InvigoratEU Social Acquis Compliance Scoreboard (D5.1)

The Social Acquis Compliance Scoreboard is a monitoring tool designed to assess the formal legal convergence of EU candidate countries with the EU's social policy framework. It focuses on seven countries - Albania, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine - tracking annual progress from the signing of each country's Association Agreement (AA) with the EU until 2024. The baseline is established using the legislation in force at the time of the AA signing, and changes are assessed annually by coding new or amended laws against 100 legally binding EU social policy indicators.

The scoreboard is structured around five dimensions derived from EU law and policy: labour law, health and safety, equality and non-discrimination, social protection and inclusion, and social dialogue. Initially based on 718 indicators, the tool was streamlined for feasibility, ultimately focusing on 100 indicators across 20 attributes. National legal frameworks are assessed by human coders who evaluate whether each EU norm is fully, partially, or not at all incorporated into national law, assigning scores accordingly (0-2 points per indicator). The resulting annual scores provide a percentage-based measure of legal alignment with EU norms. This tool enables dynamic tracking of convergence trends and offers valuable insights to identify obstacles and support mechanisms for deeper EU integration in the social policy domain.