Brussels,

Social Protection Committee


The Social Protection Committee (SPC) is an advisory policy committee to the Ministers in the Employment and Social Affairs Council (EPSCO). The SPC is established with a Council decision under article 160 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
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The SPC uses as its main policy framework the social Open Method of Coordination (OMC), which aims to meet EU goals in the social policy area. It encompasses all major social policy strands:


The SPC's tasks include:
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  • monitoring the social situation and the development of social protection policies in the Member States and in the EU,
  • promoting discussion and coordination of policy approaches among national governments and the Commission,
  • preparing reports, formulating opinions or undertaking other work within its fields of competence, at the request of either the Council, the Commission or on its own initiative,
  • preparing Council discussions on social protection and on the country-specific recommendations in the context of the European Semester.
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Organisation and working methods

​The SPC is composed of two delegates from each Member State and the Commission.
The SPC meets every month except in July and August. Two times per year, the meetings take place in the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The SPC elects a chairperson who holds office for a two-year period (renewable once). The current chair is Peter Lelie (BE).
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The chairperson is assisted by a bureau, which consists of the Commission, 4 vice-chairs (2 elected vice-chairs, 1 representative from the current and 1 representative from the next Council Presidency country), the SPC secretary, the General Secretariat of the Council, and the chairperson of the Indicators subgroup. The current elected vice-chairs are Rute Guerra (PT) and Rita Skrebiskiene (LT).
The SPC Secretariat is provided by the Commission through a team of officials including Georgi Karaghiozov, Paul Minty and Ginta Niedra. The current secretary is Georgi Karaghiozov.
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SPC subgroups

The SPC has one permanent subgroup - the Indicators' subgroup (ISG), which is responsible for developing and defining EU social indicators to monitor Member States' progress towards the objectives underpinning the social OMC. In addition, the SPC may establish ad hoc working groups for in-depth policy work/reports.
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The Working Group was set up in 2001 to:

Organisation
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The ISG:
  • is composed of national experts in the fields of social inclusion, pensions and health and long term care from each EU country and the European Commission.
  • is supported by the Commission’s policy analysts (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) and statisticians (Eurostat).
  • draws on academic expertise through studies and specific contributions.
The current composition of the ISG Bureau is as follows: Chair: Kristoffer Lundberg (SE): Vice-Chairs: Csaba Andor (HU) and Maria Calle-Garcia (ES), and the Secretariat and Commission representative(s).
The ISG Secretariat is provided by the Commission. The current Secretary is Paul Minty.
Monitoring and benchmarking frameworks

Several monitoring and benchmarking frameworks for use in analytical assessments have been developed jointly by the SPC and the Commission, and, for some, also with the Employment Committee. Further details on the frameworks and links to the related documentation and results are available below.


Monitoring frameworks
Social Protection Performance Monitor (SPPM)
  • The SPC developed in 2012 a monitoring tool, which identifies annual key social trends to watch across the EU and key social challenges and good social outcomes within individual Member States.
  • About the Social Protection Performance Monitor (for the latest version of the methodological description and indicator lists see the sections "SPPM dashboard methodology" and "SPPM methodology used for the identification of Member States' key social challenges and good social outcomes" of the latest SPC Annual Report)
  • SPPM dashboard results (see main body of latest SPC Annual Report)
  • Assessment of Key Social Challenges and Good Social Outcomes (see SPPM Country profiles annex (Annex 1) of latest SPC Annual Report)

