Podcast episode
New
Episode 43
26 March 2026
Shaping Europe’s social and employment future

The European Union is navigating a period of profound transformation - from the cost‑of‑living crisis to the green and digital transitions, demographic shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty. At the heart of the EU’s response to these challenges stands the Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. With 60 Members, the Committee plays a central role in ensuring fair working conditions, strong social protection, and equal opportunities across the Union.

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Mary McCaughey
Li Andersson
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6 March 2026

Podcast episode

Is work in Europe more stressful for women?

In a special video recorded for International Women's Day at the European Parliament’s VoxBox Studios, Maria Walsh MEP and Eurofound’s Barbara Gerstenberger analyse key gender equality findings from a survey of over 36,000 workers across 35 countries. Their conversation highlights how women have been impacted by significant shifts in the workplace, particularly regarding modern challenges like burnout and technostress.

26 February 2026

Podcast episode

Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode Mary McCaughey is joined by senior researcher Eszter Sandor to discuss the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the survey data reveal a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of Europeans now at risk of depression and a widening resilience gap between low-income households and those that are better off.

18 February 2026

Blog post

The locked-out generation: Europe’s housing market is failing its young people

In the capital cities of Europe, a quiet but profound decoupling has taken place. For decades, the implicit social contract suggested that as economies grew and young workers entered the labour market, they would eventually secure the keys to their own front doors.

4 February 2026

Podcast episode

The housing struggles of Europe's youth

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, Mary McCaughey is joined by Marie Hyland to discuss the latest research on housing issues for Europe’s youth. They explore why property prices and rents have outpaced wages since 2010, leaving many young adults unable to achieve independence.

19 January 2026

Podcast episode

Making the EU accountable to its citizens

In an era where public trust is paramount, the latest episode of the Eurofound Talks looks at the mechanisms that keep the European Union transparent and fiscally responsible. Host Mary McCaughey sits down with Tony Murphy, President of the European Court of Auditors, to discuss the critical role of financial oversight in safeguarding the European project. They also discuss the importance of Ireland’s upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Recent experts in this section

This section provides information on the most recent podcast speakers and blog post authors.

Mary McCaughey

Head of Unit
Information and Communication

Mary McCaughey is Head of Information and Communication in Eurofound. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the College of Europe, Bruges, she started work in Brussels with Europolitics and the Wall Street Journal Europe. She worked with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) in South Africa during the country’s transition to democracy, and in 1998 she took up the post of spokesperson with the Delegation of the European Union in Pretoria, heading up its press and information department during the negotiation of the EU–South Africa free trade agreement. Following the end of the Kosovo War, she worked as a communications consultant for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Serbia. She took up the post of Editor-in-Chief in Eurofound in 2003.

Eszter Sándor

Senior research manager
Social policies research

Eszter Sandor is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. She has extensive experience in survey management, including questionnaire design and scripting, data preparation (processing, cleaning, weighting), and statistical analysis using R. She manages Eurofound’s e-survey (Living and working in the EU) and contributes to the preparation and management of the European Quality of Life Survey. Her research focuses on the quality of life of young people and families, including subjective well-being, mental well-being and living conditions.
Before joining Eurofound, she worked as an economic consultant in Scotland, specialising in economic impact assessments, evaluations, and input-output analysis. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics and Business and a Master’s degree in Economics and International Relations from Corvinus University of Budapest.

Barbara Gerstenberger

​Head of Unit
Working life research

Barbara Gerstenberger is Head of the Working Life unit at Eurofound. In this role, she coordinates the research teams investigating job quality in Europe based on the European Working Conditions Survey and industrial relations in the EU. She joined Eurofound in 2001 as a research manager in the then newly established European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). In 2007, she moved to Eurofound’s Information and Communication unit as Head of Communication Products, before being appointed Coordinator in the Directorate in 2011. Previously, she worked as senior research officer in the European Metalworkers’ Federation in Brussels. A graduate in political science from Hamburg University, she completed a Master's degree in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Marie Hyland

Research officer
Social policies research

Marie Hyland joined Eurofound as a research officer in the Social Policies unit in 2023. Her research focuses on issues related to housing, the social implications of the green transition and the socioeconomic situations of vulnerable groups. Prior to joining Eurofound, Marie spent several years as an economist at the World Bank, where her research covered women’s employment and economic empowerment, private sector development and the economics of climate change. Marie holds a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Maryland.

Tony Murphy

President of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), a position he has held since October 2022. As an Irish national, he first became a Member of the Court in 2018 and was re-elected for a new term as President starting 1 October 2025.

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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies