Analysis and debate on European and national politics, democracy, the rule of law, parties and elections, and Europe’s place in the world.
For a decade there has been cross-party support in Germany for the balanced-budget rule. But in the first of a series of Social Europe columns on German economic debates, Peter Bofinger explains why the social democrats should abandon the ‘black zero’.
The pluralist-left coalition—‘contraption’ to its detractors—in Portugal has changed the political discourse. Change is less evident, however, on the ground.
Who stands for Europe: the council of member states or the parliament of the citizens? A little-noticed coming directive will once again test that issue—with workers’ rights at stake.
The populists present themselves as the voice of the ‘little people’. For trade unions tackling populism entails standing up for a fair and sustainable globalisation.
Paul Mason begins a series of columns for Social Europe on the theme of postcapitalism and society, stressing the urgency of a new economic model.
Should social democracy tack towards populists wooing its electorate with xenophobic slogans? The crisis of the left demands instead a positive alternative to social insecurity.
The wage share has been falling across the world as inequality has increased in recent decades. A co-ordinated rise is needed, starting in Europe, to reverse that.
Europe’s citizens stand restive at a crossroads. After the May parliamentary election, democracy in the EU can take a leap forward—or the populists can reprise a dark history.
Free-trade agreements have raised huge controversy over clauses allowing of corporate challenge. But they can be used to enforce labour standards.
Amid political polarisation and declining democratic standards, can OECD and EU countries sustain the good governance challenges such as globalisation, social inequality and climate breakdown demand?
Turkey’s Kurds have long faced oppression by the state. But they have come to be seen by the Erdoğan regime as the main obstacle to its untrammelled power.
The UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is wrong to believe the EU environment inimical to a radical government. He should support a second ‘Brexit’ referendum.
The vast numbers drowning invisibly in the Mediterranean have evoked little European sympathy. Redefining this tragedy as the migrants genocide might bring a shock.
A commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law was Europe’s answer to fascism. The loss of this European memory presents real dangers amid a resurgent populism.
The European Union has been much more successful at ‘negative’, market-liberalising integration than ‘positive’ social measures. The concept of social rights can change that.
The historic achievement of peace within a Europe of universal norms is belied by the external instability engendered by violent and incoherent interventions.