High-speed rail along a ‘European silk road’
The Recovery and Resilience Facility aims to finance national projects. Yet a pan-European rail network could yield big emissions cuts.
Society
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on societal issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Regulate, but build too: for a European digital sphere
The EU should not just clip the wings of the Californian corporations but help construct a European digital public sphere.
Value-based engineering vs the Silicon Valley Zeitgeist
A European digital public sphere has to be engineered—but that doesn’t mean pursuing an AI dystopia or creating a European Facebook.
Buildings key to achieving Europe’s climate goals
There are fears the revised directive on energy performance due from the European Commission will not be adequate to the task.
Burying the problem: carbon markets and sustainable agriculture
The European Commission initiative on ‘carbon farming’ due today is expected to rely on a market in sequestration.
Germany’s new coalition: changing gear on climate
Germany’s ‘traffic light’ coalition is sending strong green signals. But political roadblocks lie ahead.
Regularising migrants: Portugal’s missed chance
The pandemic has encouraged a re-evaluation of key migrant workers. A botched reform in Portugal has however revealed the pitfalls.
Getting to zero—what’s the beef?
Most livestock land will have to be repurposed as carbon sinks to remove the huge global emissions related to food production.
Women in union leadership—not seeing the wood for the trees?
The feminisation of trade unions is percolating to the upper echelons. But organisational cultures still work against women taking leading roles.
How it feels to be a rank outsider
Young working-class people may have an aversion to being categorised on the social ladder. But that doesn’t make the ladder go away.
The right institutions for the climate transition
Global climate commitments will not amount to much without the institutional foundation the transition to a zero-carbon economy needs.
Fixing climate finance
Finance was at the heart of the COP26 rupture between developed and developing countries—it’s time for a new approach.
How the climate crisis is changing Europe’s economic landscape
After four decades, the pandemic and especially the climate crisis have silenced the exponents of fiscal orthodoxy. Keynes is back.
On the way to a European digital public sphere
A European digital public sphere need not be constructed de novo. Many elements already exist to be cohered.
Can the crisis of social reproduction bring the demise of central-European illiberals?
Weronika Grzebalska argues that illiberal policy innovations in central Europe are fuelling the crisis of social reproduction they promised to tackle.
A European digital public sphere—legal and policy implications
The EU has hitherto applied conventional market-regulating tools to the online arena. It’s time to adopt a human-centred approach.