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.
Don’t defund the BBC
Rather than public institutions being limited to fixing market failures, organisations such as the BBC are also market shapers.
Inequalities and democratic corrosion
The right question to ask is not if inequality threatens democracy but which inequalities matter.
Making EU regulation better for all
The stigma attached to democratic EU regulation by the ‘one in, one out’ approach must be replaced by a positive commitment to the common good.
Leaving behind the EU’s deadly addiction to deregulation
Better regulation is benevolent and participatory, cognisant of complexity and future-oriented. Deregulation it is not.
Aligning the social pillar with human rights
The Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights could lead to a profound shift in the enjoyment of human rights in the EU.
The four ‘I’s of a new socio-ecological contract
A ‘socio-ecological contract’ has emerged as a way to conceive the transitions needed to steer out of today’s crises to safer harbour. What does it entail?
Europe could make good use of a new SDR allocation
Jayati Ghosh begins a new Social Europe column by pricking Europe’s conscience on its pandemic-related responsibilities towards the developing world.
Human-rights due diligence and Myanmar
Myanmar is a test case for engaged global companies’ commitments to due diligence. They must act to ensure suppression does not prevail.
Covid-19: a tale of two service sectors
If the 2008 crash brought on a ‘mancession’ of lost jobs, the sectors most hit by the pandemic employ mainly low-paid women workers.
UK gig drivers recognised as workers—what next?
The UK’s highest court has delivered another benchmark judgment on gig workers. But the battle is not over.
EU credibility as a people’s union rests on the social pillar
Buffeted by the pandemic and by populism, the EU needs the European Pillar of Social Rights to become a solid anchor of security for all.
Vaccine nationalism won’t defeat the pandemic
International co-operation is vital to make vaccination, as a public good, available to all.