speed of the greening process varies among the Member States. A fast and steady improvement in performance can be seen for most of the indicators. One noteworthy finding is that the economic downturns of the past two decades negatively affected the household-level indicators examined, which focused on energy poverty.
24 January 2023
Economic and social inequalities in Europe in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic had varying impacts on social groups, depending on existing disadvantages, and it was widely believed that it triggered a rise in inequalities across different areas of life. Using indicators from the EU’s Multidimensional Inequality Monitoring Framework (MIMF), this report shows how inequality in the spheres of income, health, employment and education changed between 2010 and 2020. It also examines the main drivers of this change during the pandemic and explores the relationships between government policies in several domains and inequality.
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Eleonora Peruffo
Research officerEleonora Peruffo is a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. She works on topics related to upward convergence and social cohesion in Europe. During 2021–2022, she provided data analysis for the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS). She joined Eurofound in 2014 and has worked on topics related to restructuring, employment and digitalisation. She holds an MA in Diplomatic Sciences and International Relations awarded by the University of Trieste and an MSc in Computer Science - Data Analytics from the National College of Ireland.
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