Bart Vanhercke

• PhD, University of Amsterdam
• Research Director at European Trade Union Institute

This contribution analyses how EU social objectives and policy co-ordination have been integrated into the Union’s post-crisis governance architecture. It argues that between 2011 and 2016, there was a partial but progressive ‘socialization’ of the ‘European Semester’ of policy co-ordination, in terms of increasing emphasis on social objectives in...

The process of European integration has irreversibly altered the configuration of national welfare states. In spite of formidable institutional and political hurdles, incremental European social regulation led to the development of a genuine EU social policy. This PhD is mainly concerned with one particular ‘soft’ EU social policy instrument: the O...

When Paul McCartney wrote his hit ‘The long and winding road’ in 1969, he obviously had other thoughts than European social policy in mind. But the metaphor is an appropriate description of the development of European social policy over the last twenty years, the subject of this 20th-anniversary edition of Social policy in the European Union: state...

How and why did the European Semester end up as the main institutional vehicle of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)? To what extent did this new set-up change the power balance among key actors (for example, financial and economic actors versus social affairs actors)? Drawing on historical institutionalism and based on 28 semi-structured i...

In view of the formidable challenges ahead related to recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and to the green and digital transitions, the EU social governance toolbox should urgently be strengthened. This paper discusses the conditions for and added value of setting up an EU Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP), which would be a significant step in this d...

This chapter is structured as follows. Section 1 summarises the initiatives topping the EU agenda which have been analysed in-depth in the 'Bilan social 2022' edited volume. Section 2 completes the picture of the EU’s social policy agenda during 2021 and the first half of 2022 (the period covered by the book), discussing some of the more recent ini...

At the beginning of 2022, hopes were high that the Covid-19 pandemic was on the ebb and that the EU would be able to focus again on the main challenge of this century: how to proactively tackle the green and digital transition in a socially fair and inclusive way. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine dashed these hopes. Realpolitik was back on the a...

This chapter first discusses how the OMC has featured in three strands of the academic debate, pointing to the key dilemmas which this method is facing. It then goes on to describe the OMC as a flexible and constantly metamorphosing policy instrument, and discusses key contemporary challenges for the OMC: its (procedural and substantive) impact, th...

Confronted with formidable challenges such as the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, climate change and the green and digital transitions (to mention just a few), the European Union (EU) needs to show unprecedented ambition. It appears crucial for future initiatives to ensure social fairness and social cohesi...

The European Union is fighting on two main fronts, Covid-19 and climate change. With this background, this year’s Bilan social analyse the impact of the pandemic on various socio-economic groups and economic sectors, the threat of climate change and the European Green Deal and new initiatives bringing answers to these questions and providing furthe...

This chapter asks to what extent the new Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has changed the balance of power among key players. Though the starting point was promising – the RRF Regulation provides for enhanced stakeholder consultation – the authors find that social player involvement in the RRF has proved highly problematic, driven by the rati...

This concluding chapter of 'Social policy in the EU 2021: state of play' summarises the key findings of the chapters and provides an update on recent social policy initiatives wherever relevant (up to December 2021), as well as a forward-looking perspective. As a result of the pandemic – and in contrast to the EU’s sweeping recovery plan – ‘social...

This report examines how and why the Semester became part of the governance of the RRF. We also ask to what extent this new set-up has changed the power balance among key EU actors (for example, financial and economic actors versus institutional social affairs actors)? Drawing on extensive document analysis and 32 semi-structured elite interviews,...

The spread of the Covid‑19 pandemic and the consequent adoption of lockdown measures to prevent further infection had severe consequences on European labour markets. All EU governments quickly made unprecedented economic and social support available to tackle the consequences of the pandemic (Baptista et al. 2021; European Commission 2021). At the...

Ce cahier vise à cartographier les principales mesures de protection sociale prises pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, en se concentrant sur les travailleurs atypiques et les indépendants. Ce contexte imprévisible a placé la protection sociale en pleine lumière, en rappelant aux décideurs politiques et aux citoyens le rôle essentiel d'une protection...

This report assesses the socio-ecological dimension of the EU’s recovery strategy from the Covid-19 crisis, and identifies elements of continuity and change compared to the pre-pandemic EU growth strategy. Several possible social challenges related to the green transition are acknowledged in the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). To addre...

The book is the Europe volume in an international series on income, wealth, consumption, well-being, and inequality. It focuses on the European Union (EU) and its member countries and other European countries that are in close association with it. The book provides an overview of economic and social trends in the countries and in country groupings....

