THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. Reforming Europe in a time of war

Social Europe: Retaining the status quo during the pandemic, avoiding new disparities 31 an social policy. In particular, this entails strengthening resilience in times of economic crisis, as is also reflected in regional development: economically developed centres may be more dependent on global economic fluctuations and initially more affected by the collapse in economic output than regions where the exposure and potential to be hit by a recession is low. However, while businesses hit in already stagnant regions and the accompanying rise in unemployment are difficult to repair, economic mo- mentum in metropolitan areas that are structurally sound ensures that the crisis is quickly overcome. Viewed over time, the structurally weak regions thus lose more as a result of the economic slump than the structurally strong ones. It can therefore be assumed that the major econom- ic crises of recent years have deepened the socioeconomic divisions from a territorial perspective also. In particular, the social consequences of the various crises – such as rising unemployment and a higher risk of poverty or so- cial exclusion – can only be combated with considerable difficulty in less dynamic places. Here, the people affected see their only chance of changing their own situation in emigration, a decision that leads to new polarisations in the medium term, even in the metropolises. Bibliography ETUI/ETUC (2021): The European Trade Union Institute/ The European Trade Union Confederation: Bench- marking Working Europe 2021. Unequal Europe, Brussels 2021. European Commission (2021): Labour Market andWage Developments in Europe. Annual review 2021, Brus- sels: 2021. European Commission (2022a): European Economic Forecast. Winter 2022, Institutional Paper 169, Feb- ruary 2022. European Commission (2022b): European Economic Forecast. Spring 2022, Institutional Paper 173, May 2022. European Commission (2022c): Joint Employment Report 2022. As adopted by the Council on 14 March 2022, Brussels. European Commission (2022d): Commission welcomes Member States’ targets for a more social Europe by 2030, Press release, Brussels, 16 June 2022, IP/22/3782. Hacker, Björn (2021): Unequal Europe. Tackling Regional Disparities in the EU, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung/Foun- dation for European Progressive Studies: Stockholm/ Brussels. Social Protection Committee (2021): 2021 SPC annual review of the Social Protection Performance Monitor (SPPM) and developments in social protection pol- icies. Report on key social challenges and key mes- sages, Brussels, October 2021. Vanhercke, Bart/Spasova, Slavina (2021): Dealing with the pandemic: re-emerging social ambitions as the EU recovers, in: Vanhercke, Bart/Spasova, Slavina (Ed.): Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2021, OSE/ETUI: Brussels.