Voices & Authors

Research support officer in Eurofound's Working Life unit, working on social dialogue, industrial relations and disability rights. Her 2023 ETUI policy brief, written at the European Social Observatory, drew on Eurostat data showing an EU disability employment gap of 21.4 percentage points in 2022 (from 8.5pp in Luxembourg to 37pp in Ireland) and called for better data collection, social-partner engagement and gender mainstreaming. Holds a PhD in EU law from KU Leuven.

Director of the European Disability Forum (EDF), the umbrella organisation of representative organisations of persons with disabilities in Europe. She has an academic background in public health and 25 years of experience in the field of disability, with a focus on disability-inclusive international development, and was Vice President of Social Platform (2017–2023).

European Commissioner for Equality and for Preparedness and Crisis Management in the 2024–2029 Commission, responsible for implementing the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021–2030. In May 2026 she presented the Commission's mid-term enhancement of the strategy, which commits to improving implementation of the Disability Employment Package; only about half of the EU's 42.8 million working-age persons with disabilities are employed.

President of the Association for Supported Employment Europe (ASEE), the European umbrella body for national supported employment associations (renamed from EUSE in spring 2024). ASEE's 22 national member associations represent over 1,200 service providers supporting disabled people and people from disadvantaged groups into jobs in the open labour market.

Senior Fellow at Bruegel working on macroeconomics, EU governance and inequality, including fiscal and monetary policy, the EU budget, income and wealth inequality and inclusive growth. His 2023 Bruegel analysis compared EU and US labour-market responses to the financial crisis and the pandemic, including trends in labour-market inactivity.

Labour economist who joined IZA in 2005 and works at the intersection of research, policy advice and scientific management, having held management responsibilities on IZA's executive staff. His empirical research evaluates labour market policies such as training for the unemployed and refugee integration measures, and instruments to reduce hiring discrimination such as anonymous job applications.

Rapporteur for the European Parliament's own-initiative report on the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024, adopted in plenary on 27 November 2025 (409 in favour, 9 against, 109 abstentions). The report calls for an EU-funded employment and skills guarantee for persons with disabilities and for turning AccessibleEU into a permanent agency.

Hungarian lawyer who in 2009 became the first deaf Member of the European Parliament, using sign language in the chamber, and served as an EPP Group MEP until 2024. He was elected President of the Parliament's Disability Intergroup in December 2009. From 2024 to 2026 he was Hungary's State Secretary for Disability Affairs, and he was re-elected President of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf in 2025. He led the Hungarian Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing from 2005 to 2022.

Dutch labour economist who held the Henri Polak chair in labour relations at the University of Amsterdam from 2003 to 2024 and remains affiliated with its AIAS-HSI institute; he also directed the trade-union scientific bureau De Burcht. With Roos van der Zwan he co-authored a 2021 study using EU-SILC data for 23 European countries which found stricter employment protection associated with better labour market outcomes for people with disabilities, while targeted disability policies had little effect. His broader work covers the labour market, labour relations, inequality and the welfare state.

Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness in the 2024–2029 Commission. On 26 November 2025 she gave the Commission's closing statement in the European Parliament's plenary debate on the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024.

Co-authored (with Michelle Maroto) the ETUI Working Paper 2024.08 'Disability-based labour market inequalities', which examines cross-national trends in disability employment gaps, including during the pandemic. His research sits at the intersection of inequality, social policy and disability, including hiring discrimination and workplace accommodations.

Co-authored the 2024 ETUI working paper on disability-based labour market inequalities, which reviews the earnings and employment disparities experienced by people with disabilities across countries, including through intersectionality, unionisation and contingent work. Her wider research on social stratification takes an intersectional approach to economic insecurity, with an emphasis on disability.

