The present paper argues that we are witnessing an increase of the tensions between the three main goals of social security systems (poverty alleviation, securing living standards and prevention) and that, as a consequence, the poverty-reducing capacity of social transfers has come under...

Reference budgets could play an important role in the work of measuring poverty and assessing income adequacy, and in the process of monitoring social inclusion policies in the European Union. As the reference budgets that are already constructed in some European countries are all developed...

This paper is concerned with the spatial and institutional conditions under which localized forms of social innovation can complement and strengthen existing institutionalized welfare programs and schemes. It aims to identify relevant concepts to analytically frame socially innovative policies...

The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, adopted in March 2012 and entering into force in January 2013, was presented as a reinforcement of the Stability and Growth Pact. The present Brief argues that this new Treaty does not seem to offer a...

This paper uses data from the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions 2005-2010 to examine the relationship between incomes and people’s living arrangements, both at the aggregate level (that is, how living arrangements vary with GDP) and at the level of individual behaviour, within...

This paper surveys the literature on localized socially innovative policies and actions aimed at overcoming poverty and social exclusion. The authors show how these local forms of social innovation emerged in the late 1970s against the backdrop of the crisis and transformation of the Western...

The global crisis, which was the worst economic and financial downturn since the Great Depression, revealed the fundamental deficiencies in the global financial system and drastically changed the way we view the world and the global financial system. The crisis challenged long-standing views and...

In recent years, population ageing has attracted the attention of research and policy advisors in all European countries. Several policy actions have been directed toward ensuring optimal long-term care (LTC) for elderly people while maintaining fiscal rationality. LTC systems are very different...

Long-term care (LTC) in the new EU member states, which used to belong to the former socialist countries, is not yet a legally separated sector of social security. However, the ageing dynamics are more intensive in these states than in the old EU member states. This paper analyses the process of...