Social policies
European social policies aim to promote employment, improve living and working conditions, provide adequate social protection and combat social exclusion. These policies are generally the competence and responsibility of the EU Member States but the European Pillar of Social Rights gives new momentum to initiatives at European level.
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Mapping green behavioural public policy in the EU
This paper maps how far Member States have built capacity to develop and deploy such behaviourally informed policies. It finds substantial disparities across the EU, with a troubling pattern: the countries under the greatest transition pressure are often the least equipped to design the human-centred policies that would ease it.Energy price spike: Europe's policy responses to the cost-of-living crisis
Governments across Europe have responded to surging energy prices with a range of measures to cushion the impact on citizens and businesses. These measures demonstrate a broad consistency of approach among the Member States: in the short term, aiming to ease the immediate impact and in the longer term, seeking to diversify energy sources and reduce energy dependency.Changing for climate change: Why policymakers need to embrace behavioural insights
This article explores why behavioural insights should be integrated into climate change policymaking and how they can contribute to more effective and socially inclusive strategies, as system-wide changes cannot happen without public support and acceptance.Eurofound links its research to the policy priorities formulated by the European institutions and social partners. The Agency’s research findings show how policies are working out in practice, what approaches have been shown to work, and indicate how policies can be made more effective.
The European Pillar of Social Rights, endorsed in November 2017, is built upon 20 key principles, structured around: equal opportunities and access to the labour market; fair working conditions; and social protection and inclusion. On 4 March 2021, the European Commission presented its action plan to fully implement the Pillar, turning the principles into concrete actions to benefit EU citizens, while also supporting the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines three EU-level targets to be achieved by 2030 and that will help to steer national policies and reforms:
At least 78% of the population aged 20 to 64 should be in employment by 2030
At least 60% of all adults should participate in training every year
The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion should be reduced by at least 15 million by 2030, including at least 5 million children
Implementation of the Pillar largely depends on the actions of the Member States, who primarily hold responsibility for employment, skills and social policies. The Commission supports Member States in achieving these targets by providing guidance and coordination of national economic and social policies via the European Semester process, including related country-specific recommendations, in order to strengthen employment and social policies and to invest in social services and social infrastructure.
In the social policy area, in June 2021, the Commission launched a European Platform on Combating Homelessness and in September 2022, presented a new European Care Strategy, including an initiative on long-term care and the revision of the Barcelona targets. The Council subsequently adopted the Commission Recommendation on minimum income in January 2023.
The European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAN), set up by the Commission in 2014, provides independent information, analysis and expertise on social policies. The principles in the Social Pillar provide an extensive basis for development of new initiatives.
European Commission: European Pillar of Social Rights Action Planopens in new tab
European Commission: European Platform on Combatting Homelessnessopens in new tab
European Commission: A European Care Strategy for caregivers and care receiversopens in new tab
European Commission: Council adopts recommendation on adequate minimum incomeopens in new tab
European Commission: European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAN)opens in new tab
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
8 January 2025
50 years supporting better policies for a strong social Europe
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19 December 2023
Intergenerational inequalities: How to close the gaps?
The various economic and social shocks of the past decade and a half – most recently the COVID-19 pandemic – have ongoing consequences for the living standards and prospects of Europeans, and sometimes these outcomes have been uneven across age groups. Social policies – such as those in the areas of social protection and housing – in some cases have benefited certain age groups over others. The upshot both of crises and of policies is that inequalities between the generations have widened in important areas.
This policy brief examines some of the intergenerational social trends that either were persistent or changed considerably over the last decade and a half, sometimes contrary to expectations. It focuses on significant developments that have received somewhat less attention in policy planning in the areas of income, housing, work and employment, and health. The intention is to develop a clearer sense of the direction of social change and bring medium- and long-term perspectives into policy thinking.
22 March 2023
EU convergence: Geographical dimension, impact of COVID-19 and the role of policy
Historically, the political debate around EU convergence has gathered momentum in the aftermath of a crisis. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the purpose of this report is to take stock of the last two decades of convergence trends. The study begins with an empirical investigation of economic, social and institutional convergence over 2004–2019 at both Member State and regional levels. The analysis is then extended to 2020 and 2021 to examine the impact of the pandemic. The study confirms overall upward convergence, driven by the central and eastern European Member States, which the pandemic appears to have slowed but not stopped. The analysis of trends is followed by an assessment of the potential impact of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) on convergence and a discussion of different policy scenarios to support upward convergence, based on the current experience with the RRF and the ongoing debate about the future of EU cohesion policy.
