Europe: world leader in eroding workers’ rights
Workers’ rights, fundamental to democracy, are under attack across the world—nowhere more so than in Europe.
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.
Fossil-fuel subsidies: a litany of broken promises
While pledged to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies by 2025, EU member states are spending more than at any point since 2015.
Heat stress at work—a political emergency
Climate change is creating new risks, requiring a minimum protective threshold for all workers in Europe.
EPOCH-making?—the tool to end homelessness
The European Union is committed to ending homelessness by 2030. It will come down to political will.
The 1.5C target for global heating must prevail
Even if we overshoot the 1.5C limit set by the Paris Agreement, we must return to it as quickly as possible.
Reinvigorating the European Social Charter
Council of Europe member states need to enhance their commitments to social and economic rights.
Homecare and domestic workers deserve better
A survey shows an alarming malaise in a sector heavily dominated by women and migrant workers.
Sustainable Development Goals: time for a rethink
A political reconceptualisation is critical if humanity’s hope for a sustainable global future is to be rescued.
Social dialogue: urgent to turn words into deeds
EU instruments encouraging social dialogue and collective bargaining are very valuable—but not if employers can walk away.
Sufficiency: towards an eco-social economy
The only exit from the ‘polycrisis’ is a corridor of sufficiency between meeting need and avoiding excess.
Playing games with children’s health
Rejecting bans on particularly hazardous chemicals, EU ministers have sought to dilute revised legislation on toy safety.
The European Investment Bank’s roadmap … to 2008
The EIB proposes that housing renovation and energy efficiency be financed via ‘securitised’ loans.
Longing of the new working class for a solidary ‘we’
A German study finds the new working class lacking in class consciousness yet strongly aware of social inequalities.
A new Green Deal: Europe’s defining impulse
Far from the European Green Deal being exhausted, it needs renewing with social ambition.
Femicide: why a specific crime is needed
Many countries are making the killing of women a specific crime. But laws are not enough.
Workers’ rights—a casualty of the war in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has devastated the country’s trade union movement—and the lives of workers.
A new European social contract must be green
Civil society stands up for a European pact for the future—green, social and fit for a one-planet economy.