Isabelle Barthès, author at Social Europe

Deregulating Workers’ Rights Will Not Save European Industry — It Will Only Deepen the Crisis

Blaming labour protections for factory closures is not industrial policy — it is avoidance dressed as reform.

As geopolitical threats mount and the far right advances, Europe must respond with principled strength and genuine industrial renewal.

Across 18 sectors, only aerospace and defence remain globally competitive—Europe must abandon naivety and act decisively.

As tariff wars and industrial crises mount, Europe must abandon austerity for investment-driven internal demand.

Europe must act now to secure industrial jobs, ensure a Just Transition, and strengthen social conditions.

The EU faces a stark choice: invest boldly in a sustainable, competitive future or risk repeating the mistakes of austerity.

The report on European ‘competitiveness’ is good on industrial strategy but poor from a social perspective.

EU instruments encouraging social dialogue and collective bargaining are very valuable—but not if employers can walk away.

The European Union Year of Skills needs to deliver a ‘right to training’ for workers.

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

Glancing across the Atlantic, austerity and deregulation will make Europe neither competitive nor green.

Trade unions have been winning battles across Europe to halt the erosion of real wages but can’t win this war alone.

There’s time to avoid the carnage of employer-led restructuring following the pandemic—but only if workers and unions set the agenda.