Social Protection in Europe has been published every other year since 1993. The three reports to date have been widely acclaimed as authoritative studies of developments in social protection systems in EU Member States and of the way that their features are being modified in response to economic, social and demographic changes.

Alphametrics has played a large part in their preparation, contributing reviews of policy developments and detailed quantitative analysis of data from ESSPROS on social protection expenditure and financing.

ESSPROS is the European System of Social Protection Statistics, compiled by Eurostat

Alphametrics has collaborated closely with Applica sprl (a Brussels based consultancy) on this work. The 1999 report is now complete and should be published in the near future. The report takes as its starting point the European Commission proposal for modernising social protection systems across the EU and focuses on four main objectives which should be common to policy in all Member States:

• making work pay and providing secure income;
• making pensions safe and pension systems sustainable;
• promoting social exclusion;
• ensuring high quality and sustainable health care.

In addition to reviewing policy developments in the light of these objectives, the report analyses ongoing social, economic and demographic trends in Europe; examines the scale and rate of growth of spending on social welfare and the pattern of financing and assesses the increasing emphasis of policy on getting people into work and away from dependency on social benefits. It also reviews, for the first time, social welfare systems in Central and Eastern European countries.