Brussels, 12–13 March 2025 – The fifth formal meeting of the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAN) brought together national independent experts and senior officials from the European Commission to engage in a comprehensive review of ongoing EU social policy priorities. In his capacity as National Coordinator of ESPAN and Lead Economist at the ISET Policy Institute, Dr. Davit Keshelava represented Georgia at the meeting.

Held in Brussels, the meeting opened with updates from the European Commission on key developments in the fields of employment, social protection, and inclusion. Among the highlights was the presentation of the 2025 Joint Employment Report, which outlined trends in labour market resilience, gender and age-based employment disparities, and progress toward the EU’s 2030 targets. The report underscored persistent challenges in labour and skills shortages, as well as limited advances in poverty reduction and social convergence—topics of shared relevance to EU and neighbourhood countries alike.

In the course of the meeting, significant attention was given to two thematic areas. The first focused on flexible retirement pathways, with a synthesis report analysing trends and reforms across 28 European countries. The second thematic discussion addressed long-term care (LTC) settings, during which draft guidelines for mapping the availability, balance, and quality of LTC services were introduced. These guidelines aim to capture national variations in service delivery, ownership, funding, and innovation and will guide ESPAN country experts in drafting their national contributions over the coming months.

One of the most notable moments of the meeting was the European Commission’s commendation of Georgia’s 2023–2024 Country Profile, which was described as a high-quality contribution, offering strong analytical depth and a well-structured overview of policy challenges and developments. This recognition reflected Georgia’s growing capacity to inform regional policy debates and contribute meaningfully to comparative analyses across Europe.

Discussions also covered the upcoming rollout of an EU-wide monitoring framework to track the implementation of the Council Recommendation on access to affordable high-quality long-term care. The framework, structured around five dimensions—adequacy, availability, quality, workforce, and informal carers—will rely on a combination of performance indicators, policy levers, and contextual data. National experts were invited to provide feedback and align their country-level reporting with the new structure.