On 27th June 2025, the rEUsilience project concluded its three-year research project with a vibrant high-level final conference in Brussels. The event brought together over 90 participants, including EU policymakers, ministries of different countries, civil society organisations from European, international, national and regional level, grassroots family organisations, and researchers.

The conference, titled “The State of Family Resilience in Europe Today: New Evidence to Support Policy Reform,” marked a pivotal moment in this project’s journey. Over the past three years, the rEUsilience consortium has taken stock of the lived experiences of 300 families across six countries, analysed welfare and labour market systems, and developed actionable policy recommendations through the Policy Labs to support families facing increasing risks. Elizabeth Gosme (Director at COFACE Families Europe) and Giuliana Sicolo (Project Officer of the European Research Executive Agency, European Commission) welcomed all participants.

Introduction to the rEUsilience project

Project joint coordinators Rense Nieuwenhuis (Stockholm University) and Mary Daly (University of Oxford) opened the conference with a clear message: family resilience is often seen as a responsibility on the individual or familial level, while it is marked by broader structural conditions and systemic inequalities such as the changing world of work and welfare state limitations. “The stocktaking pillar of the research revealed how low-resourced families are in the greatest need for resilience but face compounded adversities, trade-offs between care, work and time, and insufficient support from existing welfare systems”, Nieuwenhuis said. Over the course of the Policy Lab Pillar, ‘resilience’ was framed as a relational process and a virtuous cycle which involved: risks or shocks, resources or capacities available to deal with these shocks, and having adaptive agency to react to these risks, Daly explained. ‘Family Resilience’ in this regard implies “families’ capacities to engage in family life, which involves caregiving, especially for children, and make transitions involved in family life and from care to paid work without incurring major risk or negative trade-offs.”

Key messages and policy recommendations

Three headline keynotes framed the conference themes and highlighted how current policies often fall short, particularly for low-resourced families, single parents, and those caring for family members. Anna Kurowska (University of Warsaw) emphasised that families often navigate “care trilemmas” with limited support. Wim Van Lancker (KU Leuven) made a strong case for bringing back universal policies with differentiated support to support family-based transitions for all families, without stigma or exclusion. Ivana Dobrotić (University of Zagreb) presented the need for integrated and flexible policies which support continuity, prevent unnecessary trade-offs, and avoid gaps in support, calling for comprehensive family support services.

You can watch these keynotes presentations also on the rEUsilience Youtube Channel.

Across parallel sessions, participants deepened the discussions by engaging with the researchers, focusing on the three policy principles pillars:

1. Better income support for families, particularly those with low resources, by prioritising universal, adequately funded benefits over conditional, fragmented systems. This parallel session was presented and guided by Wim Van Lancker (KU Leuven) and Margarita León (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
2. Closing the childcare gap, through universal access to early childhood education and care (ECEC), inclusive leave policies, and better support for families who have irregular working conditions presented and facilitated by Ivana Dobrotić (University of Zagreb) and Anna Matysiak (University of Warsaw)
3. Building comprehensive, locally rooted family support services, ensuring national frameworks providing consistency, funding and a holistic service design. This session was chaired by Mary Daly (University of Oxford) and Merve Uzunalioğlu (University of Oxford)

From ideas to action: tools for implementation

A major milestone of the project concerns the co-creation of a ‘European Roadmap for Family Resilience’ which is the result of intensive stakeholder collaboration through the rEUsilience Policy Labs, and which was first unveiled and discussed during the final Policy Lab. The roadmap for boosting the rights and resilience of European families encompasses recommendations for EU-level actions in line with EU-and national social policy competences and key conditions for EU implementations, including:

1. A proposal for a European peer exchange on integrated family support models through an EU peer review, presented by Holly Shorey (Senior Project and Advocacy Officer, COFACE Families Europe) and provided of a reaction by Tatjana Katkić Stanić (Director, Croatian Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy).
2. A call for improved EU data infrastructure to better measure family resilience by including the Families in Household Typology (FHT) and ad-hoc modules on adult care and work. Presented by Alžběta Bártová (KU Leuven) and Max Thaning (Stockholm University) and commented on by María Calle García (Chair of the Indicators’ Sub-Group of the Social Protection Committee)
3. A guide for using the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to help boost funding for family support, presented by Elizabeth Gosme (Director, COFACE Families Europe)

Participants parallelly exchanged in these EU-level sessions during the conference, calling for continued learning across member states, better monitoring of family diversity in data collection systems, and civil society’s greater involvement in shaping and delivering EU funds. The complete Roadmap will be published here during the Autumn.

Towards EU-level change

In the closing plenary sessions, EU officials and civil society leaders discussed how upcoming EU policy initiatives, such as the revision of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and the new Gender Equality Strategy, could integrate the rEUsilience findings. Stefan Iszkowski (European Commission) underscored the importance of aligning the findings with the upcoming revision of the EPSR Action Plan, encouraging civil society to continue advocacy during policy planning, for example, through positions papers. Marta Pompili (Equinet Europe) emphasised the importance of the EU Gender Equality Strategy to ensure fundamental rights and as pivotal in relation to EU’s priorities of fairness, competition and resilience. In line with the rEUsilience findings, Pompili called for the recognition of the feminisation of poverty in the new Gender Equality Strategy and for a stronger focus on intersectionality. Réka Tunyogi (Social Platform) called for continued strong social investments in the next long-term EU budget to be able to use tools such as the ESF+ and suggested to use the European Semester as a key tool for encouraging Member states to bringing family and social inclusion priorities to the negotiation table of the next EU financial period.

A launchpad for change

This rEUsilience Final Policy Lab and Final conference was not only a culmination of three years of research and strong engagement with stakeholders to road-test policies, but it was also a launchpad. As Europe continues to face social, economic and demographic challenges, the rEUsilience project leaves behind a solid foundation to reshape policies around the realities of families in Europe. With its evidence-based roadmap, road-tested policy solutions, and a growing network of academics, policymakers, and grassroots family organisations who represent the voices of families, this rEUsilience projects reflects the commitment of many to create a more resilient, inclusive and just Europe for all families.

You can find the full report here.

Pictures by Ben Cutore