Framing the future of the internet
The European Parliament has just voted on the Digital Services Act, crucial for internet regulation.
Society
Analysis and debate on work and welfare, social rights, migration, gender, climate and the future of European societies.
Europe must reimagine its cultural policies
The EU has often been thought of as primarily a market-making mechanism. Yet it is above all a cultural project.
Social-ecological policy options: free green services
How to avoid ecological policies having adverse social effects? Make the associated services (partly) free.
‘Leaving no one behind’: putting words into actions
Mehtap Akgüç, Kalina Arabadjieva and Béla Galgóczi
The climate transition and its social dimension demand more powerful instruments than the European Commission proposes.
Germany’s reliance on its healthcare ‘brown angels’
The recruitment of nurses to meet shortages in the global north has side-effects—not all good—on their countries of origin.
Online surveillance thrives when fear takes over
European law-enforcement agencies have been pushing to end encryption and survey everyone’s online communications.
European Green Deal: can it tackle the climate crisis?
Satoko Kishimoto and Louisa Valentin
Public-private partnerships must be replaced by public-community collaborations for wellbeing and the climate.
High-speed rail along a ‘European silk road’
Katharina Weber, Maximilian Zangl and Mario Holzner
The Recovery and Resilience Facility aims to finance national projects. Yet a pan-European rail network could yield big emissions cuts.
Regulate, but build too: for a European digital sphere
Alek Tarkowski and Paul Keller
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.