Stepping up the EU agenda on social citizenship
In a more precarious Europe, social protection and minimum-income guarantees must be more strongly embedded.
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.
Social Europe needs a new concept of ‘worker’
The distinction between employed and self-employed is becoming incoherent and outdated.
Rethinking universalism and social rights
Social rights in Europe today require marrying 20th-century universalism with the meeting of diverse, complex needs.
Beyond the ‘backlash’: the green electoral agenda
Voters want a just transition and more, not less, green investment ahead of the European elections.
Danger: hazardous medicinal products at work
Healthcare workers will be protected from hazardous drugs by an EU law which had to be transposed by member states by today.
Protecting EU health policy from tobacco lobbying
The European Commission should minimise meetings with the tobacco industry, publicise and fully minute them.
Grids risk holding back Europe’s energy transition
Europe must revise outdated grid plans to prepare for surging deployment of wind and solar power.
Honesty needed to save just transition in EP elections
Unless the political dial can be turned, this year’s European Parliament elections will put the environment on the line.
Women leaders in CSOs—overworked, overwhelmed
Fundamental change is needed as many women near burnout, amid mounting social challenges and work-life imbalance.
No gala for gas: annual jamboree postponed
The European Gas Conference in Vienna has been postponed in anticipation of climate-justice protests.
Universal basic services: road to a just transition
Meeting social needs within planetary boundaries is the alternative to the religion of growth and the populist backlash.
Establishing safe staffing in health and social care
Staff shortages represent a risk to occupational health and an EU directive should mandate member states to address them.
Living conditions: Germany outperforms the US
Gross domestic product is often presented as encapsulating US success. But on broader benchmarks Germany performs better.
Beyond just transition—ecology at work
The economic transformation required by ecological crises implies new capabilities for workers to develop alternative plans.
Renewing the welfare state, Europe’s green trump card
The untapped potential of European welfare states must be unleashed in light of the climate emergency.
Reset finance: a new financial agenda for the EU
In the next mandate, the EU needs to set clear rules for private investment in the green transition, to avoid past mistakes.
Renovating buildings while leaving no one behind
Europe has a leaky buildings stock but the revised directive on their energy performance will still leave some in the cold.