Europeanising pensions and unemployment insurance

A European mechanism for pensions and unemployment insurance would protect vulnerable economies against asymmetric shocks and give life to the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The debate about the future of the social dimension in Europe offers an opportunity to ground new policy directions and research. The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) sets out, in its chapter III, the principles of social protection and inclusion, in which unemployment benefits and old-age income and pensions figure. Equality, fairness and social justice would be served through higher allocations of resources to such programmes.

In March 2018, the European Commission presented a legislative proposal for a European Labour Authority (ELA) to strengthen the implementation of the EPSR. This represented a step forward for the Turin process launched at the High-level Conference on the European Social Charter in Italy in October 2014. And in June last year, the European Council agreed on a general approach to revising the regulations on co-ordination of social-security systems.

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