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.
‘For the people, not just for the elites!’: this is the rallying cry of all brands of populism. The triumph of populism is a calamity, but the threat of populism is a crucial quality of any democracy. It is what makes a democratic regime better than a technocratic, bureaucratic or autocratic regime. It is what […]
In the Brexit negotiations the European Council says it will ‘protect’ Ireland’s cross-border Peace Process; given ‘the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland, flexible and imaginative solutions will be required, including… avoiding a hard border’. What can this mean? How might it be achieved? The leaky land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish […]
Critiques of the European Union target a political problem – the so-called democratic deficit – and an economic (and social) one: austerity, sometimes subsumed under the broader heading of neoliberalism. It is also often claimed or simply assumed that there is a connection between the two: the first being the main cause of the second. […]
Emmanuel Macron’s political success has surprised many political commentators. The fact that in a large country like France with long-standing political traditions and within a very brief period he has succeeded in building a whole new political movement outside the traditional parties and then getting two thirds of the votes cast in a presidential election […]
Emmanuel Macron’s decisive defeat of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential runoff was a major victory for liberal Europe. But it was a battle, not a war. The idea that one in three French citizens would vote for the National Front’s Le Pen was inconceivable only a few years ago. Commentators have affixed the […]
The last year has seen the Right and extreme Right capitalise on the dissatisfaction and despair fostered by neoliberalism – and usher in a ‘post-neoliberal order’. Their success is based on championing and monopolising the idea of national sovereignty, but only of a certain kind. The Left has accepted their discourse that national sovereignty goes […]
Can Emmanuel Macron succeed in reforming the European Union and the Eurozone? The European question was already central to the French Presidential campaign itself: the prospect of a Frexit raised by Marine Le Pen cost her dearly in the second round. And, despite recent difficulties, the great majority of the French remain attached to European […]
On 26 April the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposal for establishing a European Pillar of Social Rights designed to achieve ‘upward convergence’. Very much like the European Semester, the Pillar looks like yet another broad meta-policy process which blurs responsibilities and channels of accountability by conflating regional, national and EU competences. Thus, the chances […]
The European Commission, mindful again – finally – of its political role and responsibilities to uphold the law and the values of the European Union, has made an unexpected move to give Europe back some of its social dimension. The package of legislative and non-legislative initiatives on work-life balance that the Commission put forward on […]
The British election called by Prime Minister Theresa May for June 8 will transform the outlook for Britain’s politics and its relationship with Europe, but not necessarily in the way that a vastly increased majority for May’s Conservative Party might seem to imply. The scorched-earth defeat that Conservative Euroskeptics expect to inflict on Britain’s internationalist […]
The first contacts between the lead European Commission Brexit negotiators and the UK prime minister Theresa May appear to have got off to a disastrous start. There is some speculation that the entire Brexit negotiations could break down before they have really begun. On this scenario, the UK could be heading for the kind of […]
Even if it is likely to be averted in the second round of the Presidential election, France’s populist temptation should not be underestimated, as it highlights the difficulties of one of the founding members of the European Union. Conventional wisdom depicts France as a stubbornly rigid economy, whose allergy to reform makes it every day […]
