In a few months’ time, European citizens will have the opportunity to vote for a new European Parliament, and not long afterwards a new European Commission will be installed. Given the political importance of this year, this Benchmarking Working Europe report will provide a retrospective assessment of the state of social Europe during the past legislative period, from 2019 to 2024. This period has been an exceptional phase for European integration as it has strengthened the social fundamentals of the European Union in many ways. The most important embodiment of this development is undoubtedly the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), but the strong social aspirations of EU policies have also been very apparent in the handling of the many unexpected events of recent years, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis which followed, the war in Ukraine, and the inflation and cost-of-living crisis induced by the sudden gas shortage. With the unceasing threat of climate change in the background, the European Green Deal specifically acknowledged that it was necessary to make the transition ‘just and inclusive for all’. 

2024 also marks the 20th anniversary of EU accession for a large number of central and eastern European countries. This year’s Benchmarking report is thus additionally an opportunity to take stock of the impact that the recent years of European integration have had on a number of traditional regional divides between Member States. 
 

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch and registration

Welcome:
Judith Vorbach, Head of office, AK EUROPA 
David Hafner, Director EU office, Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB)
Isabelle Schömann, Acting General Director ETUI and Deputy General Secretary ETUC

Key messages from Benchmarking Working Europe 2024 by the editors:
Agnieszka Piasna, ETUI Senior Researcher and 
Sotiria Theodoropoulou, Head of the “European economic, employment and social policies” unit at the ETUI

Q&A with the chapter coordinators:
Moderator: Bart Vanhercke, Director of the ETUI Research Department 

15.45 – 16.00 Coffee break 

Political roundtable with:
Isabelle Schömann, Acting General Director ETUI and Deputy General Secretary ETUC, 
Oliver Röpke, President of the EESC
Stefan Olsson, Deputy Director-General “Jobs, Skills, Social Policies”, DG Employment, European Commission

Moderator:
Aline Hoffmann, Head of the “Europeanisation of industrial relations” unit at the ETUI 

17.30 Cocktails

To register, please click here.