A federal budget for European citzens
The proposal by the French president and the German chancellor for a €500 billion recovery fund refocuses attention on the EU budget—but that raises wider issues.
Europe’s leaders must stem falling trust
A mass online survey across the continent has found Europeans reeling from the coronavirus crisis—and losing trust in their leaders’ ability to manage it.
Brexit: deaths, more deaths… and no-deal calculations
In a nightmare-scenario 'Brexit' denouement, the UK government provokes no-deal chaos from which it hopes to profit after its Covid-19 shambles.
Health policy after the crisis: more of the same or a new path?
Years of pre-crisis adhesion to ‘new public management’ in health policy have seen public provision eroded. Now is an opportunity to change course.
What when there’s a vaccine?
Amid the accelerated scientific quest for a vaccine against the coronavirus, crucial ethical and social questions have not yet been addressed.
The pandemic and the day after
Emergence from the coronavirus crisis cannot be to ‘business as usual’ but must urgently open a transition to socio-environmental sustainability.
Robots won’t make us redundant
Globalisation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence—it’s time to stop debating work in a fear-laden way.
If it comes with interest, it’s no recovery
EU leaders must not behave like generals fighting the last war. If the Recovery Fund is to be adequate to the challenge of the coronavirus crisis, this time must be different.
Trade unions are key to a safe exit from the pandemic
There can be no return to ‘business as usual’ after the crisis: the ‘new normal’ must entail a profound political and social transformation.
An investment plan for European reconstruction
Europe must look beyond keeping companies on life support and staunching national debts to a continent-wide reconstruction driven by public investment.
German court decision ends treaty pretences
With ‘coronabonds’ stymied, an exit from the crisis had depended on ECB monetary operations—until the German constitutional court weighed in.
The ecological transition is the new mission for Europe
If once a peace project, the mission for Europe today is a safe ecological transition—the Green Deal the antidote to a malaise apparent long before the pandemic.
Basic income: Finland’s final verdict
The coronavirus crisis has renewed interest in the notion of a universal basic income. The full report of a two-year Finnish experiment has just appeared.
Does European solidarity extend to the western Balkans?
The coronavirus crisis has not only highlighted the north-south faultline in the EU—it also put relations with western-Balkan aspirants under strain.
Transnational social production networks—an answer to the coronavirus security crisis
The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the need for transnational collaboration to produce socially useful goods—an idea aerospace workers in the UK hatched decades ago.
Overconsumption, globalised supply chains and the Covid-19 crisis
We must build back more resilient, just societies that consume within ecological limits.
The Covid-19 crisis is exacerbating gender inequalities—but who cares?
The gender dimension of the coronavirus crisis is obvious when seen through a lens of gender inequality. Which leaves it invisible to many.