Joint Assessment Framework (JAF)
  • Developed jointly by the European Commission, SPC and the Employment Committee (EMCO), the JAF is an analytical tool to underpin evidence-based policy making based on a three-step approach:
    1. quantitative assessment based on indicators
    2. qualitative assessment that qualifies and complements the findings from step 1
    3. prioritising challenges and identifying key challenges
  • It is used as an analytical tool in the dialogue between the Commission and the Member States to support the identification of key employment and social challenges and help Member States establish their priorities.
  • Its added-value is its EU cross-country comparative dimension, which can, for instance, help MS evaluate the relative magnitude of their challenges.
  • The JAF results should also be seen as a tool to promote multilateral surveillance and support an overall assessment of the situation at EU level.
  • Check the results from the latest update of the Joint Assessment Framework dataset (i.e. assessment charts and indicators corresponding to the quantitative step 1 of the JAF).
Background documentation
Joint Assessment Framework for Health
  • The SPC has developed a module focused on the health policy area within the Joint Assessment Framework (JAF) in order to strengthen the assessment of health systems in the EU.
  • The objective of the framework is to strengthen the use of the evidence-base by the Social Protection Committee (SPC) in its activities related to health policy in the context of the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC).
  • The latest published update of the results of the Joint Assessment Framework (JAF) for Health were included in the 2018 Annual Report of the Social Protection Committee (see Annex 3. JAF Health Country Analyses).
Background documentation

Monitoring framework to assess access to social protection for workers and the self-employed
  • The Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed adopted in November 2019  provided that: by 15 November 2020, the Commission should, jointly with the Social Protection Committee, establish a monitoring framework and develop agreed common quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess the implementation of this Recommendation, enabling its review.
  • The Commission and the ISG worked throughout 2020 to develop this monitoring framework. A first version (‘version 0’) was endorsed by the Social Protection Committee at the end of October 2020.
  • It contains a theoretical framework and three types of indicators (performance indicators, context indicators, policy levers) and constitutes the baseline against which further progress can be evaluated on an annual basis.
  • In 2021, the Commission prepared, jointly with the Social Protection Committee, an update of performance indicators on coverage and adequacy and on the rules governing contributions and entitlements.

Work-life balance indicator framework
  • In the autumn of 2020, an indicator framework and a related guidance manual were developed to support the collection of comparative data on the take up of care related leaves: paternity, parental and carers’, as well as flexible working arrangements.
  • The framework aims to support the proper monitoring and assessment of the Directive of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers, in particular with regard to gender equality.
Background documentation

LTC monitoring framework
  • The SPC-ISG together with the European Commission has been developing a monitoring framework in the field of long-term care since 2018. It thereby supports the collection of comparative data as part of the OMC long-term care work stream regarding access, quality and sustainability and works closely with EUROSTAT to develop and harmonise European data collections.
  • The framework aims to support the monitoring and assessment of the implementation of principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights on long-term care.

Benchmarking frameworksThe Communication of 26 April 2017 establishing the European Pillar of Social Rights identified benchmarking as a key tool to support structural reforms and foster upward convergence in the employment and social fields within the European Semester. Since then, benchmarking frameworks have been developed and discussed with Member States in several areas.
In particular, the Employment Committee (EMCO) and the Social Protection Committee (SPC) have agreed on a common approach in three steps:
  1. identification of key challenges and a set of high level outcome indicators relevant for the policy area under consideration;
  2.  identification of policy related performance indicators which allow for benchmarking performance;
  3.  the identification of policy levers, which are accompanied by general principles for policy guidance and, when available, by specific indicators.
Benchmarking frameworks have been developed, or are under development, in the following areas:
Minimum income benchmarking
  • A benchmarking framework on minimum income benefits for the working age population has been established and three key policy levers were identified that are most likely to affect their performance: (1) adequacy of benefits, (2) eligibility rules and take-up of benefits, and (3) activation and access to services.   
Background documentation (2021 update)

Pensions adequacy benchmarking
  • A benchmarking framework on pension adequacy supports the implementation of principle 15 of the European Pillar of Social Rights. It is to be applied against the background of the more complete analysis in the pension adequacy report.        
 Background document  (2022 version)
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Benchmarking childcare and support to children
  • A benchmarking framework on childcare and support to children has been established which aims to monitor two key aspects of the principle 11 of the European Pillar of Social Rights – children’s right to affordable early childhood education and care of good quality (principle 11a) and children’s right to protection from poverty (principle 11b). More specifically, it aims to monitor children’s i) adequate access to resources, and ii) access to quality services.

Social Indicators

One of the main achievements of the social Open Method of Coordination has been the development of EU indicators in the areas of social inclusion and social protection (pensions, healthcare and long-term care).

EU social indicators are used in various contexts, including:
EU social indicators dataset