The purpose of this study is to map the measures related to unemployment benefits, sick pay and sickness benefits, and special leave arrangements introduced by the EU Member States during the Covid-19 pandemic. The specific focus is on non-standard workers and the self-employed, as well as on the gender dimension. This report shows that a variety o...

The chapter analyses the main issues related to inequalities in access and affordability of long-term care (LTC) provision in the European Union (EU). It discusses the core challenge of access to LTC for the elderly to residential and home care services and the different models of institutionalization/deinstitutionalization. It also focuses on how...

Sweeping across Asia like the hordes of Genghis Khan, the Covid-19 virus struck Europe in the early weeks of 2020. With the pandemic tightening its grip on populations across the continent, wide-ranging restrictions were implemented by Member State governments, albeit initially with little coordination from Brussels. With this as background for thi...

This concluding chapter provides a synthesis of the analyses presented in the edited volume, updating them wherever relevant (until November 2020) and situating the key findings in the wider debates on the EU social dimension. The chapter is structured as follows. Section 1 describes the urgent policymaking to combat Covid‑19, discussing the econom...

This Policy Brief adresses the following key points: 1. Income compensation during sickness varies greatly between Member States and over the past two decades has been the subject of important reforms, mostly aiming at enhancing the financial sustainability of these schemes. 2. The overall reform trend has been towards shortening the duration of be...

This chapter describes the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) as a flexible and constantly metamorphosing policy instrument. The author distinguishes six stages (or ‘lives’) in the development of the OMC on Social Protection and Social Inclusion (Social OMC): a) experimenting: the proliferation of OMCs after the method was coined by the Lisbon Europ...

This concluding chapter of 'Social policy in the European Union 1999-2019: the long and winding road' provides an analytical chronology of the main developments of the EU’s social dimension over the past twenty years and summarises the key messages put across by the authors of the book’s chapters regarding key EU social policy areas. The chapter al...

De meeste Europese gezondheidssystemen bieden een ruim pakket aan gezondheidszorgen aan vrijwel hun hele bevolking. Dat neemt niet weg dat het voor mensen met een laag inkomen en kwetsbare groepen in nagenoeg alle landen moeilijker is om toegang tot gezondheidszorg te krijgen. Tegelijkertijd hebben kwetsbare en gemarginaliseerde groepen in de samen...

Most European health systems provide nearly universal population coverage for a wide range of benefits. Notwithstanding this, people on a low income and vulnerable groups, in nearly all countries, have more difficulties obtaining access to care. At the same time, vulnerable and marginalised groups in societies tend to have more health problems and...

This chapter analyses the intense reforms which have taken place in the European Union after the Great Recession (2014–2019) by looking at how Member States addressed the adequacy side of pensions schemes. It also assesses the discourse at EU level regarding pensions for the period 2011–2019, demonstrating an incremental but visible evolution towar...

The Italian case study about public sector trade union involvement in the Europen Semester finds: (a) an increasing awareness of the Semester outcomes and procedures by Italian Trade Unions. Nonetheless, despite this new attitude towards the semester, seen now as a ‘window of opportunity’ and despite the inclusion of public sector, edu-cation and j...

The final report of the Commission-funded EFISTU project provides an in-depth analysis of the two cycles of the European Semester from 2017 to 2019 – drawing on five case studies and desk research. It clearly shows how education and health care in particular but public services more broadly feature as central themes. This therefore poses a major ch...

Given the mounting importance of self-employment on the political and policy agenda on a national and EU level, this article sheds light on the under- researched area of social protection for these workers. It focuses on their statutory access to social protection schemes in 35 European countries. We classify social protection systems into three ca...

This technical report (a) analyses IWP developments since 2012 and identifies key challenges regarding IWP ; (b) describes and assesses the most important policies that have had an impact — directly and indirectly, both positively and negatively — on the levels of IWP during the period considered ; (c) describes the policy debates, proposals and pl...

This study on behalf of the Workers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee explores the possibility of establishing three policy instruments to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and rebalance the economic and social dimensions of the E(M)U. First, Member States should put their money where their mouth is and live...

Full book available at: https://www.etui.org/Publications2/Books/Social-policy-in-the-European-Union-state-of-play-2018

A dominant theme of this annual review of social policy in the European Union is the way in which the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) has slowly but steadily started to influence EU policymaking, well before it was politically endorsed in November 2017. The Pillar’s new ‘rights-based social investment approach’ is at present leaving its mar...

This report explores inequalities in access to healthcare in 35 European countries. It shows that important inequalities persist, both between and within countries. Large shares of the EU population, in particular vulnerable groups, face multiple hurdles and do not obtain the care they need.

