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Avatar photoJudith Kirton-Darling

Judith Kirton-Darling is general secretary of industriAll European Trade Union. She was a British member of the European Parliament between 2014 and 2020 and confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.

Europe’s Industrial Tsunami Demands a Quality Jobs Act

Judith Kirton-Darling

Europe's industrial transition risks becoming a social tsunami; only binding labour guarantees, not soft coordination, can prevent it.

Iran Crisis Proves Europe Cannot Delay Its Industrial Transformation

Judith Kirton-Darling

The US–Israeli strikes on Iran lay bare every fault line in Europe's energy dependence, industrial fragility, and strategic exposure — and demand an immediate policy response.

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

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Don’t Mourn, Organise: Europe’s Path Through Global Turbulence

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Europe’s Industrial Crisis: Invest Now or Accept Decline

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Europe Needs Active Demand Management, Not Business As Usual

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Europe’s Collective Defence Depends on Economic Security and Social Stability

Judith Kirton-Darling

As EU leaders prioritise military spending, millions of industrial workers face austerity and job losses amid Europe's growing polycrisis.

Europe Needs an Ambitious Clean Industrial Deal with a Strong Social Heart

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Austerity déjà vu: the return of the wrong economic medicine

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Draghi report: a social agenda is lacking

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

Another, reindustrialised Europe is possible

Judith Kirton-Darling

The far right offers no answers to the challenges Europe faces in reinvigorating its industry amid the digital and green transitions.

No ‘business as usual’ for European industry

Judith Kirton-Darling

The choices EU leaders make in the coming years will determine whether European industry has a long-term future.

EU funds need stronger social conditionality

Claes-Mikael Ståhl, Judith Kirton-Darling, Jan Willem Goudriaan, Kristjan Bragason and Oliver Roethig

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

Anticipating the Covid-19 restructuring tsunami

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

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

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New Edition - Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025

Can Europe preserve its distinctive social model while simultaneously rearming, reindustrialising, and reorganising its economy in a more conflictual and competitive world? This is the central question raised in this new edition of the Bilan social, a reference publication released every spring for more than 25 years by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Social Observatory (OSE).

READ HERE
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Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

LISTEN HERE
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Read the book "The open future and its enemies" 

A robust democracy must not leave the future in the hands of the alliance between Big Tech and the far right. AI must be politically reined in and democratically shaped so that humanity retains its sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as the driving force of progress. Yet it has long since become a challenge to democracy. The book argues that uncontrolled AI will erode our freedom, self-determination and democracy.

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WSI Minimum Wage Report 2026

Minimum wage policy across Europe has shifted significantly, with many EU countries raising wages above average and anchoring them to adequate living standards. This trend is consolidating as countries increasingly adopt the reference values recommended in the European Minimum Wage Directive — recently upheld by the European Court of Justice.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
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S&D Africa Days 2026

We are pleased to invite you to save the date for the S&D Africa Days 2026, taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2026, in Brussels. 

At a time when Africa is too often viewed through narrow and one-sided narratives, this initiative reflects a key political priority for the S&D Group: to advance a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. 

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“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

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