The rejection by the European Parliament of Slyvie Goulard as French commissioner showed that ‘it’s France’ is not a sufficient excuse for special treatment.
Columns & Interviews
Can Europe help the Balkans keep its young emigrants?
High emigration rates are doing massive damage to the prospects of the western Balkans—would a stronger EU perspective reverse this outflow?
Western Balkans need accession-talks signal from EU
Access for the states concerned, most immediately for North Macedonia and Albania, would be many years off—but the symbolism is important.
Is it time to ban political advertising on Facebook?
Karin Pettersson argues that ‘free speech’ is not a licence for politicians relying on rage to lie, and for such lies to be amplified by ‘social media’.
The limits of the nationalist left
The nationalist left offers one response to neoliberal globalisation. The wrong one.
Wellbeing: an economy that works for children?
A Child Guarantee can be a second launchpad for investing in children.
Time to act to leave no child behind
Children without or at risk of losing parental care represent a stain on Europe’s moral conscience.
Preventing digital feudalism
Reforming the digital economy so that it serves collective ends is the defining economic challenge of our time.
A Green New Deal beyond growth
A genuine European Green New Deal must place social justice and ecological protection ahead of fiscal discipline and economic growth.
A novel European Green New Deal to tackle climate change
Support has been surging on both sides of the Atlantic for the idea of a Green New Deal. Time to turn it into action, and jobs, on the ground.
Blogs
Ireland’s recovery: from bust to buoyancy … to Brexit?
If procyclical domestic policies inflated Ireland’s economic bubble, procyclical austerity demanded by the troika which bailed it out makes Ireland’s recovery all the more remarkable.
Ireland’s route from boom to bubble to bust
Ireland’s volatile economic path of recent decades has wider European policy implications. Part one: the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and its demise
German rebalancing—out of exit options
The consensus against German fiscal rebalancing is cracking—because the export demand which allowed it long to be avoided is looking shaky.
Why the radical right is no longer the exclusive domain of older, male voters
The typical radical-right voter is often assumed to be older and male, with conservative views on women’s and LGBT rights—an assumption which should now be reassessed.
Better working conditions, more predictable work—the new EU directive
The EU directive on irregular work is a positive step but it struggles with the contradiction of protecting workers from the labour-market risks transferred by capital.
Mario Draghi and the Germans
Not only is German animus towards Mario Draghi misplaced, Peter Bofinger argues. His stewardship of the European Central Bank has been a boon for the largest eurozone economy.
How ‘family-friendly’ are European countries?
The Nordic countries, with their strong public spheres, are more supportive than those which elevate the family as a private institution.
Shadow of recession deepens over the eurozone
Some orthodox economists predicted fiscal austerity would build confidence and so foster recovery. Yet at the end of the lost eurozone decade recession looms once more.