Accounting for 1-4% of a country’s workforce, legally recognised workers in arduous and hazardous jobs (WAHJ) represent a small yet highly visible category of workers in pension debates across the EU. — Over the past two decades European countries have been tightening pension provisions for WAHJ, mainly driven by concerns about the financial sustai...

This Synthesis Report produced by the core team of the European Social Policy Network (ESPN) describes the national long-term care provisions in 35 European countries, with a focus on long-term care arrangements for the elderly (65 or over). It analyses the four main challenges which are common to all European countries: the access and adequacy of...

This study on behalf of the Workers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee aims to analyse early initiatives launched in the context of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and to provide the EESC with concrete policy recommendations to ensure its effective implementation. Four key findings stand out. First, the Pillar has, wit...

This new edited volume on occupational welfare in Europe is based on research projects coordinated by the European Social Observatory (OSE) It focuses on recent developments in the field of pensions and unemployment-related schemes in nine countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The book addr...

This chapter draws conclusions about Occupational Welfare (OW) in Europe, discussing its main traits and describing how it has evolved in selected countries since the 1990s and especially in more recent years. In line with the research questions put forward in the introductory chapter, we first look at the role of OW in the nine countries under scr...

La 18e édition du Bilan social de l'Union européenne fait état des politiques sociales menées aux niveaux européen et national. L'ouvrage présente les contributions d'éminents universitaires qui analysent les tentatives pour sortir des multiples crises ayant frappé l'UE depuis 2008. Les énormes défis auxquels l'UE a été confrontée en 2016 ont mis s...

Le chapitre est organisé comme suit. La section 1 décrit brièvement les principaux traits de la « première ébauche de socle européen des droits sociaux » publiée par la Commission en mars 2016. La section 2 dépeint les positions et préoccupations – à la fois sur les questions de fond et de gouvernance – des principaux acteurs européens concernant c...

Tenant compte des chapitres de ce "Bilan social de l'Union européenne 2017", nous examinons d’abord les principaux événements de « politique générale » qui ont marqué l’UE en 2016, notamment le Brexit et la crise des réfugiés. Nous réfléchissons aux implications de ces événements en termes d’intégration, de désintégration et/ou d’intégration différ...

In the context of macroeconomic surveillance, the European Union(EU) increasingly addresses national health system reform. Member States receiving financial assistance are required to implement detailed reforms stipulated in 'Memorandums of Understanding' (MoUs). But the health systems in other (non-MoU) countries are also scrutinised in the contex...

La 17ème édition du Bilan social – publié par l’OSE et l’Institut syndical européen (ETUI) – comprend des contributions d’experts qui rendent compte des évolutions récentes en terme de politique sociale aux niveaux européen et national. Dans un contexte où le projet européen ne peut plus être considéré comme irréversible, cette publication propose...

Structural and crisis-driven economic and labour market transformations have led to a hybridisation of labour market statuses as well as to an increase in non-standard work and new forms of self-employment in Europe — be it with great variations between countries, sectors, age groups and gender. In this context, European social protection systems a...

This article investigates how “social innovation” made its way onto the European Union (EU) agenda and how this notion has been creatively used to advance distinct policy goals. It does so by analysing the resources the EU provided to promote social innovation over the period 2006–2014. Three main conclusions arise. First, between 2006 and 2010 the...

This Social Protection Committee background report on sick leave and sick pay/sickness benefit schemes in the EU sheds light on the huge variations in the way Member States address absence from work due to sickness. All EU countries provide sick leave and sickness benefits. However, sick pay and benefits schemes vary widely regarding their eligibil...

The 17th edition of ‘Social Policy in the European Union: State of Play’ reports on recent EU and national social policymaking, with contributions from leading scholars pointing to a ‘crisis’, the best term to characterize the EU’s present state of affairs. Tension in the EU has reached an unprecedented level: the migration crises have shown the EU...

This chapter presents an overview and evaluation of this EU initiative for combating LTU in 2015. Section 1 presents the main trends in longterm unemployment, which has generally increased faster than unemployment in Europe during the financial and economic crises. The Member States have tried to fight this phenomenon by using very diverse policies...

Dans ce chapitre, nous présentons une vue d’ensemble et une évaluation de cette initiative européenne pour lutter contre le CLD en 2015. La première section présente les tendances principales en matière de chômage de longue durée, qui a de manière générale augmenté plus rapidement que le chômage global en Europe au cours des crises financière et éc...

This Synthesis Report focuses on retirement regimes for workers in arduous and hazardous jobs (WAHJ) in 35 European countries and is based on the country reports prepared by the national independent experts of the European Social Policy Network (ESPN). In addition to providing an overview of the end-of-career policy measures as well as assessing...

