Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

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    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
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Strategic autonomy

SE 17th November 2022

Beyond the cost-of-living crisis, this series addresses how genuine EU ‘strategic autonomy’ can promote the green transition and the global good.

War in Ukraine

SE 15th November 2022

Everything you need to know about the war—why Russia invaded, the impact in Ukraine, ending the war and the EU and Ukraine.

European digital public sphere

SE 11th November 2021

A European digital public sphere is needed to enable European citizens to be sovereign, not Californian corporations, and to foster democratic deliberation.

Recovery and resilience

SE 25th October 2021

The National Recovery and Resilience Plans are key to the delivery of the €750 billion economic-recovery package agreed by the European Council in July 2020. These plans are supposed to support such goals as the green transition and digital transformation.

The transatlantic relationship

SE 20th July 2021

The end of the Donald Trump administration in Washington has provided the opportunity to turn the page on a transatlantic relationship which had become poisoned by Trump’s personal high-handedness and pursuit of an ‘America first’ policy on everything from trade to NATO. It may also allow of a closer relationship than under the prior administration […]

The role of women in the coronavirus economic crisis

SE 2nd June 2021

The coronavirus crisis is different from known economic crises of the past. First, this time it is affecting industries previously less prone to crisis and in which more women work, meaning the highest developed and richest countries in the world are also deeply hit. The sectors affected are primarily the gastronomy, tourism and retail industries. […]

A capital idea: corporate taxation in a globalised era

SE 21st November 2020

The taxation of business has rapidly risen up the global political agenda. Several factors have lain behind this trend, after decades in which it became widely assumed that footloose capital would simply be deterred by ‘excessive’ corporate taxation, which consequently should fall on much mess mobile labour—or simply fall, at the expense of purportedly ‘inefficient’ […]

US election 2020

SE 16th October 2020

The three postwar decades of peace and prosperity in western Europe and north America—as they appear now—were built on a relationship between progressives on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The era was defined by commitment to full (male) employment, with Keynesian demand management; falling inequality, with progressive taxation funding the delivery of public […]

The transformation of work

SE 9th October 2020

The future of work is an ever-present concern for workers in a globalised economy characterised by footloose finance, fickle supply chains and above all ‘flexible’ labour markets. Fewer and fewer workers enjoy regular labour contracts—with associated social entitlements—and risk is increasingly being displaced on to labour by the rise of short-term and zero-hours employment and […]

The coronavirus crisis and the welfare state

SE 1st October 2020

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the flaws in European welfare states, which can spur their renewal and reinforcement after decades of cuts and privatisation. It has foregrounded how increasingly threadbare social safety nets and precarious labour markets have left many marginalised and even destitute. This has strengthened the claim of those who have argued that […]

Just transition

SE 23rd May 2020

In co-operation with our partner the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Hans Böckler Stiftung, we explore the issue of ‘just transition’. This idea has evolved, in a sense, as a sub-set of the Green New Deal. Making the ecological transition to a sustainable future is essential—it is now widely agreed—but if this is not done […]

Artificial intelligence, work and society

SE 17th April 2020

AI is permeating a wide range of areas and it is bound to transform work and society. This series addresses possibilities and challenges. Above all it asks what needs to be done politically in order to shape this transformation for the sake of the common good. AI and work AI has conjured up a dystopia […]

Europe 2025

SE 24th May 2019

Europe is in a pivotal year yet again. The European elections in May 2019 set the tone for what will unfold during the rest of 2019 and beyond. The new European Parliament will have its first sitting in the summer and the second half of the year will be determined by the creation of a […]

What is inequality?

SE 23rd April 2019

What is inequality? Inequality is the defining theme of the left-right political spectrum—going back to the time of the French revolution, when the supporters of liberté, égalité, fraternité sat on the left side of the first Assemblée nationale. Those on the left have always argued that capitalism tends to engender economic inequality, which can be […]

The Crisis Of Globalisation

SE 23rd May 2018

In cooperation with our partners from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Hans Böckler Stiftung, Social Europe examines the different dimensions of the crisis of globalisation and what kind of policy mix could help addressing it. We bring together some of the best analyses and leading voices in the field and try to highlight some of the most […]

Inequality In Europe

SE 24th May 2017

In cooperation with our partners from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Hans Böckler Stiftung as well as Member of the European Parliament Javi Lopez, Social Europe examines the different dimensions of inequality in Europe and what kind of policy mix could help addressing them. We bring together some of the best analyses and leading voices in the field […]

Where Now After Brexit?

SE 29th March 2016

On 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum and decided to leave the European Union – an unprecedented decision in European history. The collection of articles below provides in-depth analysis of the major points of discussion. Our ‘Understanding Brexit’ section is now amended by new contributions looking at the aftermath of Brexit. What […]

Europe’s Refugee Crisis

SE 7th September 2015

The European Union is faced with an unprecedented challenge. It needs to help refugees coming to Europe from the crisis areas around the Mediterranean and at the same time do more to eradicate the reasons for their displacement. Far too many people have died in the Mediterranean and the humanitarian situation in many refugee camps and escape […]

The Future of Work

SE 10th July 2015

What is the Future of Work? The Digital Revolution is set to dramatically change our lives in the coming years and policy- and decision-makers need to come to terms with what these epochal transformations mean and how they can be shaped so the majority of people benefit and the dangers are moderated. On this content page, […]

Understanding PEGIDA in Context

SE 2nd March 2015

The PEGIDA demonstrations that have taken place in Dresden and some other big German cities have attracted a significant amount of attention in the media across Europe and beyond. Even though the German demonstrations seem moribund due to the decline of the organisation, the underlying discontent that has fed the protests has not gone away and PEGIDA marches […]

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Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


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Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


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Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


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ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


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Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

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