Chairman and CEO of The Return on Disability Group and author of 'Unleash Different: Achieving Business Success Through Disability' (ECW Press, 2018). His firm's 'Global Economics of Disability 2024' report counts 1.6 billion people with disabilities worldwide, puts their disposable income at over $2.6 trillion in North America and Europe alone, and values the wider market, including friends and family, at over $18 trillion in spending power.

Chair of the Board of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) since August 2022. As Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (2013–2017) she introduced the Bundesteilhabegesetz, the Federal Participation Act reforming support for people with disabilities, passed by the Bundestag in December 2016. Former SPD party leader (2018–2019).

Sociologist at Germany's Institute for Employment Research (IAB) researching the labour market integration of people with severe disabilities, vocational rehabilitation, access to sheltered workshops, and the links between health and labour market integration.

Director of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the research institute of Germany's Federal Employment Agency, since 2019, and Professor of Quantitative Labour Economics at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. He has written on Germany's labour shortages, including how they coexist with registered unemployment and a large 'silent reserve' of people outside the labour force.

Researcher at the Copenhagen Research Center for Mental Health (CORE). First author of the main publications from a Danish randomised trial of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) involving 720 people with severe mental illness, including the 2019 JAMA Psychiatry results paper and a 2023 30-month follow-up showing that IPS gains in employment and education were sustained.

Leader of Venstre since 2023 and Denmark's Deputy Prime Minister from 2023 to 2026; Minister for Employment 2016–2019. In May 2024 he proposed reviewing whether disability pensioners in deprived housing areas, many of them non-Western immigrants, could still work, framing it as a way to increase labour supply. Coalition partner the Moderates rejected the idea.

Labour cabinet minister; Energy Secretary 2024–2026 and Foreign Secretary since July 2026. In March 2025, as the government announced its welfare reform package, he was reported to be among cabinet ministers who had privately voiced concerns about the planned disability benefit cuts.

Guardian columnist, author and activist for disabled people. Author of 'Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People' (Verso, 2019), which explored the impact of the UK austerity programme on disabled people. Won Commentator of the Year (Broadsheet) at the Society of Editors' Media Freedom Awards 2024.

UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from July 2024 to September 2025, when she moved to Science, Innovation and Technology (to July 2026). At DWP she led the Get Britain Working White Paper (November 2024), published with HM Treasury and the Department for Education, which set out reforms to employment, health and skills support to tackle rising economic inactivity.

Deputy Director of SEO Amsterdam Economics and head of its Labour & Social Security practice, with more than 20 years of experience in labour, education and regional economic research. His work combines microeconometric analysis with policy research on employee insurance, reintegration services, wages, flexible labour and the economic implications of ageing.

Research Professor at NOVA, OsloMet, and one of the OsloMet researchers who contributed to the 2025 government-commissioned review of Norway's health-related benefits (sickness benefits, work assessment allowance and disability benefit). Her research spans pensions, older workers and late-career transitions, and welfare policy, including a current knowledge synthesis on sick-leave schemes and return to work.

Economist researching labour market inequality, technological change and the economics of the welfare state. IZA Research Fellow and NBER Research Economist. His 2024 co-authored study 'Generation Covid' found that entry-level jobs for young people with lower education declined most in Norway during the pandemic.

Labour economist researching disability benefits, sickness absence and welfare reform in Norway. Co-authored research finding that the longer children are exposed to a father receiving disability benefits, the more likely they are to receive such benefits themselves, and research on how welfare reforms spill over onto spouses' labour supply and benefit take-up.

Co-authored with Mari Rege and Mark Votruba a study showing that plant downsizing substantially increases entry into disability pension among affected Norwegian workers (Journal of the European Economic Association, 2009). Before joining the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, where he is executive director for the Division of Health Services, he was director of research at Statistics Norway. In October 2025 he was appointed to head the secretariat of Norway's Health Reform Committee.

