Europe is marked by the persistence of both the housing crisis and energy poverty, as well as important budget cuts in social welfare. Both civil society and civic rights face increasing constraints and hostility. However, improvements have taken place in education and youth unemployment, playing an important role in the green transition.
Country score: 61
Progress in key areas like gender equality, wages, healthcare access, and green jobs is reported. However, challenges remain, particularly in aligning Albania’s workforce with labour market needs, addressing gaps in training for key professions, ensuring meaningful civil society involvement, and improving low wages and social dialogue.
Country score: 58
Bulgaria has made progress in areas like youth employment, STEM education, and digitalizing social protection, but major challenges remain in healthcare, gender equality, and civic space. Energy access has improved, though reforms are slow. Press freedom has declined, and structural healthcare issues persist.
Country score: 48
Croatia faces ongoing challenges, including a lack of comprehensive migration and inclusion policies, rising poverty due to inflation, and a housing plan that falls short in practice. Civil dialogue has faced new restrictions, and a just green transition is hindered by fossil fuel dependence and political inaction. Nonetheless, positive legislative steps were taken, such as legislative improvements for migrant workers and GMB beneficiaries.
Country score: 32
France has declined in all five categories of the SRM, with setbacks in education, social policy, and civic space. Despite some poverty measures being maintained, their impact has lessened due to new conditions, and key reforms remain stalled. Civil society faces increasing hostility, with protest restrictions, funding cuts, and intensified police action.
Country score: 50
Germany faced a turbulent 2024–2025, marked by funding cuts to welfare and civil society organizations and a hostile political climate toward dissenting voices. Migration policy grew stricter and more labour-market oriented, and gender inequality and violence persisted.
Country score: 29
Greece faces ongoing challenges, with limited policy action to improve social conditions. Vulnerable groups, including migrants, Roma, and those in poverty, are inadequately supported, and housing, energy, gender inequality and mobility access remain critical issues. Civil dialogue is weak, and education reforms jeopardise the system’s stability and accessibility.
Country score: 34
Social rights in Italy are deteriorating, with persistent gender inequality, high youth unemployment, and growing regional disparities. Migrant inclusion is jeopardised, while civic space is shrinking under restrictive government measures.
Country score: 64
Kosovo faces persistent social challenges, particularly in employment, gender equality, and youth unemployment. Key issues include inadequate childcare, outdated labour laws, poor enforcement of safety regulations, and limited access to essential services. While civic space is generally good, the exclusion of national minorities continues to affect equality and employment conditions.
Country score: 48
In North Macedonia youth unemployment remains high despite new measures, and civil society organisation are rarely meaningfully involved in policymaking. Poverty, especially among rural and minority groups, endures, though rising minimum wages and potential for quality green jobs offer hope for improvement.
Country score: 20
Portugal has been regressing in several social areas. Gender gaps in pay and employment persist, while wages lag behind living costs and precarious work remains widespread. Housing is increasingly unaffordable, migrants face discrimination and administrative barriers, and funding cuts threaten CSOs that provide essential social services.
Country score: 45
Serbia has made some progress in welfare services and migrant inclusion, largely thanks to CSOs and private actors. However, delays in legislation and poor enforcement continue to hinder progress in key areas like housing, youth employment, and gender equality. Civic space remains under threat, with frequent attacks on protesters, journalists, and CSOs.
Country score: 32
Slovenia has made progress in migrant inclusion, healthcare access, just transition and education, supported by EU funding. Civic space has improved, and the minimum wage remains comparatively high. However, challenges persist in youth employment, gender equality, and affordable housing.
Country score: 63
Spain has seen improvements in job security, vocational training, and green jobs. However, challenges remain in occupational health and safety, healthcare access – especially for third-country nationals – and the ongoing housing crisis. Civil dialogue continues to play a key role in policy design.
Advocacy Point
01
Combat segregation in education and foster inclusion. To this end, give prominence to education in the frame of the European Semester process, promote lifelong learning systems at national level, establish ambitious European targets for equity in education systems, and a target for citizenship competences.
Advocacy Point
02
Ensure real access to national language courses for migrants and the recognition of competences of non-EU nationals to increase their possibilities to participate in society and access the labour market. To this end, foster the validation of learning outcomes acquired in non-formal and informal education environments by fully implementing the 2012 Council Recommendations on the validation of learning outcomes.
Advocacy Point
03
Systematically apply an intersectional approach to social measures at EU level, acknowledging and tackling the specific challenges encountered by minority groups, including migrants, in accessing social rights. Pay particular attention to their right to adequate housing, fight against poverty, and fair working conditions.
Advocacy Point
04
Seize the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030 to push for ambitious measures to close employment, pay and pension gaps, as well as foster work-life balance of women.
Advocacy Point
05
Ensure the ambitious implementation of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive – as it is currently in force – and monitor the definition of adequacy to ensure it keeps up with the rising cost of living. Should the directive be annulled – which would represent a major setback for social rights – ensure that the commitment taken by member states is not lost and keep pushing for adequate minimum wages through existing instruments, like the European Semester. Provide support in developing wage-setting reforms through the European Social Fund in candidate countries.
