This article analyses the effects of the European Social Fund (ESF) on domestic activation policies in the three Belgian regions: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. We argue that over the last decade the ESF has had a catalytic impact, first on the innovation of activation instruments, second on the governance of employment policies and third on policy framing. We explain how three different mechanisms (leverage, conditionality and learning) generate these effects and how they can account for a differential influence in different regions. We conclude by summarizing our research findings and framework, suggesting its usefulness for analyzing other domestic settings and European policy instruments.

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In comparative European surveys it is common practice to exclude elderly people living in collective households from the sampling frame. This article examines the implications of this practice for the validity and international comparability of indicators in the Open Method of Coordination on Pensions (Pensions OMC). Analyses using data from the Belgian Datawarehouse Labour Market and Social Protection show that the resulting bias is negligible for average equivalent pension income, but that poverty among pensioners is underestimated by 9%. In subgroups such as the oldest pensioners the underestimation is even larger. Due to the major international differences in the percentage of elderly in collective households, this bias also jeopardizes the international comparability of poverty indicators in the Pensions OMC. This renders the identification of best practices in the Pensions OMC unreliable. Furthermore, it may nourish an unconstructive politics of indicators which in the longer term undermines the credibility and effectiveness of the Pensions OMC.

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