COVID-19 one year on: A changed Europe

[Celerity]

It has been over a year since the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit Europe and many of the response measures necessary to deal with the pandemic, from working from home to social distancing, are now part of our everyday lives. In spring 2020, most citizens, although fearful of the devastating early impacts of the virus, did not envisage that their lives would be so dramatically impacted, and that the economic, social and work-related effects of the pandemic would drag on for so long.

COVID-19 has exposed how fragile the progress made on issues such as gender equality and socioeconomic convergence in Europe truly was, with women, young people, and the economically and socially marginalised most adversely impacted. Almost every aspect of our working and family lives has changed and, likewise, all of Eurofound’s research areas have been marked by COVID-19.

Not only did we roll out three rounds of the now landmark Living, working and COVID-19 online survey in 12 months to analyse the rapid change that is ongoing, but the analyses in our existing surveys and flagship reports have specifically looked at the impacts of the pandemic across the board.

While what has taken place has been tumultuous and devastating for many, the future also holds possibilities. Eurofound’s research has highlighted that COVID-19 could be a catalyst for fundamental change that will define the future of Europe, and that rather than ‘recovering’ from a crisis like we did a decade ago, we can instead reset our expectations for our lives and reshape our understanding of what we can achieve in cooperation; from building up our health and social systems, to adopting meaningful and ambitious policies to address climate change. The outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe may be moving gradually into history, but the long-term impacts of the pandemic on our work and lives is just beginning.



https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/news/news-articles/covid-19-one-year-on-a-changed-europe