European Coordination Research Articles

Politicised at Home but not in Council: The European Coordination of Social Security Systems

After seven years of negotiations, the European Parliament and the Council have yet to agree on the reform of one of the most essential regulations facilitating cross-border worker mobility in the EU: the Coordination of Social Security Systems (EC 883/2004). The lack of agreement remains puzzling, as all negotiating partners are generally in favour of the reform. Similar proposals on social policy, such as the Posting of Workers Directive or the Minimum-wage Directive, were also challenging to achieve but could be agreed upon. This article tests whether “unpolitics”—a destructive approach by populist governments in the Council to undermine EU policymaking—is the reason for the persisting deadlock on the file. The central finding of this article is that the interplay of populism and the status of member states as sending or receiving workers shape unpolitical behaviour. Contrary to expectations, unpolitics is largely absent in the behaviour of populist and non-populist governments. Unpolitical behaviour does not promise high gains for the populist governments from Central and Eastern Europe because these member states send workers. The smooth functioning of the freedom of workers is essential for them and their national discourses do not discuss the freedom of movement in the context of welfare chauvinism. Welfare chauvinism is much stronger in countries that receive workers, however, populists were not in power in these member states and therefore there was no unpolitical behaviour. The findings show that unpolitical behaviour is not used by mainstream governments, not even when it would seem likely from the nature of the policy issue. This article highlights that the probability of unpolitical behavior is influenced not only by the nature of the policy issue itself but also by domestic institutional and structural factors, as well as the national discourse.

Retrospective comparative analysis of two medical evacuation systems for Ukrainian patients affected by war

IntroductionCoordinated medical evacuations represent an important strategy for emergency response when healthcare systems are impaired by armed conflict, particularly for patients diagnosed with life-threatening conditions such as cancer. In this study, we compare the experiences of two parallel medical evacuation systems developed to meet the medical needs of Ukrainians affected by war. MethodsThis retrospective study compared outcomes of two medical evacuation systems, developed by the European Union Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and Supporting Action for Emergency Response in Ukraine (SAFER Ukraine) collaborative, in the first 10 months after the war’s intensification in Ukraine (February 24 to December 21, 2022). Each groups’ respective registries served as data sources. Patient demographics and allocation data were summarized descriptively. Median time for patient referral were analyzed statistically. ResultsThe ERCC pathway evacuated 1385 patients (median age: 36 [0 − 85] years) to 16 European countries; 78.7 % (n = 1091) suffered from trauma-related injuries and 13.4 % (n = 185) from cancer. SAFER Ukraine evacuated 550 patients (median age: 9 [0 − 22] years) to 14 European and North American countries; 97.1 % (n = 534) were children diagnosed with cancer or blood disorders. The median evacuation time for the SAFER Ukraine cohort was shorter than the ERCC cohort (p < 0.001), though comparable (six versus seven days). ConclusionThe ERCC and SAFER Ukraine collaborative successfully developed medical evacuation pathways to meet the needs of Ukrainian patients impacted by war. System comparison provides opportunity to identify strategies for parallel system harmonization and a pragmatic example of how to anticipate support of these patients in future armed conflicts.

Connecting internal and external dynamics in European intersectoral policy coordination – the case of education and employment

ABSTRACT Intersectoral policy coordination has garnered considerable attention in the study of the European Commission (EC) over the past few decades. Within the EC, a logic of hierarchy and a logic of policy portfolios coexist, often leading to a conflictual and complex relationship. While the literature has extensively explored the internal dynamics of the EC, there has been less focus on the role of external dynamics in influencing intersectoral policy coordination. This paper addresses this gap by examining the case of European policy coordination in education and employment and how both internal and external dynamics can hinder or facilitate policy coordination within the EC. Based on the analysis of interviews with EC actors and various EU policy documents, the paper discusses how these internal and external dynamics have affected policy coordination, highlighting elements of both positive and negative coordination.

ESF and the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences – Constructing Institutions for European Social Sciences

This article analyses the establishment of the Standing Committee of the Social Sciences in the European Science Foundation in the late 1970s. Using the fields theoretical framework, it focuses on the discussions in the Ad Hoc committee formed to set up the Standing Committee of the Social Sciences. The article shows how specific ideas about what social science should be, what Europe was and what kind of social science knowledge that was suitable for European coordination was central to the discussions and for the formation of the Standing Committee. Important for these discussions were the contemporary political discussions in Europe and especially the connections between scientific progress and increasing European collaboration. Alongside this, the discussions and initiatives were informed by the participants relation to US post-war social science, the impression that European social science was lacking behind and import of natural science models to social science. Importantly for the relative success of the Standing Committee of Social Sciences was the fact that the members were recognized scholars commanding significant amounts of academic and scientific capital.

