Social Europe articles on politics

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.

China takes the climate stage

by Adam Tooze on 19th October 2020

Adam Tooze assesses the significance of China’s goal-setting for climate neutrality.

Evaluating democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in the EU

by Birgit Sippel on 19th October 2020

The defence of universal norms needs to be broadened beyond Hungary and Poland and beyond the rule of law.

Time for a holistic workplace health-and-wellbeing strategy

by Maria Petmesidou and Ana Guillén on 15th October 2020

The pandemic demands moving beyond the fragmented and compartmentalised approach to occupational health and safety in the EU.

Are there any persuadable voters left in the US?

by Karen Nussbaum on 14th October 2020

‘White working-class men’ are seen as the hard core of Trump’s support, yet a big group of working-class voters—black, brown and white—are persuadable.

Reviving transatlantic relations after Trump

by Max Bergmann on 12th October 2020

If Joe Biden were to win the White House, transatlantic relations could return to default or be transformed—with much depending on how Europe reacted.

Golden Dawn verdict—no sunset for the far right

by Paul Mason on 12th October 2020

Paul Mason argues that with authoritarian conservatives in the White House and the Kremlin it’s no surprise the far right is thriving in Europe.

EU labour markets in the pandemic: unemployment only part of the story

by Andrew Watt on 9th October 2020

The good news is that unemployment has only risen modestly so far; the bad news is that hours worked have plummeted.

Why Europe has a racism problem

by Ojeaku Nwabuzo and Georgina Siklossy on 8th October 2020

The big challenge is to move from a perspective of individual discrimination towards addressing systemic racism.

Taking Europe’s pandemic pulse

by Juan Menéndez-Valdés on 7th October 2020

A tentative growth in trust shows Covid-19 has not yet torn the social fabric of Europe.

Collective-bargaining rights for platform workers

by Nicola Countouris and Valerio De Stefano on 6th October 2020

The pioneering Danish collective agreement on platform-based domestic workers has been vitiated by a misguided ruling by its competition authority.

Mind the gap

by Oliver Suchy on 6th October 2020

The digitalisation of work, despite its potential, risks becoming an impersonal means by which employers tilt the balance of power.

EU legislation on minimum wages is not the solution

by Lizette Risgaard, Hans-Christian Gabrielsen and Therese Svanström on 5th October 2020

Trade unions in the Nordic countries have baulked at proposals which they see as undermining collective bargaining.

Read FEPS Covid Response Papers

In this moment, more than ever, policy-making requires support and ideas to design further responses that can meet the scale of the problem. FEPS contributes to this reflection with policy ideas, analysis of the different proposals and open reflections with the new FEPS Covid Response Papers series and the FEPS Covid Response Webinars. The latest FEPS Covid Response Paper by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 'Recovering from the pandemic: an appraisal of lessons learned', provides an overview of the failures and successes in dealing with Covid-19 and its economic aftermath. Among the authors: Lodewijk Asscher, László Andor, Estrella Durá, Daniela Gabor, Amandine Crespy, Alberto Botta, Francesco Corti, and many more.

The Brexit endgame is upon us: deal or no deal, the transition period will end on January 1st. With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland

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The macroeconomic effects of the EU recovery and resilience facility

This policy brief analyses the macroeconomic effects of the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). We present the basics of the RRF and then use the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to analyse the facility's macroeconomic effects. The simulations show, first, that if the funds are in fact used to finance additional public investment (as intended), public capital stocks throughout the EU will increase markedly during the time of the RRF. Secondly, in some especially hard-hit southern European countries, the RRF would offset a significant share of the output lost during the pandemic. Thirdly, as gains in GDP due to the RRF will be much stronger in (poorer) southern and eastern European countries, the RRF has the potential to reduce economic divergence. Finally, and in direct consequence of the increased GDP, the RRF will lead to lower public debt ratios—between 2.0 and 4.4 percentage points below baseline for southern European countries in 2023.

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Benchmarking Working Europe 2020

A virus is haunting Europe. This year’s 20th anniversary issue of our flagship publication Benchmarking Working Europe brings to a growing audience of trade unionists, industrial relations specialists and policy-makers a warning: besides SARS-CoV-2, ‘austerity’ is the other nefarious agent from which workers, and Europe as a whole, need to be protected in the months and years ahead. Just as the scientific community appears on the verge of producing one or more effective and affordable vaccines that could generate widespread immunity against SARS-CoV-2, however, policy-makers, at both national and European levels, are now approaching this challenging juncture in a way that departs from the austerity-driven responses deployed a decade ago, in the aftermath of the previous crisis. It is particularly apt for the 20th anniversary issue of Benchmarking, a publication that has allowed the ETUI and the ETUC to contribute to key European debates, to set out our case for a socially responsive and ecologically sustainable road out of the Covid-19 crisis.

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Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.

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