European Foundation
for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist
in the development of better social, employment and
work-related policies
European Foundation
for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist
in the development of better social, employment and
work-related policies
Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
The EU PolicyWatch database currently contains 2,897 measures introduced by governments and social partners to cushion the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens. The data collection started in 2020 and was last updated in January 2026. More information is available on the Eurofound website:
Use the side navigation to find measures by country, type of measure, category, or target group. Use the dashboard to search and filter policy measures on the following topics by more than 15 attributes:
The database indicates for each measure to which target groups it applies, broadly differentiating between workers, businesses and citizens.
The database contains 42 specific target groups, including for example:
Permanent short-time work scheme during economic difficulties or natural disasters
In January 2023, the Ministry of Labour published an communication (analysis) regarding a potentially permanent short-time work scheme. The analysis was part of the work on structural reforms in the c...
Slovenia | 20 January 2026
Aid for post-flood economic reconstruction
Heavy rains between 4 and 6 August 2023 caused devastating floods that claimed several lives, destroyed homes, and swept away roads and infrastructure. Floods and landslides made many sites unreachabl...
Slovenia | 20 January 2026
National Early Warning and Alert System
The purpose of the National Early Warning and Alert System is to disseminate timely and meaningful information, enabling people, communities and organisations at risk to prepare and act appropriately ...
Bulgaria | 19 January 2026
Eurofound identified 1866 pieces of legislation and other statutory regulations, 1080 of which were entirely new. This section gives an overview of social partner' involvement in designing and implementing these measures.
Increased employer responsibility for the residence permit applications
The parliament of Finland passed amendments to the Aliens Act 301/2004 (Ulkomaalaislaki) chapter 5 to ease the residence permit process of work-based migrants and increase the responsibility of employ...
Finland | 25 April 2025
Grand-ducal regulation of may 12, 2022
According to the Union des Entreprises Luxembourgeoises, Luxembourg will need almost 300,000 new workers by 2030, particularly in the construction, industry, IT, accounting and trade sectors. In this ...
Luxembourg | 25 April 2025
Tourism and Hospitality Skills Pass
Over the last few years, Malta has seen one of the most rapid uptakes of foreign labour in Europe. This has led to criticisms by customers of the tourism and hospitality sector that workers are often ...
Malta | 25 April 2025
The EU PolicyWatch database contains 173 collective agreements. Most of them were identified in France and the most commonly found provisions relate to employment retention, income protection, and health and safety.
45 agreements additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.
Rural industries and in particular wild-berry picking is a sector in Finland where outsourcing and sub-contracting is used to avoid employer obligations that come with an employment contract. In Finl...
Finland | 22 April 2025
Expansion of the Integration Basic Education (IGU) scheme in Denmark
In September 2023, the Danish government and the social partners signed a tripartite agreement to extend and expand the Integration Basic Education (IGU) scheme until the end of 2027. Introduced in 20...
Denmark | 07 April 2025
Just Transition Action Plan (Further) education and training
Austria has set the goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. Thus, the transformation required in order to achieve that goal has a large impact on the labour market. New skills and qualifications, ...
Austria | 08 January 2025
The EU PolicyWatch database contains 121 social partner initiatives. Most of them were identified in Germany and belong to the category Promoting the economic, labour market and social recovery into a green future.
The post-pandemic period has highlighted the contradictions in the Greek labor market, particularly the difficulty in matching supply and demand for jobs. The restrictive measures on migration and int...
Greece | 31 March 2025
Investment support state aid scheme for the purchase of zero emission road transport vehicles
The state aid scheme targets investments for the purchase of zero-emission vehicles for road transport and the modernization of vehicles used in rail, maritime and inland waterway transport to reduce ...
Romania | 10 February 2025
Union Federation Climate office
The climate crisis and its impact on working lives and living environments has been steadily playing a bigger role within the last years, also for the union movement. Large transformations are and wil...
Austria | 09 January 2025
The EU PolicyWatch database contains 172 company practices. Most of them were identified in Bulgaria and the most commonly found provisions relate to health and safety, work organisation, and telework.
57 company practices additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.
State co-funded hydrogen production
Hydrogen is considered the ‘fuel of the future’ in the EU and is important for ensuring energy independence. The largest Croatian company, INA, has been granted public financial support to produce hyd...
Croatia | 17 March 2025
The bicycle is increasingly used as a daily part of public transport in Croatian towns. Following market research, a need for the possibility of transporting bicycles on trains was confirmed. Thus, Cr...
Croatia | 05 March 2025
Zero Impact Factory Strategy (Volkswagen Slovakia)
Volkswagen Slovakia places special emphasis on the environment and its protection. All efforts are directed towards the production of cars and company operations without impact on the environment, or...
Slovakia | 10 January 2025
Due to the revision process, some cases might temporarily be unavailable.
The database is updated regularly throughout the year with input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents. This document provides information on the topical updates of the EU PolicyWatch database.
All publications are available on the EU PolicyWatch landing page.
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process.