The COVID-19 outbreak put Europe, as well as the rest of the world, under exceptional public health, economic and social stress. In addition to the high death toll in 2020, economic activity suffered an exceptional slump and the state of the EU labour market deteriorated. These adverse developments are reflected in all main economic and social indicators, including for young people, who are among the most affected by the crisis. The EU and its Member States have been mobilising a wide range of measures to tackle and mitigate the impact of the crisis. At the EU level this included the flexibilisation of state aid, with the adoption of the State Aid Temporary Framework in March 2020, and fiscal rules to enable national governments to financially support healthcare systems, businesses, and keep people in employment during the crisis. The measures also include a more flexible use for the EU Cohesion Funds and an innovative instrument to underpin 'temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency' (SURE). The major European Recovery Plan, comprising up to EUR 1.8 trillion, involves the creation of a new recovery instrument, 'Next Generation EU', which is embedded in a modern and revamped long-term EU budget. At the same time, the European Commission, with the adoption of EASE (Recommendation on Effective Active Support to Employment following the COVID-19 crisis), outlined a strategic approach to gradually transition from emergency measures taken to preserve jobs during the pandemic to new measures needed for a job-rich recovery, promoting job creation and job-to-job transitions, including towards the digital and green sectors.

The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking. In this 2015 edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play, the authors tackle the topics of the state of EU politics after the parliamentary elections, the socialisation of the European Semester, methods of political protest, the Juncker investment plan, the EU’s contradictory education investment, the EU’s contested influence on national healthcare reforms, and the neoliberal Trojan Horse of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Since the mid 1990s, the focus of European employment and social policy has shifted from protection to promotion. This book provides a timely analysis of this new form of governance, and the new forms of policy delivery and audit which accompany it. The limitations of the current approach became particularly apparent during the financial crisis of 2008, and it has now reached a turning point. The book offers a new coherent European reform agenda that views easing transitions in employment and promoting the development of individual and collective capabilities as cornerstones. The contributing authors focus on vocational training, life course policies, reflexive labour law and social insurance, from theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives. Transforming European Employment Policy will be of great benefit to policymakers as well as those researching or studying European law, labour law, industrial relations, political science, social policy or international business.

The exceptional response of solidarity to the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to mitigate some of the socio-economic impact of the crisis, keeping income inequality and poverty in the EU at bay. This year's edition of the Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) confirms the tentative findings of the previous one in this respect and provides further insights on the recovery. Nevertheless, during the last two years, some groups - such as young people - were more affected than others. These inequalities risk to be reinforced by the consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, particularly given the recent price spikes.

In 2022, the EU labour markets have demonstrated remarkable resilience despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, high inflation and an economic slowdown. We have witnessed record levels of employment, with the highest number of people in employment and the lowest levels of unemployment ever. This demonstrates the resilience of our labour markets and our social market economy.