Social protection for apprentices? Let's see in Europe

MISSOC, the ‘Mutual Information System on Social Protection’, was established in 1990 to promote a continuous exchange of information on social protection among the EU Member States. The database includes information on social protection systems and their organisation in the 28 Member States of the European Union, the three countries of the European Economic Area – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – as well as Switzerland.

The MISSOC comparative tables contain detailed information on social protection in 32 countries structured into 12 main chapters (tables): financing, healthcare, sickness, maternity/paternity, invalidity, old age, survivors, accidents at work and occupational diseases, family, unemployment, guaranteed minimum resources and long-term care. Each table is divided into numerous categories such as legal basis, field of application, conditions and benefit amount.

They updated information on social protection systems in all EU Member States, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – including brief descriptions of their organisation and information on the social protection of the self-employed – is now available in English, French and German on the MISSOC website.

For this update, the information in Table V – Invalidity has been extensively revised to ensure completeness and consistency of information across countries.