Progress and setbacks from COP27
The European Union cannot rely on the United Nations process to deliver and must reinforce its own climate efforts.
Energy bills: direct payments needed, not fossil subsidies
Subsidising high energy costs might seem the obvious answer to the cost-of-living crisis—but it’s not.
World Cup clampdown on rainbow armbands
The international football governing body's action in Qatar conflicts with its own guidance on human rights.
Pre-empting the coming world war
Despite Ukraine, Paul Mason writes, Europe is still not awake to the security threat it faces.
Europe’s winter of change: break-up or breakthrough?
This winter, the European Union is facing a multidimensional crisis which could exacerbate intra-EU divisions and power asymmetries.
The monetary tightening trap
The over-reliance on interest-rate increases will likely lead to economic disaster in low- and middle-income countries.
What Lula must do
Facing a deeply divided country and mounting global crises, Brazil's president-elect has his work cut out.
Pay gaps between firms driving wage inequality
Inter-firm differences are not only widening wage gaps but also threaten wider social division among workers.
Setting human-rights due diligence back on track
A carve-out for the finance sector would water down the ambition of the EU’s human-rights due-diligence legislation.
Interest-rate rises versus the public interest
In going along with rate rises, European governments are saving the European Central Bank—not their societies.
The most wonderful time of the year
The splurge of Christmas consumerism, especially in Britain, Kate Pickett writes, is partly driven by status anxiety.
Almost-new fiscal rules for an old Europe
The proposed new fiscal rules may represent modest steps from the status quo. But they are in the right direction.
Listening in on the lives of others
‘National security’ has become the new excuse to spy on political opponents and journalists in Europe.
General strike in Belgium
Belgian trade union confederations this week led strikes and other actions to challenge the impact of inflation on purchasing power.
Using common strengths to overcome the crisis
Europe needs to move from fear of the ‘moral hazard’ of fiscal co-operation to confidence in its collective benefits.
Now is the future for social security
In a Europe of increasingly non-standard employment, social protection for all is more rather than less imperative.
How to reform the European fiscal rules
The fiscal rules have been in abeyance with the pandemic. What will replace them is up for grabs.