Pandemic bordering: domestic politicisation, European coordination, and national border closures in the COVID-19 crisis

ABSTRACT When the member states imposed unilateral restrictions on the cross-border movement of persons and goods in their initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU appeared to relapse into the ‘politics trap’ of earlier integration crises. However, our analysis of entry restrictions for persons in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2022 shows no systematic relationship between domestic politicisation and national border closures. Rather, border closures followed the course of the pandemic as well as EU recommendations. Our findings suggest that the EU was able to escape the ‘politics trap’ thanks to the exogenous and symmetrical nature of the crisis and effective EU-level policy coordination.

Social partners and OSH: a multilevel and cross-country exploration in the hospital and social services sectors

Abstract The article examines the role of social partners (trade unions and employers) in the field of occupational safety and health (OSH). The Covid-19 pandemic directed attention to the importance of greater national and European level policy coordination to protect and promote healthy, safe, and well-adapted work environments. On the basis of two sectors, hospitals and social services with a focus on elder care, the article asks how OSH policy interventions at the national level and the European level are interlinked. To explore interlinkages, the article focuses on OSH policy coordination between national social partners and European level sectoral social dialogue. The analysis is informed by actor-centred institutionalist and multilevel governance approaches and uses qualitative data. The article explores patterns of interlinkages between the national and European levels in two sectors and six countries and discusses the limitations of applying a cross-national and multilevel conceptual approach. The analysis shows that the pandemic has promoted some coordination at national and between national and EU levels, yet still rather modest interlinkages and degrees of ‘vertical’ coordination can be observed. The paper concludes that there continues to be a degree of ‘in-the-making’ to the multilevel governance of employment relations, even in the presence of common challenges.

Forming a supranational boundary-spanning policy regime – European intersectoral coordination in education and employment

ABSTRACT While European governance of individual policy sectors has received considerable academic scrutiny, less attention has been paid to the development of intersectoral coordination. This paper charts the emergence of a supranational boundary-spanning policy regime (BSPR) in education and employment in Europe. By looking at issues, ideas, interests and institutions, we gain a deeper understanding of the conditions for the emergence and further institutionalisation of European intersectoral coordination in education and employment from the 1990s onwards. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with European policy-makers in education and employment and EU policy documents. We analyse how endogenous and exogenous factors frame (policy) issues that contribute to the emergence and further strengthening of intersectoral coordination, the extent to which ideas for European education and employment stress intersectoral policy designs, how interests support or hinder intersectoral work, and which institutions are developed with an intersectoral reasoning. We find that endogenous forces (rather than exogenous ones) played a significant role in the emergence of a European BSPR in education and employment. Structural aspects and policy instruments (institutions), alongside ideas and interests, then contribute to the institutionalisation of the European BSPR in education and employment.

The emergence of European boundary-spanning policy regimes: analysing intersectoral policy coordination in education and employment

ABSTRACT While much attention has been paid to European policy arrangements in individual policy fields, European intersectoral policy coordination has been mostly an overlooked phenomenon, especially within the sectors of education and employment. Thus, in the introductory paper for this Special Issue, we offer a contemporary discussion of European intersectoral policy coordination. We firstly review the literature on intersectoral policy coordination, and secondly look at the application of concepts related to intersectoral policy coordination to supranational arrangements, especially the European Union. We then employ the concept of boundary-spanning policy regime and the related ‘I’ framework (issues, ideas, interests, and institutions) to discuss the individual pieces’ contributions. This serves to explore the strength of the intersectoral perspective when analysing European policy coordination in education and employment. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this approach and offer a research agenda to study supranational intersectoral policy coordination (in education and employment).

Basic Principles of European Social Security Coordination based on Regulation (EC) 883/2004

This article discusses the importance of free movement and the coordinating social law of the European Union (EU) inensuring that people who move between EU Member States are not left without social security coverage. The articleexplains that the EU does not have a uniform or common social law and that the responsibility for social policy primar-ily lies with the Member States. The coordinating social law of the EU is limited to the coordination of the various socialsecurity systems of the Member States. The article further explains that the coordination of social security systems isessential for the success of European integration and emphasises that the EU Member States are bound by both thebasic Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and the implementing Regulation (EC) No 987/2009. After a primary law derivationof the social law coordination, the article explains the scope of application and the key principles of Regulation (EC)883/2004. This is followed by a discussion of the Regulation’s conflict-of-law rules, which take precedence over nationalprovisions.

