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The 2022 edition of the joint ETUI-OSE 'Bilan social' is out now .

A health crisis, an economic and financial crisis and a climate crisis are unfolding in parallel, while full-scale war is back in Europe. And yet, important progress has been made inter alia on minimum wages, occupational health and safety, the working conditions of people working through platforms, and gender equality. Furthermore, social investment and a ‘just’ green transition have (somehow) been promoted under the umbrella of the EU’s recovery. A European health space is in the making, and the idea of an EU Social Imbalances Procedure is on the table. Could the EUs ‘open strategic autonomy’ paradigm provide a window of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambitions?

This OSE Research paper (in French) offers a joint analysis of two legislative proposals - Belgian on the one hand and European on the other - aimed at clarifying the employment status and social protection of platform workers. After setting out the legal and social context of platform work in Belgium, the analysis of Emma Raucent identifies the potential limitations and incompatibilities between the two proposals.

EU policy debates on platform work have centred on employment status and algorithmic control. In contrast, our emerging findings (GIGWELL project) offer important insights into the relationship of platform work to wider labour market insecurity, the financial burden placed on gig workers as well as the social protection exclusions workers face.

This OSE Opinion paper discusses the limitations of the proposed EU Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work and considers how the emerging research evidence could be used to improve the proposed EU legislation.

This OSE Opinion Paper argues that the EU social toolbox should be significantly strengthened, including by setting-up a ‘Social Imbalances Procedure’ (SIP). The paper reconstructs the key steps and main issues in the debate on a possible SIP that took place at the institutional level between spring 2021 and autumn 2022. The SIP has a fair chance of being adopted, but its scope is undecided until this date. The authors call on EU and national institutional and societal actors committed to strengthening ‘Social Europe’ to take a stance and act in support of an ambitious – as opposed to watered-down – future SIP. A window of opportunity is currently open, and this is the moment to act.

A new European Social Policy Network (ESPN) report on governance of social spending explores national monitoring frameworks for social spending and review processes of spending outcomes, and their effectiveness, in 35 European countries. Monitoring of social outcomes of public spending, such as poverty, inequality reduction or income redistribution, appears to be quite uncommon, and reviews of its effectiveness (i.e. linking social spending to social outcomes) are even rarer.