politics, economy and employment & labour
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher that publishes content examining issues in politics, economy and employment & labour. This archive brings together Social Europe articles on political issues.
European regulation on giving employees a voice in multinationals is a nice example of so-called ‘regulated self-regulation’. The European directives (the original 1994 directive and the 2009 recast) define a minimum scope and some procedures, but the content of how employees in multinational firms are informed and/or consulted is left to the autonomous decision of […]
Essentially, the project of social democracy is to make sure that unrestricted citizenship for all is made compatible with the dynamics of a market economy. Within that economic order, each and every citizen is to be guaranteed the same economic, social, and political rights. Here it is crucial to recall that this project came to […]
The European Union is facing a truly terrifying array of crises. After prolonged euro and sovereign-debt crises polarized and radicalized the continent, creating a deep north-south rift, the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees has pitted east (plus the United Kingdom) against west. Add to that numerous other divides and contradictions, and the EU’s […]
EU membership is not a contradiction to national sovereignty; it has become a condition for it. Gone are the days when talking about national sovereignty was associated with backwardness and narrow-minded conservatism. Everywhere in Europe, a section of the left is standing up to reclaim this concept and explain that regaining control over one’s own […]
A Luxembourg court will decide next month whether the alleged financial pillage of a Greek mobile phone company at the height of the buyout boom by two large private equity funds, Apax and TPG, was carried out by fraudulent means. That decision will presumably impact on a civil lawsuit by the same creditors which will […]
The results of the snap elections in Turkey have taken everybody by surprise. This is not because observers with a critical eye have failed to read the script. Rather, it is because of the extent to which state-orchestrated fear has proved effective in cajoling the electorate to give the oppressor a mandate to rule in […]
A common response to the wave of protests over Uber is that its opponents are ‘Luddites’. The implication is that resistance to new technology today will prove futile, just as it did in the nineteenth century, when the original Luddites were unable to prevent the rise of the factory. This view misunderstands what Luddism represented, […]
When it comes to compensation, the company you work for often matters more than how good you are at what you do. In 2013, the average employee of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, earned $383,000 – much higher than what the best-performing employee in most firms can hope to take home. Pay differences across companies […]
As European leaders grapple with the unprecedented influx of asylum seekers, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has repeatedly expressed his belief that the mostly Middle Eastern and predominantly Muslim refugees represent a grave threat to Europe. Orbán has argued that the ‘migrants’ (he refuses to acknowledge that most of them may be genuine refugees) represent […]
When it comes to climate change, the world has reached a point of no return. That may sound ominous, but it is precisely where we need to be: unable to continue retreading old ground, we must resolutely set our future path. An important first step will come at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP […]
The recent victory of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland confirms a recent trend in Europe: the rise of illiberal state capitalism, led by populist right-wing authoritarians. Call it Putinomics in Russia, Órbanomics in Hungary, Erdoğanomics in Turkey, or a decade of Berlusconomics from which Italy is still recovering. Soon we will no doubt be seeing Kaczyńskinomics […]
Last Sunday’s election results left some Poles devastated, but others seem to be if not hopeful, then relieved. The massive victory of the conservative Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) defeating Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska – PO) was, however, not a political earthquake, but rather a self-fulfilling prophecy that finally came true. Perhaps […]