A survey of experts on personalized medicine landscape in European Union and China

IntroductionPersonalized Medicine (PM) is one of the main priorities of the research agenda of the European Commission and the focus of the European Coordination and Support Action titled “Integrating China into the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine” (IC2PerMed). Similar to the European focus, PM is a current priority of the Chinese Government, through dedicated policies and its five-year investment plans. In the context of IC2PerMed, we implemented a survey to understand the state of the art of the implementation of PM related policies in EU and China, and to identify opportunities for future Sino-European collaborations.MethodsThe survey was elaborated by the IC2PerMed consortium and validated by a focus group of experts. The final version, in English and Chinese, was administered online to a pool of accurately selected experts. Participation was anonymous and voluntary. The survey consists of 19 questions in 3 sections: (1) personal information; (2) policy in PM; (3) facilitating and hindering factors for Sino-European collaboration in PM.ResultsForty-seven experts completed the survey, 27 from Europe and 20 from China. Only four participants were aware of the implementation of PM-related policies in their working country. Expert reported that PM areas with greatest policy impact so far were: Big Data and digital solutions; citizen and patient literacy; and translational research. The main obstacles found were the lack of shared investment strategies and the limited application of scientific developments in clinical practice. Aligning European and Chinese efforts, finding common ground across cultural, social, and language barriers, were considered as actions needed to enhance efforts in applying PM strategies internationally.ConclusionTo achieve efficiency and sustainability of health systems, it remains crucial to transform PM into an opportunity for all citizens and patients with the commitment of all the stakeholders involved. The results obtained aim to help define common research and development approaches, standards and priorities and increase collaboration at international level, as well as provide key solutions to enable convergence towards a common PM research, innovation, development and implementation approach between Europe and China.

Numerical tools for burning plasmas

The software stack under development within a European coordinated effort on tools for burning plasma modelling is presented. The project is organised as a Task (TSVV Task 10) under the new E-TASC initiative (Litaudon et al 2022 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 64 034005). This is a continued effort within the EUROfusion inheriting from the earlier European coordination projects as well as research projects based at various European laboratories. The ongoing work of the TSVV Tasks is supported by the Advanced Computing Hubs. Major projects requiring the high performance computing (HPC) resources are global gyrokinetic codes and global hybrid particle-magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) codes. Also applications using the integrated modelling tools, such as the Energetic-Particle Workflow, based on the ITER Integrated Modelling & Analysis Suite (IMAS), or the code package for modelling radio-frequency heating and fast-ion generation may require intensive computation and a substantial memory footprint. The continual development of these codes both on the physics side and on the HPC side allows us to tackle frontier problems, such as the interaction of turbulence with MHD-type modes in the presence of fast particles. One of the important mandated outcomes of the E-TASC project is the IMAS-enabling of EUROfusion codes and release of the software stack to the EUROfusion community.

Free movement and access to social security in the EU: The challenge of exporting unemployment benefits

The freedom of movement of EU workers and access to national welfare state systems has become a controversial topic among policymakers in recent years. To understand this, the article analyses the positions of Western European states towards the proposal of the European Commission to reform the European social security coordination. The structural problems of this reform and the current Regulation (EC) 883/2004 can be seen in the discussion on the export of unemployment benefits. Although Western European states have similar insurance-based and comprehensive unemployment systems, they have conflicting views on this issue. The article presents a comparative case study of Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Data was generated via expert interviews and policy documents and analysed through institutionalist approaches. By tracing the debates on the export of unemployment benefits, the article makes a more general argument about the debate on the free movement of workers and social security in the EU. It explains that policymakers’ main concern is not only the financial burden on their welfare systems, but also that the current Regulation (EC) 883/2004 and the reform proposal are incompatible with national monitoring and enforcement systems, which are designed to work best when the worker is in the Member State of last employment. This incompatibility of the coordination rules with national rules creates opposition among policymakers to the access of EU workers to national welfare systems.

