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Economy

Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on economic issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.

Electricity-market reform: take the ‘market’ out

Jakob Embacher and Stephen Thomas

The European Commission’s proposed reform of the electricity market would be a sticking plaster for a failing system.

The unfulfilled promises of financial regulation

Benoît Lallemand and Gerhard Schick

With further bank failures, tough regulation is urgent, so society is no longer held hostage by finance.

Strengthening democracy at work

Marcus Meyer

The European Commission has just initiated consultation on more effective European Works Councils legislation.

The failure of Credit Suisse—not just a one-off

Peter Bofinger

The bank was mismanaged but its collapse, Peter Bofinger writes, reveals a system of regulation with as many holes as a Swiss cheese.

Stress at work: countering Europe’s new pandemic

Claes-Mikael Ståhl

Occupational stress has become endemic. It damages workers, their families, businesses and economies.

Where is the global south’s rescue brigade?

Vera Songwe

Many around the world have been left to deal with the effects of the US Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes on their own.

Corporate sustainability needs a gender lens

Carolina Rudnick Vizcarra, Sylvia Obregon Quiroz and Andriana Loredan

The draft EU directive on corporate sustainability remains gender-blind.

Beyond industrial policy

Anne-Marie Slaughter and Elizabeth Garlow

To tackle 21st-century challenges and ensure a sustainable future, we need a policy framework that recognises the value of human connection.

The IRA and European industrial policy

Paul Sweeney

With the US turning interventionist, the EU will look foolish still backing ‘free markets’. Time for an enterprise policy.

The shakeup the World Bank needs

Ana Palacio

If Ajay Banga is confirmed as World Bank president he will have to meet the demands of a global south eager for change.

Separate and unequal: gender segregation at work

Mary McCaughey

Gender segregation in sectors, occupations and roles still sees women persistently losing out.

Will tech layoffs silence or galvanise tech workers?

Tom Cassauwers

Mass layoffs have hit large technology companies. Previously well-paid workers suddenly became the target of brutal firings.

Sustainable competitiveness needs a social dimension

Isabelle Barthès and Patricia Velicu

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

How the banking lobby diluted EU regulation

Michael Peters

EU institutions have taken a position weakening international standards and risking bank stability.

Platforms and their presumptions of power

Aude Cefaliello

Whether the presumption of employment would mean an end to self-employment for platform workers is a false debate.

The role of public debt in the ‘new normal’

Peter Bofinger

A Schumpeterian perspective provides new insights for fiscal policy in Europe, Peter Bofinger writes.

Social dialogue in central and eastern Europe

Martin Myant

Union recognition can be a tough battle in EU member states in central and eastern Europe.

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ETUI Advertisement

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).

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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
FEPS Advertisement

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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Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

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
S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

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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FES Advertisement

“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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