Economic crisis

Respect for human rights is a universal value embedded in the European Union Treaties. However, the economic crisis has forced Member States to introduce structural reforms, cutting public expenditure and availability of social benefits, for example in the areas of health and education. In this context, he European Parliament commissioned Milieu Ltd to carry out an assessment of the impact of the crisis on fundamental rights across Member States of the European Union. The study looks at seven Member States: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The OSE was contracted by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) to conduct research, which resulted in a book on “Social developments in the European Union 2013”. The 15th edition of this publication (published in July 2014) featured authors such as Anton Hemerijck (Fault lines and silver linings in Europe’s social market economy), Frank Vandenbroucke, Bart Vanhercke and John Morley (A European Social Union), and Ferdinand Fichtner (Euro area-wide unemployment insurance).