Latest news from the European Commission
on employment, social affairs and inclusion

The Forum focused on how to achieve a fair and inclusive green transition for all while celebrating the 5th anniversary of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The Swedish city of Skellefteå received the 2023 Access City Award in recognition of its long-term commitment and innovative approach to enhancing accessibility for persons with disabilities.

The European Alliance for Apprenticeships discussed how apprenticeships can be used as a tool to support Ukrainians displaced by the war and address their educational, employment and societal needs.

The Commission adopted an updated Recommendation on occupational diseases, where stresses the importance of supporting workers infected by COVID-19 and families who have lost members because of work exposure to the disease.

The last series of flash reports prepared by the European Social Policy Network (ESPN) is now available and provides information on concrete recent social policy developments in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Montenegro, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

Two years after its launch, the Pact for Skills celebrates an important milestone as its membership grows to 1000 members.

The Italian project aims at helping facilitate detainees’ successful move back into society through training and job experience. “Fare Impresa in Dozza” is exemplary at breaking the cycle of re-offending: only seven percent of participants have re-entered the prison system, the significant majority going on to find jobs after re-entering society.

On 25 November, Commissioner Schmit visited a project funded by the European Social Found in the city of Košice (Slovakia) that has an innovative way to combat family homelessness.

Petros got involved with the project Axizo, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF), the project gave him the opportunity to live in a shared house with other people with intellectual disabilities, while continuing to receive essential care.

On 17 November, the European Commission unveiled the winners of the 2022 Regiostars awards. Second place went to the ‘E-Schools Pilot Project’ in Croatia.

The proposal for the Joint Employment Report (JER) - which is part of the 2023 European Semester cycle of economic policy coordination - confirms that the EU labour market has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a strong performance and surpassing pre-pandemic employment levels since the third quarter of 2021.

The EU social indicators for the monitoring of progress towards the EU objectives for Social Protection and Social Inclusion have been updated and include now an overview of the new policy framework, incorporating all indicators agreed by the Indicators' Sub-Group.

The results show that overall the ESF interventions are effective, as people who participated in the ESF financed operations have on average 7.3 percentage points higher employment probability than those who did not participate.