- EU Monitoring: Current socio-political developments in Europe
- For a strong social Europe: The European Pillar of Social Rights and its Action Plan
- Combatting child poverty: a European child guarantee
- For a Union of Equality: how the EU addresses structural inequality
- Threat to equality and human rights: the anti-gender movement in Europe
- Equal opportunities and rights for LGBTIQ* people in Europe
EU Monitoring: Current socio-political developments in Europe
In our EU-Monitoring, we provide a regular overview of the activities of the European Union, the Council of Europe and the European civil society organisations in the field of social policy. A special focus is on issues in the fields of child and youth policy, family and reconciliation policy, gender equality policy and policy for older people.Accompanying the EU Monitoring, we publish focus issues in which the European Union's sociopolitical relevant measures and strategies are presented.
If you would like to receive the EU-Monitoring by e-mail, please write us stating your name and organisation: beobachtungsstelle (a) iss-ffm.de
Please note that the EU-Monitoring is only published in German.
For a strong social Europe: The European Pillar of Social Rights and its Action Plan
With the European Pillar of Social Rights proclamation in 2017, the European Union has set guidelines for a strong social Europe that is just and inclusive and offers opportunities for all. With its 20 principles, the European Pillar of Social Rights strengthens the social rights of EU citizens in the three dimensions of equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions, and social protection and inclusion. In order to translate these principles into concrete actions, the European Commission adopted the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan in March 2021. The Action Plan provides three targets by 2030: employment, skills and social protection.In our Newsletter, we present both instruments in detail.
For a Union of Equality: how the EU addresses structural inequality
In November 2019, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen coined the term "Union of Equality" in the political guidelines for her future Commission 2019-2024: Based on an intersectional approach, strategies and measures are introduced to reduce structural discrimination and socially dominant stereotypes. It should be possible for everybody to have the same opportunities and realize the same life aspirations regardless of differences based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity.The Gender Equality Strategy and the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy put this idea into practice. Both strategies apply to the years 2020 to 2025.
Please note that the focus issue is only published in German.
Threat to equality and human rights: the anti-gender movement in Europe
Right-wing populist and anti-feminist movements mobilising against gender equality as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have gained strength across Europe in recent years. This strengthening also brings to light an increasingly transnationally organised and financed independent anti-gender movement that attacks the rights of women and LGBTIQ* persons as well as civil society. This is evident not only at the national (and local) but also at the European level, where alliances are organising transnationally in attempting to undermine the foundations of the European Union and to reverse already existing consensus on the European level.
The Newsletter 2/2021 of the Observatory provides an introduction to the emergence, main lines of argumentation, and actors of the transnational anti-gender movement in Europe. To do so, the Newsletter takes a look at the specific case of the Istanbul Convention. Furthermore, it provides insights into three focal topics: transnational financing structures of the anti-gender movement, increasing anti-trans attacks and corresponding counterstrategies, as well as gender-based cyber violence.
Equal opportunities and rights for LGBTIQ* people in Europe
Both the social situation and the legal policy framework for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people (LGBTIQ*) vary considerably across EU member states. The Observatory contributes to exploring and examining key challenges and developments of LGBTIQ* policies in Europe from a European comparative perspective.
Combatting child poverty: a European child guarantee
Child poverty is widespread in Europe, even in economically strong countries. One in four children in the European Union is at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities even further. In March 2021, the European Commission adopted the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, which aims to reduce the number of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union by at least five million by 2030. To achieve this, an integrated approach is needed that focuses on the causes of poverty and social exclusion, and that breaks the intergenerational cycle of poverty.On 14 June 2021, the EU Member States adopted a Council recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee. Its aim is to prevent and combat the social exclusion of children in need by guaranteeing access to a set of key services, e.g. access to early childhood education and care, education, healthcare or healthy nutrition and adequate housing. The European Commission has called on the EU Member States to establish a national action plan covering the period until 2030 to implement the European Child Guarantee.
