Europe’s Social Protection Measures Fall Short In Combating Poverty Risks

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

November 28, 2025

Overview Of Divergent National Trends

The latest European Commission report, Social Protection Committee Annual Report 2025, highlights that existing social measures across Europe are not sufficiently robust to eliminate the risk of poverty among workers and the broader population. The report reveals a marked divergence among Member States: while nearly half report a significant reduction in poverty risk, almost one-third have experienced an increase.

Variations In Unemployment Benefit Uptake

Analysis indicates that in approximately half of the Member States, there has been an increase in the number of citizens receiving unemployment benefits. Particularly steep rises have been observed in countries such as Austria, Croatia, and the Netherlands. Conversely, countries including Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, and Spain have registered declines, with three Member States showing little to no change.

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Shifts In Social Welfare Distribution

The report further details that nearly half of the Member States have seen declines in the number of beneficiaries of social welfare benefits, with pronounced reductions in Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. However, about one-third of the nations have experienced increases, notably marked in Bulgaria and Spain.

Ageing Populations And Benefit Allocations

Nine countries allocate more than half of their total social protection expenditure to old-age benefits. Italy tops this list at 59.2%, followed by Portugal (54.8%), Romania (53.2%), and Poland (52.7%). In some cases, these high allocations can be attributed to the challenges posed by an ageing population. Excluding Ireland, where disease and healthcare benefits dominate, the next highest expenditure in several countries has been in the area of healthcare, ranging from 45.0% in Ireland to around 22% in Finland, Denmark, and Italy.

Targeted Reforms For The Cultural And Self-Employed Sectors

Recent initiatives have been directed at workers in niche sectors. Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and Cyprus have enhanced the social protection regimes for artists and other cultural professionals. In Poland, legislation is underway to integrate professional artists into the social security system, backed by public funding to support their contributions.

Innovations In Self-Employment Coverage

Several reforms have addressed the needs of the self-employed. For instance, Greece and Germany have extended maternity leave benefits to self-employed women, following Italy’s lead from 2022. Malta has broadened paternity leave rights for the self-employed. Moreover, Cyprus has expanded benefits relating to workplace accidents and occupational illnesses for the self-employed, while Belgium now mandates platform companies to insure their self-employed workers against workplace accidents.

Deferred Reforms And Future Considerations

However, not all announced measures have been implemented as planned. For instance, Cyprus opted not to extend unemployment benefits to self-employed individuals at this stage, and Poland has yet to adopt its scheduled comprehensive reform for extending social protection to all workers under civil contracts.

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Women Make Up A Majority Of The EU’s Science And Technology Workforce But The Real Gap Is Elsewhere

by News Editor

June 25, 2026

Women now make up the majority of the EU’s science and technology workforce. According to Eurostat, in 2025, more than 81.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were employed in science and technology occupations across the EU. Of those, 52.5% were women, equal to 42.8 million women. The number of women in these occupations rose by 27.9% compared with 2015, an increase of more than 9.3 million over a decade.

On the surface, the numbers resemble progress. However, Eurostat’s category requires context before that figure can be read accurately. The data refers to HRST, or Human Resources in Science and Technology, specifically people employed in science and technology occupations. These are roles where the main tasks require professional or technical knowledge in physical and life sciences, but also in social sciences and humanities. That definition is wider and broader than engineering, ICT, laboratory science, or high-tech research alone.

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Zooming In

The gender picture changes once the data moves from a wider definition of the workforce to the narrower scientist-and-engineer (research and manufacturing) subgroup.

Scientists and engineers represented almost a quarter of all people employed in science and technology in the EU in 2025. Eurostat describes scientists and engineers as often being the innovators at the centre of technology-led development, making them an important subgroup to focus on separately.

Women accounted for only 40.8% of scientists and engineers in 2025, despite making up more than half of the wider category. That share has increased by a mere 0.5 percentage points over the past decade. The absolute number of women working as scientists and engineers rose from 5.3 million in 2015 to 8.2 million in 2025, despite the push from national and international organisations to increase the number of women in the field. Europe has expanded the number of women in science and technology occupations over ten years. However, that expansion has not extended equally into the scientist-and-engineer subgroup, where much of Europe’s research and innovation work is conducted.

In 2025, of the 39.4 million women aged 25 to 64 working in science and technology occupations in the EU, 35.5 million worked in service activities. Only 2.7 million worked in manufacturing. Women accounted for 57.5% of science and technology employment in services, but only 31.3% in manufacturing.

In 2025, the highest shares of women employed in science and technology occupations were recorded in Latvia at 62.4%, followed by Hungary’s Great Plain and North region at 61.1%, Estonia at 60.5%, Poland’s Central macroregion at 60.4%, and Lithuania at 60.3%. No EU country recorded a majority of women among science and technology workers in manufacturing.

Break-down

Eurostat’s figures measure employment in broad science and technology occupations. They do not show job security, pay levels, management roles, promotion rates, research leadership, or whether women are concentrated in junior or senior workplace positions.

The classification of “senior” also requires additional explanation. Eurostat reports that 45.9% of science and technology workers aged 25 to 64 in the EU were classified as “senior” HRST in 2025. In this dataset, “senior” refers to workers aged 45 to 64. It does not mean senior manager, senior researcher, team lead, or decision-maker.

A high female share in the wider Human Resource Science and Technology (HRST) category does not parallel equal representation across scientists, engineers, manufacturing roles, senior posts, pay, research funding, or decision-making. These figures also reflect the occupational mix inside each country or region, not only structural progress across all areas of science and technology.

The Case Of Cyprus

Eurostat data places Cyprus’s overall science and technology employment at 37.2% of the labour force in 2025, slightly above the EU-27 figure of 36.9%, and above Greece at 26.8%, Malta at 33.9%, and Turkey at 18.2%. This figure covers the total share of the labour force employed in science and technology across all genders.

Progress Or Work-in-Progress?

52.5% in the broad category. 40.8% among scientists and engineers. 31.3% in manufacturing. Europe’s gender gap in science and technology hasn’t closed yet, and there is still work to be done to encourage and support more women to enter the field, especially in research and manufacturing.

Let’s not wait another decade for another couple of percentage points of hope.

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