Study in Focus: Social tracking methodology for the EU budget

The full study examines the evolving approach to tracking the effectiveness and impact of social expenditure from the EU budget. In the last decade, there has been a shift toward performance-based budgeting, putting the emphasis much more on the outputs and results of expenditure programmes. Despite these changes, ascertaining whether policies are achieving their underlying goals and contributing to the realisation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) remains difficult. This study analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the current system for monitoring and evaluating EU social spending and proposes improvements.