europa.euREFIT Scoreboard
← Justice, consumers and gender equality

Equal Treatment in Social Security

Overall State of play:

• Evaluation: Finalised SWD(2019) 450, 20.12.2019.

State of play, main conclusions, outlook

The Commission has conducted an evaluation of the Council Directive 79/7/EEC on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security.

Estimated savings and benefits

The results of the evaluation suggest that benefits generated by the Directive outweigh the costs of its implementation. In general, these costs were quite marginal, especially when compared to the societal well-being it generated as a beneficial outcome.

While a higher degree of gender equality is deemed beneficial to the social security system — increasing its efficiency and people’s well-being — the available literature on cost-benefit analysis does not provide any applicable analytical methodology to measure such an increase.

The national public administrations bear exclusively the direct costs resulting from the Directive’s application. These direct costs are linked to amending existing national provisions, monitoring and enforcement activities. Businesses and individuals are not required to take any specific actions that would lead to costs relevant for the evaluation.