Advocacy Point
06
Tackle the financialisation of the housing market by curbing speculative investment and limiting wealth accumulation through housing and by regulating the housing market, including through rent caps. Only allow private investment in the market when it responds to ambitious social and environmental standards.
Advocacy Point
07
Expand the affordable housing stock, namely the social housing stock, through renovations, rent control measures and adequate investment in social and affordable housing. Provide substantial support to social and solidarity economy actors through funding and privileged access to public procurement, in the light of their essential role in ensuring access to affordable housing. The European Affordable Housing Plan should ambitiously fulfil these objectives.
Advocacy Point
08
Put forward a European Anti-Poverty strategy that is based on principles like human rights, a holistic approach, and intersectionality. Tackle all forms of poverty including in-work poverty, pension poverty, energy poverty and transport poverty.
Advocacy Point
09
Ensure adequate funding for social policies through a stand-alone and ambitious ESF in the next MFF and prevent dispersion of funds for other priorities, like defence. Support funding for access to public and essential services, including healthcare, and support public investment with a progressive taxation policy.
Advocacy Point
10
Ensure access to adequate funding for CSOs, including for their vital advocacy work. Align the next MFF with this need by allocating enough funds and establishing transparent and proportionate rules to access them at multiple levels. Support CSOs in candidate countries as part of their accession process, including through access to funding.
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Advocacy Point
11
Stand up for civil society by putting a decisive end to the specious attacks on CSOs carried out by right-wing political forces at EU, national and local level. Protect and empower activists and CSOs by introducing a Civil Society Strategy fit for purpose.
Advocacy Point
12
Ensure that the EPSR, civic space, social and civil dialogue are highly prioritised in accession negotiations for candidate countries
Advocacy Point
13
As part of the announced Quality Jobs Roadmap, the Commission should propose a Directive for a Just Transition in the world of work through the anticipation and management of change. This Directive should require companies, Member States, and local authorities to take concerted measures ensuring quality jobs in industrial transitions, and to integrate them into transition plans.
Advocacy Point
14
The Just Transition Directive or the Quality Jobs Act should include a ‘Quality Job Golden Rule’ with which all EU transition policies and any form of public support at national and EU levels must comply. This rule should set out a series of obligations, such as the guarantee of wages adjusted to changing living costs, the participation of workers in the industrial transitions affecting them, and the adjustment of OHS measures to new emerging risks.
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Advocacy Point
15
Building on the Directive and the Golden Rule, the Quality Jobs Roadmap and Act should spearhead the development of strategies and measures supporting just transitions in sensitive industrial sectors, such as retraining opportunities during paid working hours, the creation of fair labour practices, including sustainable supply chains in the construction sector and limiting subcontracting in tender processes.
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Ensure adequate funding for public education at national level and prioritise the development of curricula for essential transversal competences, beyond labour market participation, including Global Citizenship Education.
Ensure that all migrants, including refugees, asylum seekers and people in an irregular status, are included in society by supporting their integration into the labour market, access to healthcare, education including Global Citizenship Education, and all essential services by eliminating the specific barriers they face.
Ensure an ambitious implementation of the adequate minimum wage directive in the wake of the deadline for its transposition at national level. Monitor the regular revision of the adequacy thresholds in the light of inflation.
Strengthen social dialogue also in candidate countries, as a fundamental instrument to ensure that the social acquis is successfully integrated in these countries’ legislation.
Take advantage of the review of the European Labour Authority (ELA)s performance to increase the support to national labour authorities to carry out inspections. Ensure that ELA leads the way also for candidate countries in protecting fair working conditions.
Make access to affordable, sustainable and decent housing a high priority by increasing investment in social housing solutions, controlling rental prices and regulating the touristic accommodation sector and its disastrous impact on housing affordability for residents.
Ensure that the announced Affordable Housing Plan connects housing unaffordability and homelessness, tackling the root causes of both in a holistic way.
Achieve universal access to healthcare by stimulating investment in public healthcare services and discouraging dispersion of resources towards the private sector. Employ these funds also to substantially improve working conditions of healthcare workers.
Put forward a comprehensive EU Anti-Poverty Strategy that prioritises adequacy of minimum income scheme including through the introduction of an adequate minimum income directive.
Introduce a European strategy for civil society to ensure an enabling environment characterised by fundamental freedoms, protection mechanisms and ensure adequate, accessible and sustainable funding.
Conclude an EU inter-institutional agreement to promote meaningful and structural civil dialogue. Ensure that the proposed EU Civil Society Platform is a first step in this direction for all policy areas, and it is developed through collaboration with civil society organisations.
The involvement of CSOs in the negotiations for the accession to the EU in candidate countries is an essential element for a rights-based and democratic enlargement of the EU. Make it compulsory for candidate countries to meaningfully involve CSOs in national policymaking in the framework of their accession process.
Address the consumption-side of energy poverty by introducing measures that put caps on energy bills and support groups in vulnerable situations to access (clean) energy.
Lead the way to make accessible sustainable mobility a reality for all in the EU through adequate investment in infrastructure and affordability measures.