A small step towards gender equality in pay
The European Commission’s proposal to reduce the stubborn gender pay gap pulls some punches, apparently anticipating employer resistance.
Work-life conflict in Europe
Work and life are often thought of as a zero-sum of hours in conflict but work-life balance also depends on investment in care and men’s full participation in the home.
A newer Labour?
The British Labour Party has had a tortuous time over the last decade. But there are hints of openness towards new solutions to its problems.
Green markets won’t save us
Markets are an unreliable guide for navigating a problem as large and complex as climate change.
Interview with Alexander Kwaśniewski
Ania Skrzypek spoke to the former Polish president about the crisis in Belarus and the response of the European Union.
Covid-19 and Europe-wide inequality
Between 2017 and 2019, income disparities in Europe decreased. The pandemic stopped that decline.
Europe’s decarbonisation challenge? ‘Wir schaffen das’
Adam Tooze writes on the roadmaps to net-zero by 2050. Is a just transition for Europe realistic?
Race against time
With the resurgence of racism and discrimination across Europe, combating it requires urgent action, not just noble words.
Germany’s super-election year is a wild card
With the federal government now perceived as mishandling the pandemic and corruption tainting the CDU, the autumn Bundestag election is one to watch.
Spain’s platform workers win algorithm transparency
Legal amendments will not only recognise ‘riders’ as employees but require algorithm transparency from platforms generally.
Hungary’s Covid-19 wars
For Viktor Orbán, the pandemic has offered an opportunity to undermine the European Union and curry favour with Hungary’s authoritarian allies.
Venturing the green transformation?
Under the European Green Deal, venture-capital firms are expected to play a vital investment role—one for which they are singularly ill-suited.
Lost an empire, not found a role
Paul Mason finds in the UK’s foreign and defence review a wilful refusal of its natural European engagement.
‘Migrants’ moral panic still leading to lost lives
The pandemic has overshadowed, but not reduced, refugee flows to Europe. Damaging misconceptions of asylum-seekers haven’t softened either.
Social pillar Action Plan—longer on aspiration
The Action Plan shows ambition on poverty, employment and training. But the concrete measures are not (yet) up to the task.
Fissures that tear us apart and pressures that weigh us all down
Kate Pickett contends in a new Social Europe column that inequalities go together—and so their opponents shouldn’t get drawn into rivalry.
Taxing better to create more caring—and feminist—societies
International Women’s Day falls in the shadow of a pandemic which has hit women hard around the world.