Governments, social partners, businesses and other institutions have moved swiftly to implement measures to control the spread of COVID-19 across Europe and to mitigate the social and economic impact of the pandemic. In order to track these diverse initiatives across Europe, Eurofound – the EU’s Agency for the improvement of living and working conditions – has launched COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, a new database collating and mapping the policy responses introduced in Member States, along with the UK and Norway, during this critical period.
In the space of just a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic radically transformed working life across the globe, placing enormous strain on businesses and workers. Many companies turned to short-time work schemes, re-orienting of working arrangements or the shutting down of operations to comply with the necessary social distancing requirements. Consequently, a growing number of businesses have come under threat, putting the jobs of more and more workers at risk. Policymakers – including governments, support institutions, social partners and other social actors – moved swiftly to mitigate the social and economic consequences of these measures on businesses and workers.
Eurofound’s COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database provides an overview of the policy measures introduced since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a pool of information with details of specific company practices in each country. The database includes large-scale government measures and wider collective agreements, as well as regional and local initiatives and support measures for smaller groups of workers.
As the situation is continuously evolving, measures are implemented, changed or replaced at rapid speed. It is planned to update the cases in July and October 2020 with information on the uptake of prominent measures.
The EU PolicyWatch is available here.
