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Conference ‘The State of the Welfare State in EU anno 1992 and 20 years later’, Leuven, 19-20 October 2015

NEWS

02 Oct 2015

Conference ‘The State of the Welfare State in EU anno 1992 and 20 years later’, Leuven, 19-20 October 2015

For the fifth time already, every five years, the welfare state and housing research group of HIVA organises a European conference on the impact of the European integration on mostly national systems of social protection.

Please click here for programme and registration.

Since the last conference a new financial and broader budgetary crisis has occurred, affecting the very core of the welfare state, and we have witnessed a deepening and especially greater entrenchment of the economic crisis. At the same time, stock markets have to a large extent recovered from the last two crises, with some observers again warning about the risk of a bubble. How welfare states can survive in this turmoil, and perhaps even worst-case scenarios, is the question we put to colleagues from 26 EU Member States in this conference anno 2015.

Experts from 26 EU Member States will provide the audience with a two-day scientific tour across Europe of how the welfare state in their country will be influenced, in reality or in the political discourse, by the European economic integration process.

In the afternoon of the first day, before entering the debate on the welfare states in the Low Countries, the Flemish Minister of Social Policy, Health and Family Jo Vandeurzen will give the outline were we will go from here in Flanders to develop a ‘Flemish Social Protection’ scheme, a massive exercise among others in devolution of the long‑term care.

This fifth conference will give the community of dedicated but non-partisan researchers, some of which have been contributing since the beginning to this series of conferences, an opportunity to consider these developments before an audience consisting of representatives from a target group of social movements, policymakers, social security administrations and researchers.