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

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch

Database of national-level responses

Eurofound's COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.

Overview

COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch currently contains 1400 measures introduced by governments and social partners to cushion the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens.

Use the side navigation to find measures by country, type of measure, category, or target group.

Categories

Target groups

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:

Recently updated measures

Financial support for suspended and dismissed employees

By virtue of 16073/287/2020 and 18657/370/15.5.2020, an exceptional financial support of €800 is provided, among others, to specific employees' categories (e.g. actors, singers), tourism and food indu...

Greece | 29 September 2021

Temporarily strengthened housing allowance for families with children

In Sweden, housing allowance for families is available for families that have low income and that have children under the age of 18 living at the same household. The amount of support depends on thei...

Sweden | 28 September 2021

Business cost support

In May 2020, the Government decided to introduce a new form of financial support for companies that had experienced a significant decrease in turnover due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This form of suppor...

Finland | 28 September 2021

Involvement of social partners in legislation

Eurofound identified 897 legislations and other statutory regulations, 546 of which have been created entirely new in the context of COVID-19. This section gives an overview of social partner's involvement in designing and implementing these measures.

Role of employers' organisations in designing the measure

  • In 495 measures, employers' organisations were involved:
  • In 237 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 165 remaining measures the involvement is unknown, or they were considered as being out of the social partner's domain.

Role of trade unions in designing the measure

  • In 459 measures, trade unions were involved:
  • In 251 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 187 remaining measures the involvement is unknown, or they were considered as being out of the social partner's domain.

Implementation, monitoring and assessment phase

  • In 159 measures, social partners were involved:
  • In the remaining 738 measures, there was no involvement or the involvement is unknown.

Collective agreements

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 119 collective agreements. Most of them were identified in France and the most commonly found provisions relate to employment retention, health and safety, and income protection.

Contents

25 agreements additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

Social partner initiatives

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 77 social partner initiatives. Most of them were identified in Germany and belong to the category Protection of workers, adaptation of workplace.

Main themes

Company practices

The COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database contains 141 company practices. Most of them were identified in United Kingdom and the most commonly found provisions relate to health and safety, work organisation, and telework.

Contents

40 company practices additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

    • Enter Air signs loan agreement for €60 million

      Enter Air signed an agreement with the Polish Development Fund (PFR) under which it is to receive a liquidity loan from the Financial Shield 2.0 (for large companies) in the amount of PLN 287 million ...

      Poland | 19 April 2021

      Liquidity loan for Polish Mining Group

      In late March the application of the Polish Mining Group (Polska Grupa Górnicza, PGG) for financial aid under the Financial Shield 2.0 scheme was approved. As a result the company will receive a liqui...

      Poland | 15 April 2021

      Danske Bank gives employees a grant to upgrade their workspace at home

      After the introduction of quarantine in Lithuania (the first quarantine lasted from 16 March to 16 June 2020 and the second quarantine was introduced on 7 November 2020), most companies and organisati...

      Lithuania | 13 April 2021

Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.