On December 10, 2025, an international conference "Opportunities and Risks of Building a Social State in Ukraine in Global Uncertainty" was held in the Kyiv-Vilnius format. It created a scientific platform for the exchange of expertise within the project of the same name, which is implemented by the State Organization "Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" and Vilnius University as part  of bilateral international scientific cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Lithuania.

During the conference, Ukrainian and Lithuanian researchers not only reported their results, but also formed a basis for further joint research, comparative analyses, and practical policy recommendations. Participants from Lithuania presented a generalized analysis of pension reforms in their country, while Ukrainian researchers (V. Kostrytsia, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine V. Blyzniuk, Doctor of Economics S. Shumska, Doctor of Economics O. Borzenko, PhD in Economics Yu. Shapoval, postgraduate student A. Gaidai, and others) expanded the discussion, focusing on their own challenges in the field of pension policy.

Other project partners from Romania joined the discussion.

The common conclusion formulated by the conference participants was that a welfare state in the 21st century cannot remain just a mechanism for compensation or that of resource redistribution. Rather it should become a platform for sustainable development that combines economic strategy with institutional quality, integrates external resources into domestic policies, and reduces inequality as a key barrier to trust.

The conference marked a transition from fragmentation to resilience, and from local problems to global solutions, and opened a new stage of international cooperation, which is of strategic importance for the creation of a viable social state.

More details [in Ukrainian]

Presentations by V. Blyznyuk, S. Shumska, O. Borzenko, A. Gaidai