ILO | The Decade of Adjustment : A Review of Austerity Trends 2010 – 2020 in 187 Countries

18/11/2015 – This ILO paper: (i) examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 187 countries between 2005 and 2020 ; (ii) reviews 616 IMF country reports in 183 countries to identify the main adjustment measures considered by governments in both high-income and developing countries; (iii) applies the United Nations Global Policy Model to simulate the impact of expenditure consolidation on economic growth and employment; (iv) discusses how austerity threatens welfare and social progress; and (v) calls for urgent action by governments to adopt alternative and equitable policies for socio-economic recovery.

EASPD | New report: How can the European Semester help to implement the UN CRPD

12/11/2015 – EASPD releases its latest report recommending the EU to use the European Semester as a tool to support the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The EASPD report proposes recommendations on how the EU and its Member States can further develop disability friendly legislation and practices through the European Semester; especially in areas such as inclusive labour markets, inclusive education settings and living in the community. The report ends with several national messages from EASPD’s member organisationson the Country-Specific Recommendations, Country Reports and National Reform Programmes for their own respective Member States.

ETUI |Towards a desirable and feasible European unemployment benefit scheme

03/11/2015 – During the last ETUI Monthly Forum, Ilaria Maselli, Research Fellow at CEPS, and Frank Vandenbroucke, of the Catholic University of Leuven, discussed the added value of a European unemployment benefit scheme. They presented a preliminary assessment of a research project funded by the European Commission which studies the feasibility and desirability of establishing a European unemployment benefit scheme (EUBS).

EC – DG IPOL | Study on ‘EU Social and Labour Rights and EU Internal Market Law’

06/11/2015 – Having developed incrementally, EU social and labour rights only in 2009 became legally binding through the Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union (CFREU). The study requested by EMPL Committee develops the concept of a constitutionally conditioned Internal Market as a way to overcome the perception that social and labour rights limit Internal Market law. On this basis, alternative responses to perceived tensions are proposed.

Eurochild working paper | Conditional cash transfers and their impact on children – ensuring adequate resources throughout the life cycle from a children’s perspective

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in general aim to exert an immediate effect on poverty by raising income, while at the same time contributing to a longer-term reduction of poverty by improving beneficiaries’ future potential to earn a living, in so doing contributing to a drop in demand for such benefits. Within the range of CCTs implemented to date, behaviour related to education, health and nutrition constitute frequent foci, with education and health the most common combination.