Pan-European regimes: A pathway to mitigate lack of trust and complexity in insurance

Over past years the insurance market has pursued a consistent and integrated approach in order to address well-known problems such as the overall complexity of insurance products, the lack of consumer confidence and, consequently, the detachment from, and reduced feeling of loyalty towards, insurers. Regulators across different sectors globally are turning to increasingly innovative approaches to disclosure and have placed greater focus on regulating product design. Yet, in the area of EU insurance services regulation, these approaches have not been implemented effectively. Most insurance products remain highly complex for average EU consumers. Hence, it is time to reflect the digital zeitgeist in EU disclosure and distribution rules, and to achieve the maximum level of consumer protection and facilitate the single market in the digital world. Consumer-centric product design, digital distribution and disclosures will help meet consumers' expectations, facilitate understanding of the financial market and support a sufficiently high and consistent level of consumer protection throughout Europe. A regulatory Pan-European regime has the potential to cut through regulatory challenges and build trust in cross-border financial services, contributing to the Capital Market Union objectives. It facilitates the use of digitalisation and provides a strong basis for supervision, which will foster trust and confidence in European citizens. European coordination will allow the EU to compete at international level, and enable European consumers to reap the benefits of the single market.

PCR243 Facilitating and Accelerating Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Selection to Use for Clinical Research and Rare Diseases (RD) - A European Rare Disease Research Coordination and Support Action (ERICA) Project

PCR243 Facilitating and Accelerating Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Selection to Use for Clinical Research and Rare Diseases (RD) - A European Rare Disease Research Coordination and Support Action (ERICA) Project

Transitioning unions: what constitutes a just transition for Swedish trade unions?

Abstract The inclusion of ‘just transition’ in the Paris Agreement in 2015 has inspired subsequent attempts, and hopes, to bridge jobs versus climate divide in attempts to decarbonize industrial society. But what are the imperatives for a just tr[ansition of the workforce? And what are the nationally defined development priorities for the creation of decent work and quality jobs? Through interviews with Swedish trade union representatives from Sweden’s three largest industrial emitters (steel, petroleum refining, cement) along with representatives at the central level, this study illustrates contrasting interpretations of what constitutes a just transition. The main tensions concern the time a climate transition is allowed to take; if policies should support local inhabitants or global concerns over climate change; why allegiances are limited to the industrial town or encompass a wider trade union movement; and whether national politics or European coordination is what makes a transition ‘just’. While central levels of Swedish trade unions understand just transition in international and intergenerational terms, local level trade unions advocate for an emplaced understanding of just transition. Given the risk of growing conflicts between different segments of trade unions over the issue of climate transition policies, a progressive alliance between the labour- and climate movements is improbable as matters stand at present.

10.P. Round table: Public health of the future: innovations in surveillance, communication and knowledge translation

Abstract The social, ecological, economic and health crises exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic are challenges of extraordinary magnitude and complexity for global public health. Moreover, the context in which the pandemic emerged was characterized by underinvestment in public health and growing distrust in institutions. Public health responses were often fragmented and failed to make use of existing resources and expertise. Nearly 3 years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic much has been learned and much is still to be learned. Accordingly, European national public health agencies have been pushed to their limits and currently face an urgent need to be renovated incorporating innovations in surveillance, communication and knowledge translation. National agencies should network and collaborate at the EU level. EUPHA may play an important role in this effort. On the one hand, there is the need of improving surveillance of harmful effects of the pandemic, specifically the health inequalities aggravated at local, national and global levels; and, on the other, to improve the availability of this knowledge to policymakers. Public Health communication needs to be further developed as it has been a crucial piece of national and international efforts to protect and promote health in the pandemic and so will be in the future. With this workshop proposal, we would like to bring up for discussion how could we further improve surveillance, communication and knowledge translation to policy makers and citizens in our European national public health agencies. Innovative and updated public health agencies will help regaining trust and strengthening public health institutions. National and European Public Health further development is essential and should be strengthened to protect and promote European populatiońs health. The objectives of the workshop are: – To discuss key innovations to implement in national public health agencies to improve surveillance, communication and knowledge transfer to policy makers and citizens. – To reflect on supranational European coordination mechanisms that would allow for efficient surveillance and a rapid and adequate response to different public health challenges, including social inequalities in health. – To manage public health intelligence in the European Health Data Space and the role of public health in this data lake design. Key messages • COVID19 pandemic has revealed the challenges of creating strong trustworthy national public health institutions to ensure the integrity of public health science and information dissemination. • Structures to facilitate timely and efficient monitoring requires national and supranational coordination mechanisms, including data and experience sharing. Speakers/Panellists Robert Otok ASPHER, Brussels, Belgium Sofia Ribeiro EUPHA-PHPP Manuel Franco University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain

The Application of the Conflict Rules of the European Social Security Coordination to Telework During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the normal use of European conflict rules determining the applicable social security legislation was temporarily suspended to avoid changes in the applicable legislation as a result of telework, which was being obliged or recommended. The purpose was to avoid the consequences of such a change. However, these forms of remote work are expected to remain in existence after the pandemic, even when the suspension of the conflict rules is no longer in place. So, the question arises whether the suspension of the strict application of the conflict rules should be prolonged after the pandemic, or whether these conflict rules should be applied differently or even amended. First, this article discusses the measures that were taken during the pandemic. Next, it will highlight the consequences if the temporary measures are not prolonged after the pandemic for the determination of the applicable social security legislation. It will explore the possible re-interpretation of or even amendments to these rules in order to adapt them to the continuation of telework.

Beyond the European Semester: The supranational evaluation cycle for pensions

Pensions at the European level have been, since the sovereign debt crisis, affected by several decision-making innovations. Retirement policy has been embedded in the European Semester, which strengthened the hitherto inadequate European socioeconomic policy coordination mechanisms. Given that the additional powers bestowed upon the Commission were qualified, a supranational response followed. With the effect of strengthening its rational-legal authority, in line with neo-functionalist spillover assumptions, evidence-based standards have been progressively applied to EU retirement policy formation. This innovative turn warrants the employment of a policy analysis theoretical framework. In particular, the article applies the concepts underpinning policy evaluation to the study of pensions within the Semester. Using a mixed-methods approach, which combines case study with statistical analysis, and following a novel in-depth coding of country-specific recommendations and Country Reports, this article argues that member states’ pensions are now assessed within a structured, formal and polycentric evaluation cycle. This has been gradually constructed by increasing the coherence between the yearly interim ex post evaluations of pension policy output (the Country Reports) and the final ex post evaluations of pension policy outcomes (the Ageing and Pension Adequacy Reports) that are published every 3 years. The result is a streamlined, technocratic, knowledge-based approach to retirement policy at the supranational level. Even though the generation of technical knowledge is no substitute for toothless conditionality, greater reliance on evidence is aimed at socializing national decision-makers and may eventually influence their policy choices. The unconventional pension evaluation cycle that sprung up around the Semester may, hence, serve as a model applicable to other socioeconomic policy domains.

Digitizing health data for public health protection in the context of European and international coordination.

The health sector has long been affected by programs, actions, plans to digitize data and care processes with a view to better protecting individual health, as well as public health, resulting in a slow and uneven development of different and often incompatible national services. This paper aims to explore the grounds behind the urgency of turning the digital priority into concrete actions, as acknowledged by political leaders in the Rome Declaration, by explaining the capacity of digital tools to enhance healthcare management and the current obstacles. It considers the progressive extension of the EU institutions' scope of action during the pandemic, the related supporting financial strategies launched and some examples of digital contact tracing systems. It emerged that the pandemic highlighted the inadequacy of purely national policies and the advantages of leveraging the digital health data processing for governance, surveillance and response to cross-border and global threats. Considering what emerged during the pandemic and the solemn commitment of the world's major political leaders, the solution to the still existing technical and organizational interoperability issues will no longer be postponed.

Threats to Aviation Safety Caused by Defects in Aircraft Airframe Systems

Abstract Alongside the increase in air traffic and number of aircraft, the number of reported aviation events has also been increasing. We processed the data included in the European Coordination Centre for Aviation Incident reporting Systems (ECCAIRS), analyzing small and large aircraft reliability and the safety of their operations, covering events according to ICAO aviation occurrence categories. Airframe systems are the largest contributor to the total number of reported events which occurred in Polish registered aircraft in the years 2008–2020. A detailed study of airframe systems reliability was carried out in order to assess the real reason for the failures. Airframe systems faults were assigned to specific ATA chapters and then to each of their sections. The results of this analysis may support the decisions of supervisory authorities in the areas where security threats are most important. They can also help aircraft operators with identification of the airframe units which require special attention. Identification of significant parts due to the frequency of malfunctions of particular system components may support designers. In short, these results are valuable in terms of further developments in statistical tools facilitating New Product Introduction (NPI).