Stan De Spiegelaere, author at Social Europe

About Stan De Spiegelaere

Stan De Spiegelaere is a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).

It’s time to talk about democracy at work

by Stan De Spiegelaere on 22nd May 2019

Democracy at work has many benefits but above all it is a matter of human dignity.

An Unlikely Cure For Populism: Workplace Democracy

by Stan De Spiegelaere on 23rd April 2018

Trump in the White House, Orban in Hungary, the Law and Justice party in Poland, the AfD in Germany, Erdoğan in Turkey… It seems like the list of challenges to our democracies is worryingly extensive already. Time to act! And the area where one should act might surprise you: our companies. Democracy lives in the […]

Top Of The Christmas Wish List: A Working Time Reduction

by Stan De Spiegelaere on 22nd December 2017

In our family, Christmas means sending and receiving wish lists. This year, my cousin took a very honest approach and wished for (among other things) somebody to come and paint her house, a jacuzzi, a pony, and more free time. It didn’t help me much in my Christmas shopping, but it does highlight the fact […]

Do We Need Another Renault To Wake Us Up?

by Stan De Spiegelaere on 6th March 2017

Exactly 20 years ago today, the very first European-wide strike was organized. In all Renault plants workers suspended work for one hour in protest against the closure of the Vilvoorde factory. This gesture of transnational solidarity was made possible thanks to a then recent piece of experimental European legislation called ‘European Works Councils’ (EWCs). But […]

Let’s Give A New Boost To European Works Councils

by Stan De Spiegelaere on 12th July 2016

The social policy track record of the European Union is bleak at best. But in one field the EU did make a marked difference: in 1994 it agreed on the European Works Councils Directive. In multinational companies of a certain size, employee representatives from across Europe have since enjoyed the right to be informed and […]

Institutional experimentation for better (or worse) work

Transfer, volume 26, issue 2

Transfer stimulates dialogue between the European trade union movement and the academic and research community. It contributes research findings on issues of strategic relevance for trade unions, in particular with regard to developments at the European level. Transfer publishes original peer-reviewed research on issues such as new developments in industrial relations, social policy and labour-market developments. This issue is now online and freely available until the end of July 2020.

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Living and working in Europe 2019

Living and working in Europe, Eurofound’s 2019 yearbook, provides a snapshot of the latest developments in the work and lives of Europeans as explored in the agency’s research activities over the course of 2019. The range of topics as a result is broad, from the growing diversity of employment across EU regions to rising trust in national institutions to developments in minimum wages. This overview also describes how Eurofound's activities connect with the policy priorities of the European Commission.

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The European Union is excellently equipped to pursue the most urgent issues facing the advanced world: combating environmental damage and climate change, coping with the massive aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, reforming globalisation, regulating financialised capitalism, reducing material inequalities and reconciling the future of work in a rapidly changing economy with workers’ needs for secure lives. But, argues Colin Crouch in this manifesto for a return to the ‘social Europe’ agenda, to achieve these goals the EU needs to face the two menaces stalking today’s politics: neoliberalism and xenophobic nationalism. To do so it must confront the weakness of social democracy, historically the main political protagonist of the causes of co-operation and inclusion on which the strategy depends.

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For a Sound Fiscal Policy

The public sector in Germany has massively neglected its investments in the past two decades. The result is a public capital stock that does not meet the requirements of a modern economy and is inadequate to meet the challenges posed by the imminent demographic change and the international commitments for decarbonisation. If the requirements in the areas of education, transport, communication networks and decarbonisation are added together, the additional public investment or public investment promotion required over the next 10 years is around €450 billion, i.e. around €45 billion per year. From a macroeconomic perspective, this amount can be shouldered well, but it is unrealistic to finance these investments solely by redeploying funds in existing budgets. For this reason, the debt rules in the Germen constitution should be extended to include a golden rule allowing borrowing to the extent of net investment. Until such a rule is implemented, room for manoeuvre should be used, for example through extra-budgetary entities. It is also important to provide sustainable debt relief for municipalities, which play a central role in public investment, especially in transport infrastructure.

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