The Social Protection Committee (SPC) is an advisory policy committee to the Ministers in the Employment and Social Affairs Council (EPSCO). Every year it publishes a report reviewing the social situation and policy developments across the EU and feeding into the European Semester cycle.

Its 2025 Annual Report places a spotlight on access to social protection and a general improvement in the social situation in the EU, with a reduction of just over 1 million in the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion and of 0.5 million for children.

What the SPC report tells us

However, individual Member States showed mixed trends and varying progress towards fulfilling their national poverty reduction targets, with concerning outcomes for people with disabilities. The SPC also highlights mixed developments in areas such as in work poverty, the situation of older people, and the effectiveness of social protection systems.

For what concerns the situation of people with disabilities, the report provides insights in the following areas:

• Risk of poverty or social exclusion: People with disabilities are the group with the most significant signs of deterioration in the risk of poverty or social exclusion, with the rate worsening in 10 Member States.
• Fragmentation of social protection systems: People with disabilities are disproportionally affected by the fragmentation of social protection systems. Complex rules, administrative procedures, and lack of awareness of rights remain significant obstacles to accessing social protection.
• Labour market challenges: Persistent gaps continue in the employment and participation rates of persons with disabilities, alongside women, young people, and third country nationals.
• Digital divide: Barriers related to the digitalisation of services continue to affect people with disabilities, as well as older people, low-income families, migrants, rural residents, and homeless people. Several Member States, however, are taking steps to address this by complementing digital tools with offline support, multichannel communication, digital literacy training, and user centric design.

EASPD contributed to this discussion among other civil society organisations, attending a meeting to gather information around labour and skills shortages. Key messages from this debate are expected to be adopted in September and presented at the December EPSCO meeting.

The report also highlights several mutual learning activities undertaken in 2025, including three meetings of the Disability Platformand three peer reviews organised by the SPC. One of these, hosted by Austria, was focused on the Participation of persons with disabilities in the development of social services at local level aiming to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the Austrian approach and assess its transferability to other Member States.