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.
7 September 2022
Access to essential services for people on low incomes: Energy, public transport and digital communications
In collecting information on essential services, the European Commission requested Eurofound to provide input on certain aspects of existing and planned measures in the Member States to improve access to essential services in reference to Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights. For this exercise, the scope was on energy services, public transport, and digital communications, and the focus on people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (in most cases in practice, people on low incomes). This paper provides an overview of the measures in the Member States based mainly on the inputs from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, collected in February–March 2022. The paper reviews the measures across the entire EU by clustering the major types or targets of the measures to make essential services accessible, and by succinctly listing main country-level examples. It provides information for understanding the diversity and similarities of the measures applied and suggests pointers on areas where policy action could be developed.
29 October 2021
Exploring the social challenges of low carbon energy policies in Europe
This briefing is co-produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Eurofound. It is based on the results of two complementary analyses by the EEA and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) on the socioeconomic effects of climate policies, in the context of the European Green Deal and the EU transition to a carbon-neutral economy. The EEA focused on the understanding of distributional aspects of climate change policies, while Eurofound sought to identify, based on national experiences, the climate policies with significant distributional effects and explore how these are being addressed in EU Member States. This briefing focuses on the effect on citizens of climate mitigation policies in the energy, transport and building sectors, through the impacts of these policies on their daily lives (jobs, mobility, housing, etc.).
6 July 2021
Distributional impacts of climate policies in Europe
With the European Green Deal, the EU is setting in motion a set of policies and measures aimed at preventing and alleviating the effects of climate change. The main objective is to embark on the transition to a climate-neutral economy. These much needed climate policies, however, may have undesirable distributional effects on individuals and companies. As well as their intended effects, some measures, such as carbon taxes, can have associated regressive effects, negatively impacting on people with lower income levels, and hence lowering their acceptability. Based on the most recent national experiences, this report identifies those climate policies having significant distributional effects and explores how these are being addressed in the various Member States. In addition, the report identifies and describes the main issues and players in the ongoing public debate on the socioeconomic impacts of climate policies.
30 March 2021
Wealth distribution and social mobility
This report explores the distribution of household wealth in the EU Member States and analyses the role of wealth in social mobility. Using data from three datasets (the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and the Luxembourg Wealth Study), it focuses on wealth per household member. Wealth composition is compared across social groups and countries, and the role of housing assets in wealth distribution and negative wealth is assessed. The findings show that parental background, including parental wealth, has an impact on educational and wealth mobility. In order to promote equality of opportunities in terms of access to education and housing, the impact of wealth inequalities, including differences in parental wealth, should be counterbalanced. The report also suggests that regularising wealth declaration in the EU could be a way of promoting social justice by minimising hidden wealth and combating tax evasion.
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Daniel Molinuevo
Senior research managerDaniel Molinuevo is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit, having joined Eurofound in 2010. His research on health and social care has focused on the quality and accessibility of services, their digital transformation and the working conditions of staff. His work has mainly focused on services for children, both at Eurofound and at UNICEF, where he worked in 2021 supporting the preparation of the European Child Guarantee. He is a member of the Young Ireland Advisory Council and the EU Working Group on early childhood education and care. He was also a member of the EU Working Group that contributed to the review of the European targets for participation in childcare that took place as part of the European Care Strategy. He studied sociology in Salamanca, Spain and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He has an MA in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and an MSc in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics, where he also worked as a researcher.
Massimiliano Mascherini
Head of UnitMassimiliano Mascherini is Head of the Social Policies unit at Eurofound since October 2019. He joined Eurofound in 2009 as a research manager, designing and coordinating projects on youth employment, NEETs and gender equality. In 2017, he became a senior research manager and spearheaded new research on monitoring convergence in the EU. In addition, he led the conceptualisation of the 2026 European Quality of Life Survey. In 2025, he was awarded the Brendan Walsh prize for the best paper published in Economic and Social Review. Previously, he was scientific officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He studied at the University of Florence, where he majored in actuarial and statistical sciences and attained a PhD in Applied Statistics. In 2014, he obtained a scientific qualification as Associate Professor of Social Statistics and Demography from the Italian Ministry of University and Research. He has been visiting fellow at the University of Sydney and at Aalborg University and visiting professor at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
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