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EU funds need stronger social conditionalitySociety

EU funds need stronger social conditionality

Claes-Mikael Ståhl, Judith Kirton-Darling, Jan Willem Goudriaan and 2 more

The rules for allocation of EU funds should be more transparent and provide a meaningful role for the social partners.

Not so much a shortage of skills as a shortage of payEconomy

Not so much a shortage of skills as a shortage of pay

Wouter Zwysen

Labour shortages following the pandemic have increased most and are most severe in jobs with lower wages and poorer conditions.

Russia’s appeal to ‘warrior masculinity’Politics

Russia’s appeal to ‘warrior masculinity’

Marina Yusupova

Putin’s Victory Day pitch for more military recruits is unlikely to encourage men to enlist in the army.

Greening eastern Europe’s growth enginesEcology

Greening eastern Europe’s growth engines

Soňa Muzikárová

The region has moved far too slowly in an era in which decarbonisation and climate resilience are essential.

Euronews: public-interest journalism in jeopardySociety

Euronews: public-interest journalism in jeopardy

Oliver Roethig and Ricardo Gutierrez

Workers and their unions are today sounding the alarm for media independence at the heart of Europe.

Steel’s power—and politicians’ lack of mettleEcology

Steel’s power—and politicians’ lack of mettle

Sabine Frank

The steel industry’s strategic importance and lobbying power have shielded it from a tightening of the Emissions Trading System.

Elevating the Cinderellas of social careSociety

Elevating the Cinderellas of social care

Lisa Pelling

The pandemic put care workers under terrible pressure, Lisa Pelling writes. Yet unions have been able to win greater recognition for them.

Introducing AI at work: workers must be involvedSociety

Introducing AI at work: workers must be involved

Isabelle Barthès and Patricia Velicu

Rather than being displaced or controlled by AI, workers should be co-designers of its workplace deployment.

Ukraine reforms welfare system as cost of war risesSociety

Ukraine reforms welfare system as cost of war rises

Kateryna Semchuk and Thomas Rowley

Social support will become means-tested as millions of Ukrainians face war, displacement and poverty.

Europe needs a social compassSociety

Europe needs a social compass

Esther Lynch, Nicola Countouris and Philippe Pochet

Europe is undergoing multiple transitions. For these to succeed, social dialogue to build consensus will be essential.

Oh, Europe!?—a vision is still neededPolitics

Oh, Europe!?—a vision is still needed

Günther Schmid

Why it remains worthwhile to listen to the embattled French president, Emmanuel Macron—and why not.

Financing the common goodEconomy

Financing the common good

Mariana Mazzucato

The UN has warned that ‘humanity’s very survival’ is threatened. Radical reform of international finance is required.

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

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.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

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.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

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

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Call for tender: policy study

Do you want to research and write for progressives on the state of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the future of the EU social agenda?

We seek an expert to write a policy study with information gathered at national levels, while working with members of Social Platform, FEPS and Solidar, and national civil society.


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