What when there’s a vaccine?
Stuart Blume and Maurizia Mezza
Amid the accelerated scientific quest for a vaccine against the coronavirus, crucial ethical and social questions have not yet been addressed.
Politics
Analysis and debate on European and national politics, democracy, the rule of law, parties and elections, and Europe’s place in the world.
Robots won’t make us redundant
Lars Klingbeil and Henning Meyer
Globalisation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence—it’s time to stop debating work in a fear-laden way.
Trade unions are key to a safe exit from the pandemic
There can be no return to ‘business as usual’ after the crisis: the ‘new normal’ must entail a profound political and social transformation.
The ecological transition is the new mission for Europe
If once a peace project, the mission for Europe today is a safe ecological transition—the Green Deal the antidote to a malaise apparent long before the pandemic.
Basic income: Finland’s final verdict
The coronavirus crisis has renewed interest in the notion of a universal basic income. The full report of a two-year Finnish experiment has just appeared.
Does European solidarity extend to the western Balkans?
The coronavirus crisis has not only highlighted the north-south faultline in the EU—it also put relations with western-Balkan aspirants under strain.
The Covid-19 crisis is exacerbating gender inequalities—but who cares?
The gender dimension of the coronavirus crisis is obvious when seen through a lens of gender inequality. Which leaves it invisible to many.
Covid-19 does not discriminate—nor should we
A paradigm shift in national and EU Roma strategies is more urgent than ever.
Social trust and government responses to Covid-19
How governments have addressed the pandemic has reflected different levels of social trust—which will have consequences for its aftermath.
Unions’ responses to the Covid-19 crisis in Europe
On International Workers’ Day, it is important to recall the crucial role played by unions in protecting the workforce, especially at times of crisis.
The four worlds of the social-ecological state
The coronavirus crisis highlights the need to update the European welfare state to a social-ecological state, able to socialise 21st-century ecological risks.
It’s a virus, and this isn’t a war
The coronavirus crisis is a social challenge, Karin Pettersson writes, which the formerly secure are now being reminded is hitting the poor hardest.
The nascent paradigm shift in the EU
Emergency action to enhance healthcare and unemployment insurance might signal a paradigm shift for the union from market integration to providing public goods.
In-work poverty in times of pandemic
The coronavirus crisis is exacerbating in-work poverty in the EU—and a powerful raft of labour-market and welfare measures is needed for an adequate response.
Into a new era of work
Artificial intelligence will drastically transform the economy and the workplace. Which skills will be required and is training the all-encompassing solution?
Out of the tragedy of coronavirus may come hope of a more just society
The lessons of necessity and solidarity learned during the pandemic must inform a transition to a just society within ecological limits in its aftermath.