Platforms put a spoke in the wheels of Spain’s ‘riders’ law’
The Ley de Riders, recognising delivery riders as employees, is now a reality. But is it a game-changer?
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.
Europe gets back to the work … of getting people to work
The notion that active-labour-market policies are the solution to unemployment has long been an act of faith. That’s the problem.
Dedramatising debt
Post-pandemic recovery and the green transition—and Europe’s competitiveness—depend on investment financed by joint borrowing.
ECB strategy review: the mountain has given birth to a mouse
Peter Bofinger argues that the ECB strategy review represents a missed opportunity.
Recruiting irregular migrants to … fight irregular migration
The EU directive sanctioning employers for utilising irregular migrants is putting migrant workers who might complain in a Kafkaesque scenario.
The courage to change
Europe’s trade union and Christian business leaders appeal jointly for a new economic and social order after the pandemic.
Corporate tax cuts do not boost growth
Implicit in the global ‘race to the bottom’ on corporation tax in recent decades has been that this favours growth. Yet does it?
Minimum wages rise, but more slowly
Convergence of central and eastern-European EU members towards older ones with high minimum wages is much stronger than in the Mediterranean countries.
A minimum-wage directive could undermine the Nordic model
Several negative effects need to be addressed in the current negotiations on the directive, in the Swedish trade union view.
Climate crisis offers way out of monetary orthodoxy
The ECB's strategy review, Adam Tooze writes, says more by its silences than its statements.
Covid-19, women and the economy—it’s not all about care
There has been a macroeconomic blindspot in feminist narratives of the pandemic which unwittingly limits the scope of critique.
A future-fit recovery?
EU member states’ National Recovery and Resilience Plans have been assessed against their capacity for transformative change—and found wanting.
Switzerland: defending workers’ rights
In the standoff between the federal government and the European Commission on wage protection, the former has right on its side.
Teleworking in the public sector
The pandemic has accelerated teleworking in the public sector—but with inadequate planning have come mixed results.
For workers, another year of living dangerously
Workers have stood on the frontline of the pandemic, but the ITUC Global Rights Index documents an anti-worker agenda.
Revised posted workers directive: throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
The EU needs to acknowledge the vital economic role of posting and differentiate the rules according to its different types.
When capital relinquishes ownership
As the ownership of firms becomes transferred to algorithmically-controlled index funds, why not put their human employees in charge instead?