Seven new Flash Reports prepared by the European Social policy Network (ESPN) are now available and provide information on recent social policy developments in Bulgaria, Finland, Lithuania, Portugal and Switzerland.

• In Bulgaria, the debate on mandatory and voluntary vaccination has intensified after several people from the Plovdiv region were diagnosed with measles in March 2017. The country’s officially reported vaccination rate against measles is more than 95%, but certain deprived and isolated communities (such as Roma) constitute high-risk groups. In addition, the anti-vax movement is slowly gaining momentum among middle classes.
• To combat the budget deficit and growing public debt, the Finnish government launched austerity measures including cuts in social transfers and public services, and increased user fees. These measures are likely to have a strong negative impact on the country’s long-term social investment objectives.
• The Finnish government is proposing to reform the unemployment benefits system: the long-term elderly unemployed will be transferred to the old-age pension systems, the benefit period will be shortened and conditions will become tighter. The timing is bad with the latest reform of the whole social service sector still going on.
• A few months ago, Lithuania was shocked by the death of a four-year-old boy caused by domestic violence, and the failure of the child protection agencies to intervene in time. Children’s rights activists, mass media and the President have all highlighted the inefficiency of earlier attempts to better protect children as well as the need to reform the entire child welfare system.
• The Portuguese government has decided to no longer provide meals to the most disadvantaged through a network of social canteens, but instead offer uncooked food packages. This is expected to be more cost-efficient and boost the autonomy of beneficiaries. Doubts about the actual implementation of the reform remain.
• The Portuguese government is planning to ease the access to early retirement for workers with long contribution records. Successive proposals have been announced and are framed by the discussion on the financial sustainability of the pension system, which is also turning into a debate about the right to early retirement.
• Policy coordination is a major challenge to the Swiss health system, notably between the local and the federal level, and between curative and preventive aspects of health policy. To improve coordination, the cantonal and national governments adopted in 2016 a national strategy to prevent non-communicable diseases which is currently being implemented.

This document has been prepared for the European Commission. However, it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.