Social Europe

When life gives you lemons, make anti-poverty strategies

Estrella Durá Ferrandis and Alba Huertas Ruiz

As the Porto Social Forum convenes, two years on from the Social Summit there, it’s time to upgrade the EU social agenda.

Landmark European ruling on LGBT+ rights

Nausica Palazzo

European same-sex couples have a right to civil unions, Romania and Russia have recently discovered.

Rust out: boredom at work can be harmful

Valerie van Mulukom

Autonomy and intrinsic motivation spur productivity and creativity in workplaces where time is flexible and relationships good.

Turkey: does Kılıçdaroğlu have a path to victory?

The xenophobia from the social-democratic leader since his first-round defeat is unlikely to win him the second.

The economic case for affordable housing

Providing affordable housing is not only doing the right thing. There is an economic spinoff for everyone.

‘Carbon colonialism’: Europe’s global footprint

Without a global awareness, Europe’s transition to ‘net zero’ will be a zero-sum game.

On the wrong side of Britain’s history

‘National Conservatism’, Paul Mason writes, fails to chime with British national-popular culture.

An EU ‘golden rule’ for childhood social investment

Anton Hemerijck

The days when Europe’s welfare states could be represented as a ‘burden’ are over. Actually, they are a boon.

Childcare, parental leave and children’s development

Nabanita Datta Gupta and Jonas Jessen

New research examines which of these two approaches produces the best outcomes for children.

New Europe-wide survey on living and working conditions

Eurofound, in partnership with the European Training Foundation, has launched a new online survey to document living and working conditions in Europe and the evolving concerns of citizens, amid the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the broader post-Covid-19 context.

The survey is available in 33 languages and is open to everyone over the age of 16. It asks specific questions on perceptions of quality of life and quality of society, as well as working situation, housing and finances.

Add your voice and contribute to the research.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE

The spring issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to Feminist Foreign Policy, to try to gauge its potential but also the risk that it could be perceived as another attempt by the west to impose its vision on the global south.

In this issue, we also look at the human cost of the war in Ukraine, analyse the increasing connection between the centre right and the far right, and explore the difficulties, particularly for women, of finding a good work-life balance and living good working lives.

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The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.

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The four transitions and the missing one

Europe is at a crossroads, painfully navigating four transitions (green, digital, economic and geopolitical) at once but missing the transformative and ambitious social transition it needs. In other words, if the EU is to withstand the storm, we do not have the luxury of abstaining from reflecting on its social foundations, of which intermittent democratic discontent is only one expression. It is against this background that the ETUI/ETUC publishes its annual flagship publication Benchmarking Working Europe 2023, with the support of more than 70 graphs and a special contribution from two guest editors, Professors Kalypso Nikolaidïs and Albena Azmanova.

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