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

EU PolicyWatch

Database of national-level policy measures

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.

Overview

The EU PolicyWatch database currently contains 2,707 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 April 2024. 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:

  • COVID-19: 1709 policy measures
  • War in Ukraine: 523 policy measures
  • Green Transition: 340 policy measures
  • Digital Transformation: 101 policy measures
  • Restructuring Support Instruments: 318 policy measures
  • European Semester: 84 policy measures
  • Extreme Weather Events: 63 policy measures
  • Cost of Living Crisis: 197 policy measures
Dashboard

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 heat pumps

The various regional authorities provide forms of support for those investing in an existing house, flat, apartment building or non-residential building (e.g. a commercial or office building). In Flan...

Belgium | 26 April 2024

Grants to speed up the municipalities' climate work

The Ministry of the Environment's "Municipal Climate Solutions" program has granted funds to 16 local and regional climate projects to speed up Finland's climate work. The measure aims at bringing F...

Finland | 26 April 2024

Recruitment of health professionals for people fleeing the war in Ukraine

In order to prepare for the reception of refugees from Ukraine, various emergency accommodation structures have been opened and medical services have been activated. These emergency medical services p...

Luxembourg | 26 April 2024

Involvement of social partners in legislation

Eurofound identified 1790 pieces of legislation and other statutory regulations, 1041 of which were entirely new. This section gives an overview of social partner' involvement in designing and implementing these measures.

Role of employers' organisations in designing the measure

  • In 791 measures, employers' organisations were involved:
  • In 438 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 561 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 730 measures, trade unions were involved:
  • In 483 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 577 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 307 measures, social partners were involved:
  • In the remaining 1483 measures, there was no involvement or the involvement is unknown.

Collective agreements

The EU PolicyWatch database contains 149 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.

Contents

35 agreements additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

Social partner initiatives

The EU PolicyWatch database contains 98 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 EU PolicyWatch database contains 157 company practices. Most of them were identified in Bulgaria and the most commonly found provisions relate to health and safety, work organisation, and telework.

Contents

46 company practices additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

Due to the revision process, some cases might temporarily be unavailable.

Information on topical updates

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.

Eurofound publications based on EU PolicyWatch

30 January 2023

 

Measures to lessen the impact of the inflation and energy crisis on citizens

Governments across the EU continue to implement policies to support citizens and businesses in the face of rising food and energy prices caused by the COVID-19 crisis and intensified by the war in Ukraine. This article summarises the policy responses as reported in Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch database from January to September 2022.

Article

12 September 2022

 

First responses to cushion the impact of inflation on citizens

Although the worldwide pandemic situation had already disrupted supply chains and triggered increases in energy and food prices in 2021, the situation deteriorated in 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Article

12 September 2022

 

Policies to support EU companies affected by the war in Ukraine

This article summarises the first policy responses that governments across the EU have started to implement to support companies affected by the rising prices, and those with commercial ties to Ukraine, Russia or Belarus.

Article

5 July 2022

 

Policies to support refugees from Ukraine

This article summarises the first policy responses of EU Member States, including those of the social partners and other civil society actors, enabling refugees to exercise their rights under the Temporary Protection Directive.

Article

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