Employment and social affairs

To do well in the face of competition from new emerging economies, Europe must create the jobs needed by a dynamic, knowledge-based society. This requires investments in education, science and employment policies geared to keep up with the pace of change and see the EU through the economic crisis.

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The EU and national governments share responsibility for policy in the fields of employment, social affairs and inclusion. The EU:

coordinates and monitors national policies
promotes the sharing of best practices in fields such as employment, poverty and social exclusion and pensions
makes laws and monitors their implementation in areas such as rights at work and coordination of social security schemes.

More and better jobs

In line with the Europe 2020 growth strategy, the European employment strategy encourages action to:

create jobs
energise and better balance the labour markets
monitor employment policies with the EU countries

through the following initiatives:

Employment package – set of measures to boost jobs
Measures to promote youth employment
Europe 2020 initiatives: employment, social affairs & inclusion

Rights at work

The EU has made a real impact in the field of workers' rights. For example, there are now EU laws limiting working hours, making working conditions safer and ensuring compensation for work injuries.

The EU works with a wide range of partners, including employers and trade unions, to make sure that these laws effectively address the most important issues.

Social protection and inclusion

The EU promotes social protection and inclusion by coordinating, promoting and providing funding to support member countries' efforts to combat social exclusion and poverty and reform their social-protection systems.

Living and working abroad

The EU and its member countries are collaborating to make it easier for people to live and work abroad, by coordinating social security schemes across EU countries and enabling workers to receive their pensions and social security benefits even when they change jobs and work in different EU countries.

EU funding programmes

The main programmes for employment and social policy are:

National governments are primarily responsible for employment and social policy. EU funding in this field only aims to support and complement their efforts.

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