Social Europe articles on politics

In February 1991, presidents of three nascent European democracies convened at a castle near Budapest to proclaim their common desire to return to Europe. The venue, called Visegrad, was steeped in history: in 1335, it hosted a peace congress of Bohemian, Hungarian and Polish kings. Today, twenty-five years after its birth at the presidential summit, […]

The UK’s referendum on EU membership will be keenly observed by Irish citizens, given the close ties between the two countries. Paul Gillespie writes that a Brexit could be highly disruptive for Ireland, and would likely have a particularly large impact in Northern Ireland, where the issue of Irish unity could be pushed on to the public […]

A new labour law, commonly referred to as the ‘El Khomri law’ after the French Minister of Labour, Myriam El Khomri, has generated significant attention in France over recent weeks. Bob Hancké assesses what the new law achieves, why it is here, and what it means for the country moving forward.  The recent furore in France over […]

Reducing taxes on labour – personal income taxes and employers’ and employees’ social security contributions – is often seen as key to increasing employment levels. The latest crop of country-specific recommendations issued by the European Commission is a case in point. But the rationale for such a ‘tax shift’ is relatively weak. For most countries, it is likely to […]

Haven’t we all had enough of the doom-mongers predicting the end of the EU? Of comparisons to the last days of the Roman Empire or – worse still – the violent break-up of Yugoslavia? And yet it’s true that EU leaders are offering few ‘reasons to be cheerful’ these days. Throughout history, trade unions have […]

Statutory minimum wages are an important instrument for ensuring decent pay for work and avoiding a race to the bottom in living standards. Twenty-two EU Member states have a generally applicable statutory minimum wage. Recent discussions among social actors about exemptions from minimum wages for refugees so as to ensure faster labour market integration have […]

Perhaps the only surprising thing about the populist backlash that has overwhelmed the politics of many advanced democracies is that it has taken so long. Even two decades ago, it was easy to predict that mainstream politicians’ unwillingness to offer remedies for the insecurities and inequalities of our hyper-globalized age would create political space for demagogues with […]

At the beginning of 2016, the European Union agreed new rules for bank bail-ins. This new era in policies to combat financial market crises came after a long period characterized by bank “bail out” interventions. In 2008, less than two weeks after the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, Europe started facing a similar crisis to the US […]

Britain’s public assets are now the subject of a giant boot sale. The great rolling privatisation juggernaut not only includes the £4bn Green Investment Bank, and the bailed-out Lloyds Bank but is now eyeing up assets like Channel 4 and the Met Office. The government hopes that together they will deliver £32bn in revenue this […]

I’ve been reluctant to use the  “f” word to describe Donald Trump because it’s especially harsh, and it’s too often used carelessly. But Trump has finally reached a point where parallels between his presidential campaign and the fascists of the first half of the 20th century – lurid figures such as Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, […]

The introduction of a thought-provoking book by Anthony de Jasay on political theory starts with the question: “What would you do if you were the state?” Imagine a reasonably informed, ambitious and unbiased public policy maker facing the challenges of the current refugee crisis – or, for that matter, any responsible citizen asking him- or […]

Imagine a country in which there is no statutory right to paid holiday, no legal limit on the number of hours employees can be required to work, no right to a daily rest period, no laws to prevent employers discriminating against workers who are disabled or who have particular religious beliefs, and no right for […]