The JRC is now in charge of coordinating the EUROMOD annual updating progress, while EUROSTAT has assumed a leading role in creating the EUROMOD input datasets. The collaboration of these DGs with the network of EUROMOD national teams remains a key factor for the successful maintenance and update of the model.

The close cooperation between all parties was instrumental for the successful transfer of EUROMOD to the Commission. The JRC and EUROSTAT would like to express their gratitude in particular to the team of EUROMOD developers at the University of Essex, led by Professors Holly Sutherland and Matteo Richiardi.

The principles for the EUROMOD transfer and its future development were set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the University of Essex, JRC and EUROSTAT. The JRC and EUROSTAT have fully embraced the vision of EUROMOD being a key tool for both academic and policy applications, and are committed to guarantee its openness and transparency.

In this respect, it is worth highlighting that the EUROMOD source code and the model itself have, for the first time, been released as open source. Users have now the right to access, modify and redistribute both the model source code and parameter files (see section Towards a more open EUROMOD model). This development will hopefully result in growing collaborations and lead to many new developments and improvements in EUROMOD functionalities. Along the same lines, a web interface for the model has been made freely available by the JRC to users.

In addition, a governance structure for the model has been set up. It consists of a Steering Committee (SC), allowing partner DGs to monitor the process of EUROMOD updates, and a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to monitor and guide the scientific development of the model.

The SAB, comprised mostly of academic members, reports to the SC in the form of a Scientific Report summarising the state of the updating process and recent developments, assessing how previous recommendations have been addressed by JRC and EUROSTAT and making recommendations for the future. See the 1st EUROMOD Scientific Report.

Important changes are also being implemented in the way the model is maintained and updated:

1. The scope of EUROMOD simulations was widened in 2020 by allowing for the simulation of short-term work schemes implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (see section COVID-19-related policies in EUROMOD). JRC and EUROSTAT will explore ways to further improve the EUROMOD labour market functionalities over the course of 2021.
2. JRC and EUROSTAT are deploying a new data workflow to facilitate the task of producing the EUROMOD input datasets in the future. In particular, starting from this year, EUROSTAT is providing the national teams with a new dataset – the EUROMOD SILC Database (EMSD) – containing EU SILC variables enriched with variables from National SILC and information derived from the SILC Production Database (PDB). The new procedure is being implemented for a subset of 10 country modules and will be extended to the rest of the country modules in time for the 2022 updating work.

In summary, the successful transfer of EUROMOD to the Commission and changes introduced by JRC and EUROSTAT clearly show that EUROMOD will remain accessible and transparent, preserving its credibility and independence. The new situation opens up new opportunities for collaboration between model users and will hopefully help strengthen EUROMOD as the main reference microsimulation model for tax and social policy analysis in the EU.