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.
Today is a sad day. While I’m writing these lines, Spanish armed police are detaining twelve senior officials and raiding Catalan government offices in search of material related to the proposed referendum on independence. At the same time, four ships have arrived at Catalan harbours, which will be used to house 4,000 Spanish policemen that will come to Catalonia […]
Has Germany, a country considered one of the most stable democracies in the world, presided over by the same Chancellor for the last 12 years, become ungovernable? The 2017 general election campaign was considered by many observers to be one of the most boring in recent German history. This may well have been misleading since […]
Who runs the European Union? On the eve of Germany’s general election, that is a very timely question. One standard reply is, “The EU’s member states” – all 28 of them. Another is, “The European Commission.” But Paul Lever, a former British ambassador to Germany, offers a more pointed answer: Berlin Rules is the title of his […]
Finally, the European Commission has made itself heard. The speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker on the State of the Union elevated the tone of the European debate, raising issues which quite a few people had already swept under the carpet. For them (national political leaders and EU officials) the perfect storm has now passed. Since […]
As Germany prepares for this month’s federal election, the country seems remarkably resistant to the populist challenge that other Western societies have faced. With the right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and their far-left competitors Die Linke both hovering at around 10% in the polls, a victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel is widely viewed as […]
So, René Cuperus, thank you very much for joining us today in the SWOT analysis project of different social democratic parties across the world. We’re going to talk about the Dutch case today, the PvdA, its position and its strategic objectives. First of all, what is the historic position of the Social Democratic party in […]
At the end of August, French president Emmanuel Macron unveiled the labour-market overhaul that will make or break his presidency – and may well determine the future of the eurozone. His goal is to bring down France’s stubbornly high rate of unemployment, just a shade below 10%, and energize an economy that badly needs a […]
Christoph Stein: You conclude from your research that supply-side labour market reforms have impaired innovation and labour productivity growth in major OECD countries. Why should labour market institutions influence innovation and productivity? There are a number of arguments from neighbouring disciplines, such as organizational psychology, that labour market institutions matter when it comes to processes […]
Walking across the Lake District, we were many miles from the South-East England “bubble”. But the realities of possible Brexit were as stark here as anywhere, although few news items seem to have been given much national prominence. In the principal local newspaper, the Westmoreland Star, it was reported that Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) will […]
Women’s rights are under a dual attack: both the ‘neoliberal neopatriarchy’ and the reactionary anti-gender movements threaten to reverse hard-won gains in rights and equality. Krisztian Simon spoke with historian and Professor at Budapest’s CEU Andrea Pető about illiberal governments, the struggles of women’s rights organisations, state-supported sugar daddy sites, and the challenges posed by […]
The French government has just announced the guidelines for a new labor code, its first major reform to boost France’s economy, by giving more flexibility to companies to adapt to the marketplace. The second major reform sought by President Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet – an overhaul of the French state – is set to follow. The […]
When Central and Eastern European leaders try to explain why they do not want to accept refugees, they tend to contradict one another. Some insist that refugees take jobs from natives, which implies that refugees are hard workers; others complain that refugees rely on welfare benefits, which suggests that they work too little. Hungarian Prime […]