Author of the Norwegian bestseller 'Landet som ble for rikt' (Kagge, 2025), which argues that the way Norway uses its petroleum fund has contributed to economic stagnation. In a Nettavisen interview he argued that Norway spends twice as much on sickness and disability as the next-highest country. Previously a partner at McKinsey & Company (2008–2020), leading its Oslo office from 2016 to 2020, and a director at Aker.

Director of the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research since 2022 and a regular columnist for the business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. His empirical research covers the labour market, sickness absence, social insurance, pensions and taxes, including studies of how pension reform affects employment and disability insurance claims. IZA Research Fellow.

Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion 2023–2025 (previously Minister of Education 2021–2023) and Labour's parliamentary leader since October 2025. As labour minister she co-announced, in February 2025, the government's proposal to incorporate the UN CRPD into Norway's Human Rights Act, saying she hoped it would improve employment opportunities for disabled people; the Storting adopted it in December 2025. She also argued for shielding disabled people from the life-expectancy adjustment of their old-age pensions, which became part of the 2024 pension settlement.

Liberal Party politician who became Sweden's Minister for Employment in June 2025, responsible for labour market policy, labour law and the work environment, after serving as state secretary in the Prime Minister's Office and in senior roles at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

Professor of Economics at Uppsala University and affiliated researcher at IFAU, Sweden's institute for labour market and education policy evaluation. His empirical research covers labour market networks and hiring, worker–firm matching, wage setting, school-to-work transitions and programme evaluation, including work showing how firms use employees' social networks to recruit.

Econometrician researching Sweden's sickness and disability insurance systems. His work includes studies of screening stringency in the disability insurance programme, and field experiments on eligibility screening and monitoring of sickness insurance claimants and on early interventions to prevent long-term disability benefit receipt.

Scientific Director of the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW) in Tübingen since 2013, adjunct professor at the University of Tübingen and IZA Research Fellow. His research focuses on labour market dynamics, the evaluation of labour market policy, employment mobility and regulation affecting older workers.

As Germany's Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, introduced the Act to Promote an Inclusive Labour Market (Gesetz zur Förderung eines inklusiven Arbeitsmarkts), passed in 2023. The law added a higher fourth tier of the compensation levy from January 2024 for employers who employ no severely disabled people despite being required to, and redirected levy funds toward employment in the regular labour market. The government framed it against the backdrop of Germany's skilled-worker shortage.

Co-author of the 2023/2025 IZA/Socio-Economic Review paper showing disability onset raises non-employment probability by 10pp after one year and 15pp after five years in Germany. Uses administrative data to trace wage and employment scarring following disability onset.

Finland's Minister of Employment since May 2025, heading the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, which is responsible for employment services, labour policy and work-based immigration. A National Coalition Party MP since 2019, he chaired the party's parliamentary group from 2023 to 2025.

French politician (Renaissance) who served as France's minister for persons with disabilities from July 2023 to September 2024 under Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal. Previously a member of the National Assembly for Côte-d'Or (2017–2023), where she chaired the Social Affairs Committee from 2020 to 2023.

Labour economist whose research covers poverty, material deprivation and income inequality. In a 2024 study with Dario Sciulli in the European Journal of Health Economics, using EU-SILC data for the UK, Germany, France and Italy, she found that disability increases poverty risk despite disability cash benefits, and that poverty, work intensity and disability each show genuine state dependence.

Managing Director of the Association for Supported Employment Europe (ASEE) in Brussels, the European umbrella body for national supported employment associations. She previously worked in European social policy at Eurodiaconia.

In 2018 she became the first woman with a disability elected to the UN CEDAW Committee, which she chaired in 2023–2024. She is Secretary General of the European Disability Forum and chairs its Women's Committee.

Elected President of the European Disability Forum for 2026–2030 at its General Assembly in Limassol in May 2026, having previously served as an EDF Vice-President. Chairperson of SUSTENTO, Latvia's umbrella organisation of disability NGOs, she has more than two decades of experience in European disability rights, including many years as a member of the European Economic and Social Committee.