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 2,721 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 September 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: 1711 policy measures
  • War in Ukraine: 525 policy measures
  • Green Transition: 346 policy measures
  • Digital Transformation: 101 policy measures
  • Restructuring Support Instruments: 317 policy measures
  • European Semester: 85 policy measures
  • Extreme Weather Events: 67 policy measures
  • Cost of Living Crisis: 199 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

The manual for energy renovation of public sector buildings

At a time when climate change is one of the biggest challenges, and the European Green Plan sets ambitious goals, the need to reduce energy consumption and use renewable energy is of great importance....

Croatia | 17 September 2024

Special economic zones (SEZ)

Special Economic Zones (Specjalne Strefy Ekonomiczne) were introduced to boost investment, employment, and production in certain areas of the country and nationwide. The areas with high unemployment ...

Poland | 16 September 2024

Reduction of transport costs and greenhouse gases

In a context of rising energy prices, the government has taken measures to reduce the cost of transport while meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets through decree No. 2022-1151 of 12 August 2022 an...

France | 16 September 2024

Involvement of social partners in legislation

Eurofound identified 1797 pieces of legislation and other statutory regulations, 1047 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 795 measures, employers' organisations were involved:
  • In 440 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 562 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 733 measures, trade unions were involved:
  • In 486 measures, there was no involvement;
  • For the 578 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 309 measures, social partners were involved:
  • In the remaining 1488 measures, there was no involvement or the involvement is unknown.

    • Tax credit for investment in green industry (C3IV)

      Adopted as part of the French Green Industry Act, which came into force on 14 March 2024, the C3IV aims to support companies in financing key industrial projects for the energy transition, and to help...

      France | 10 June 2024

      One-time cash benefits for pensioners

      There is a total of 1.22 million people in retirement in Croatia, or 1.13 million excluding veterans, army, and police. This includes those to whom the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute pays benefi...

      Croatia | 04 May 2024

      The building energy performance certificate

      The building energy performance certificate is a document that divides buildings into categories (energy classes) A to G based on the energy needed for their typical use (energy needed for heating, co...

      Czechia | 09 April 2024

Collective agreements

The EU PolicyWatch database contains 151 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 158 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

47 company practices additionally contain other provisions not mentioned above.

    • The Zadar airport becomes green

      The Zadar airport plans to commence its expansion project in order to cater for additional traffic and enable long haul flights. Work on the project, initially planned to commence in 2020, began after...

      Croatia | 02 May 2024

      Wielkopolska province has joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance

      Wielkopolska province has joined the PPCA - Powering Past Coal Alliance, the world's first international initiative to protect the climate and accelerate economic development through a rapid transitio...

      Poland | 01 March 2024

      Prices of selected food items to be reduced by 15%

      Despite Government measures to subsidise the cost of fuels, electricity, grains and animal feeds, the price of foods in Malta continued to rise throughout 2023. Factors such as Malta's limited domesti...

      Malta | 08 February 2024

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.