This report focuses on the retirement regimes for workers in arduous and hazardous jobs (WAHJ), which are defined as “Occupations involving the exposure of the worker over a period of time to one or several factors leading to professional situations susceptible to leave long-lasting and irreversible effects on his/her health". The Synthesis Report...

This Synthesis Report is concerned with some of the key questions that arise regarding (a) the work-life balance of working-age people – mainly women – who care for disabled and chronically ill dependent relatives, (b) reconciling work and care obligations and (c) maintaining the well-being of the carers and their families. The analysis focuses on...

In dit nummer schetsen we de oorsprong van het sociale investeringsdiscours. We beginnen bij het Europese beleid. In de volgende nummers zoomen we in op Vlaanderen, en zullen respectievelijk de vóór- en vroegschoolse educatie, het onderwijs, jeugdgaranties, huisvesting en ‘actief ouder worden’ de revue passeren.

La Commission européenne a récemment publié un rapport sur l’investissement social en Europe, élaboré par le Réseau européen de politique sociale (ESPN). La conclusion principale du rapport, guère surprenante vu le contexte économique actuel, est que la plupart des États membres ont désinvesti plutôt qu’investi dans le social au cours des dernières...

How has labour been transformed in the former “Workers’ States” in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) over the past quarter of a century? The volume edited by Violaine Delteil and Vasil Kirov provides dense empirical evidence and proposes multiple theoretical frameworks to explain a complex phenomenon. One of the main achievements of th...

How has labour been transformed in the former “Workers’ States” in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) over the past quarter of a century? The volume edited by Violaine Delteil and Vasil Kirov provides dense empirical evidence and proposes multiple theoretical frameworks to explain a complex phenomenon. One of the main achievements of th...

In a climate of growing disenchantment with immigration and free movement in the EU, this collection of policy papers addresses the themes of inclusion and exclusion in the EU. A number of experts explore legal and political aspects of physical and social exclusion of vulnerable groups in the EU. The collection deals with a variety of topics includ...

This Report produced for the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union focuses on the social dimension of the European Semester. It reviews developments in the 2015 European Semester and provides recommendations about ways of further strengthening its social dimension, including as regards broader social stakeholder participation....

La 16ème édition de l’état des lieux de la politique sociale dans l'Union européenne a une triple ambition. Tout d'abord, cet ouvrage fournit des informations facilement accessibles à un large public sur les développements récents de la prise de décision des politiques sociales européennes et nationales. En deuxième lieu, il offre une lecture plus...

The sixteenth edition of 'Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the m...

The introduction is organised as follows: section one presents the key facets of the EU’s current situation. Sections two and three provide a critical review of the state of the EU and its social dimension, which give two opposite but still complementary visions of the EU. Section four outlines the main themes in the book and stresses that, beyond...

Based on extensive analysis of EU documents as well as a series of interviews with high-level policymakers, we argue that since 2011, there has been a partial but progressive ‘socialisation’ of the content and procedures of the European Semester. We define this progressive socialisation in terms of an increasing emphasis on social objectives in the...

En nous fondant sur une analyse approfondie de la littérature produite par l'UE ainsi que sur une série d'entretiens avec des décideurs de haut niveau, nous défendons l’idée que, depuis 2011, s’est produite une « socialisation » partielle mais progressive du contenu et des procédures du Semestre européen. Nous définissons cette socialisation progre...

La présente introduction est organisée comme suit : la première section présente les principales facettes de la situation actuelle de l'UE. Nous évoquerons les événements qui ont marqué l'UE au cours des derniers mois de 2014 : le Parlement européen et sa forte composante eurosceptique ; la nouvelle stratégie poursuivie par la Commission Juncker en...

This Sythesis report is meant to assist the European Commission in the implementation of the February 2013 'Social Investment Package' SIP and informing its monitoring, in particular in the context of the European Semester and the Social Open Method of Coordination (OMC). The report builds on national contributions from the 35 ESPN country teams...

This Synthesis Report brings together the findings of the national reports written by each of the 35 ESPN country teams of independent expert. In their reports, ESPN experts were asked to answer three key questions: (a) To what extent are the benefits and services supporting the long- term unemployed effective, and where are the key gaps in achievi...

Upon request by the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament, this study looks into the impact of the economic crisis and the austerity measures which were introduced as a response thereto, to the enjoyment of a set of selected fundamental rights by individuals in Belgium. It also contains recommendations on how to make sure that the enjoyment of...

The unwelcome truth that 'social Europe’ has been slipping down the EU’s policy agenda last year impelled Friends of Europe to convene a high-level yet heterogeneous group of experts to analyse the facts and propose solutions. This report sets out to assess the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the social policies that have been fundamental...