Social Europe articles on politics

Last year, President Juncker declared that Europe should not “harp on” about Turkey’s attacks on press freedom and human rights as its support was required to tackle the refugee crisis. Turning a blind eye to the “world champion in imprisoned media personnel“ is not the only thing Europe has done in recent months. After the […]

Arkadiusz Jóżwik had been standing outside a pizza take-away in Harlow, Essex, chatting to his friends in Polish, when a group of up to 12 teenagers attacked him. Arkadiusz, who had lived in Britain for over four years, died from the head injuries sustained in this suspected hate attack. The next weekend the Polish community […]

It used to be claimed during the Cold War that in the countries of the Soviet bloc elections could not take place until the government had decided what their result should be. Here, we order these matters differently. We had a referendum on 23rd June about the European Union, but the government has still to […]

Beginning from the first weeks of September and during the next few months, the European Union and Eurozone will have to provide convincing answers to a number of crucial issues vital to the future of the Union. Greece is entering again into the core of the debate, revving up for the second bailout review as […]

The EU’s political landscape is being transformed as the economic and the refugee crises intertwine with terror. Populism is becoming consistently a rising force across Europe. Manifested in left- or right-wing varieties, populism either “defends” the poor against the elites and neoliberalism, or alternatively, the country’s national identity against Islamists and foreigners by thriving on […]

In 2015, Hungary became one of the main entry points to the European Union for migrants and refugees. The police registered 400,000 irregular migrants and more than 177,000 of these applied for asylum. With at most 4,000 people with international protection status living in Hungary and one of the lowest rates of immigrant populations in […]

I think many people who argue against a second referendum have not taken on board the scale of the difference between the various Brexit options. We could retain access to the single market and free movement of labour (the Norway option). Or we could just cut a trade deal with the EU, do nothing on […]

In his new book on the euro, Joseph Stiglitz mentions unemployment insurance as part of a reform program that could make monetary union sustainable and palatable in Europe. The idea is not entirely new, and recent years have seen a good deal of studies and conferences exploring its costs and benefits. In documents like the […]

The mandate of Theresa May’s government, as she stated when taking over as the UK’s Prime Minister, is to “make a success of Brexit”. Although the detail of what success here means is unclear, there can be no doubt about what it means in general. It should be interpreted as keeping access to the EU […]

Several commentators have suggested that the UK’s decision to leave the European Union illustrates that governments must pay greater attention to the ‘losers’ from globalisation. Kevin O’Rourke argues that this fact has long been obvious. As the historical record demonstrates plainly and repeatedly, too much market and too little state invites a backlash. He writes […]

Note: This is a follow-up to my previous piece. Please read that piece first. The Responsible Reporter’s Problem Responsible reporters in the media normally transcribe political speeches so that they can accurately report them. But Donald Trump’s discourse style has stumped a number of reporters. Dan Libit, CNBC’s excellent analyst is one of them. Libit […]