Social and Economic Justice

On the 20th of November, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Dialogue Southeast Europe together with FES Brussels, in cooperation with the Initiative for Development and Cooperation and Center for Social Studies, organized an expert discussion on the topic of Enlargement Policy and Social Change in the Western Balkans.

From 21st to 25th of November, Bečići (Budva) hosted “Future of Welfare State”. This conference was organized as a 'policy laboratory school'. The overall goal was to gather professionals working in the social sectors, service providers, social partners, activists, advocates, think tank analysts, researchers as well as service users across the Western Balkan countries to intensively work together on analysis and policy-making.

In the Western Balkans, the COVID-19 pandemic has been met by already weak social protection systems. The broader social impacts are likely to be both severe and long-lasting. Some positive lessons can be drawn from the initial social policy response by regional governments, including changes to non-contributory cash benefits and insurance-based schemes, which have contributed to reducing income shocks. At the same time, investments were overall modest, some especially vulnerable groups were not targeted, and the effect of one-off measures must remain limited.

Greece has dealt competently with the public health risk posed by Covid-19 but faces a possibly even bigger challenge in mitigating the economic impact of the crisis. Greece had started to heal some of the wounds from its previous recession before the coronavirus struck. Now, its fragile economy is being buffeted by a new, and potentially severe, downturn. The public finances Athens has at its disposal are limited and the tools made available by the European Union only go some way towards providing solutions.

The Social Dimension of Enlargement Policy lays out the key findings from the study Enlargement Policy and Social Change in the Western Balkans , focusing on the interaction between EU institutions and WB governments in processes of strategic social reform, mechanisms deployed by the EU in the social policy realm in the region and reforms pursued by WB governments to improve the social outcomes. Recommendations are offered on how to deepen the social dimension of accession.