The Juncker commission: lessons from an almost-lost mandate
The outgoing European Commission had some successes. But it was more defined by its shortcomings.
Politics
Analysis and debate on European and national politics, democracy, the rule of law, parties and elections, and Europe’s place in the world.
Austerity is hurting women’s health
A close look at how the austerity practised in the UK since 2010 has affected women’s health shows a gender lens must always be applied to see the full picture.
A message for May Day
Mayday, mayday: the leader of the European trade union movement warns of the threat from the populists in the coming EP elections.
Workers change the world
The president of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament reflects on her retirement at the forthcoming elections and on the battles to come.
Are ILO labour standards up for sale?
In its centenary year, the International Labour Organization received a poisoned chalice from the United Nations—an institutional reform which could represent a threat to ILO labour standards.
Reframing the European welfare state
The European welfare state does not have to be rebuilt from scratch. But it does have to focus on renewal rather than repair and on social solidarity rather than individual subjection.
From Europe-as-project to a real political community
Continuing our Europe2025 series, Marija Bartl argues that the metaphor of Europe as a ‘project’ foregrounds market integration and forestalls the emergence of a European public sphere.
European youth need something to vote for beyond precarious work
Forty-four per cent of workers aged 19 to 24 hold only a temporary contract – a recovery built on precarious work, not on choice.
Populism and the embrace of complexity
Populists may often thrive with simple narratives. But Sheri Berman warns that simple explanations of populism itself will not pass muster.
Europe’s destiny is at stake
Léonce Bekemans initiates a ‘Europe2025’ series on Social Europe, which will look beyond the May elections to the challenges in the next term, with a call for a mobilising vision.
The future of manufacturing—is it in Europe?
Europe can remain a manufacturing hub if it ensures early adoption of game-changing technologies, engages with global supply chains and manages the green transition.
The new spirit of postcapitalism
Capitalism emerged in the interstices of feudalism and Paul Mason finds a prefiguring of postcapitalism in the lifeworld of the contemporary European city.
‘Full and good employment’ and reviving the European ideal
The logic of a Euro-Keynesian recovery, towards socially useful full employment, leads inexorably to a rediscovery of wider European political ambition.
Normalising fascism in the EU
Uproar followed comments by the Italian president of the European Parliament in qualified praise of Mussolini. They raise big questions about the direction of the European centre right.
PiS attacks LGBT+ rights in Poland, as elections loom
Amid simmering social discontent and with the Catholic Church wracked by sex-abuse scandals, Poland’s clerical-nationalist party is exploiting homophobia to drive a wedge into the opposition.
Memory, myth and ‘post-truth’
In the era of ‘post-truth’, history isn’t what it used to be—which makes solving the problems of the present so much more difficult.