Eco-social policies

Sabato S. and Mandelli M.

Report prepared for the project “Sustainable welfare societies: Assessing linkages between social and environmental policies”, NOVA Norwegian Social Research. Brussels: European Social Observatory, December, 35p.

The European Commission-funded programme for cooperation between the EU and Latin America on social and employment policies ‘EUROsociAL+’ asked the OSE to conduct a study on the socio-ecological dimension of the EU recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. The objective of this research is twofold. First, to identify and discuss relevant initiatives taken at the EU level aimed at linking and making environmental and social objectives compatible in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

The global environmental crisis is tending to create new social inequalities and reinforce existing ones. As this crisis will increasingly put pressure on the very core of the EU’s socioeconomic models, the OSE has been contracted by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) to produce a pilot version of a newsletter on the implementation of the ‘European Green Deal’, and especially the EU’s political commitment to a ‘socially just transition’. The purpose of the Newsletter will be to monitor European policies impacting both the environment and the European social model.

The OSE was awarded a new contract with the Belgian Federal Public Service Social Security with a view to writing the ‘European and International Digest’ for the quarterly Revue Belge de Sécurité Sociale (RBSS/BTSZ). The Digest will continue to provide a regular overview of international developments (EU, OECD, ILO etc.) that have a direct or indirect impact on social protection and social inclusion policies and debates. As of 2019, this Digest includes information on environmental decisions taken by these institutions with a direct impact on public health and welfare.