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.
Migration has not been an issue in Slovakia – neither in political nor in public discourse. Eurobarometer data shows that only 2% of the population in 2014 and 4% in 2015 thought immigration posed a challenge for the country. Paradoxically, with no refugees entering Slovakia from among the thousands reaching Europe, debate focuses on how […]
In the second American presidential debate, Donald Trump promised that, if elected, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton. “You’d be in jail,” Trump told her. Trump’s threat to politicize the justice system has received the backlash that it deserves; but, sadly, his cynicism is not unique to the United States. The current Polish […]
When the European heads of state and government meet at the European Council this week and discuss EU trade policy, it will be very hard to gloss over one obvious fact: that policy lies in shambles. There is little hope to rescue the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States, an arrangement […]
Next year, Germany will hold a federal election, and the new Bundestag will choose the country’s next chancellor. Whether or not Angela Merkel retains the role – at the moment, things are not looking good for her or her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – one thing is certain: Germany’s chancellor will no longer be de facto Chancellor […]
The European Commission’s decision to maintain the Youth Guarantee, the scheme launched in 2013 to offer every young person a place of education, training or employment within four months of leaving formal education or being out of work, is going in the right direction but too slowly. The Youth Guarantee (YG) needs more funding to […]
“The Pardubice region without immigrants” was one of the billboards used in the recent Czech regional elections of 8 to 9 October. Most of the small anti-migrant parties were largely unsuccessful apart from the coalition led by the MP Tomio Okamura. Jaromír Dušek, Pardubice Region deputy head, who ran a harsh anti-immigrant campaign, was one […]
Many people from across the political spectrum are shaking their heads over the recent Apple tax scandal. But it is only the latest example of the corporate malfeasance and misconduct that have flourished as politicians and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic either failed to do their jobs or actively contributed to a tainted […]
So Iris, thank you very much for joining us today. Let me start off with an introductory question. Based on your work, what are the biggest issues in gender equality, you would say? Well, the biggest issues, it’s a big question. I think I have to answer it in two ways. One is, what are […]
Conservative Brexiteers – who campaigned for the United Kingdom to vote to leave the European Union – continue to blather about building an open, outward-looking, free-trading Britain. But the UK is in fact turning inward. Prime Minister Theresa May, who styles herself as the UK’s answer to Angela Merkel, is turning out to have more […]
What future for the EU after Brexit? European leaders meeting at Bratislava on 16 September promised Europeans that this would be the beginning of a process leading up to the March celebrations of the EU’s 60th anniversary. Critical areas where they would seek concrete progress ranged from control of migration and external borders to deeper […]
In many Western democracies, this is a year of revolt against elites. The success of the Brexit campaign in Britain, Donald Trump’s unexpected capture of the Republican Party in the United States, and populist parties’ success in Germany and elsewhere strike many as heralding the end of an era. As Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens put it, “the […]
French prime minister Aristide Briand launched 5 September 1929 during the Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva a sensational idea of a European federal union. All 26 European delegates afterwards declared support for Briand’s proposal. This remarkable initiative at such a crucial moment in European history is hardly known outside an inner circle […]
