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The EU’s Largest Investment Programme Holds Lessons We Cannot Afford to Ignore

Steffen Lehndorff

The Next Generation EU programme, despite sluggish implementation and limited coverage, reveals how industrial policy can drive green transition—if governments act.

Europe’s Foreign Policy Is Broken by Design—Here’s How to Fix It

Guillaume Duval

Kaja Kallas is not the problem; the EU's dysfunctional institutional architecture is crippling its global influence.

Germany’s Middle-Technology Trap: Industrial Policy Blindness and the Path Out

Peter Bofinger

Germany's faith in free markets has left it squeezed between China and America — but a defence-spending loophole offers unexpected hope.

Industrial Policy 2.0: The Service Sector Path to Shared Prosperity

Dani Rodrik

We must address climate change, inequality, and poverty simultaneously, but prevailing economic approaches are failing; solutions lie in an updated, experimental industrial policy focused on green and productive service job

Chile’s Democracy Faces Its Gravest Test Since Pinochet

Eduardo Engel and Benjamín García

A far-right candidate threatens to dismantle decades of democratic progress in Latin America's most celebrated success story.

Why European Universities Must Not Follow America’s

Guy Standing

The American model has produced rentier capitalism and functional illiteracy—Europe's universities must return to their civilising mission.

The Digital Omnibus: Deregulation Dressed as Innovation

Aida Ponce Del Castillo

The EU's sweeping data and AI package loosens safeguards for workers while promising competitiveness gains that will flow mainly to US tech giants.

Poland Shows Hungary How Grassroots Democracy Can Defeat Authoritarian Drift

Edit Zgut-Przybylska

Civil society and local autonomy proved decisive in Poland's democratic revival—lessons Hungary must now learn.

Why Political Imagination Has Died—And How to Resurrect It

Siemen Van den Broecke

Margaret Thatcher's ghost haunts global politics as leaders worldwide embrace her "no alternative" mantra, leaving citizens trapped in a system that refuses to acknowledge its own ideology.

Uruguay’s Enduring State: From Century-Old Consensus to Twenty-First Century Trials

Aníbal Peluffo, Patricia González and Viviana Barreto

A nation built on public provision faces new tests as crime, inequality and demographic shifts challenge its foundational social contract.

The Algorithmic Workplace: How Platformisation Is Reshaping Work in Europe

Enrique Fernández-Macías, Sally Wright and Davide Villani

New evidence reveals that data-driven management now shapes how millions work across Europe—with profound implications for autonomy and well-being.

Sir Keir Starmer Wants Growth—Perhaps He Should Learn Spanish

Denis MacShane

Spain's socialist government has delivered economic growth three times faster than Britain's; Labour would do well to study how.

The UK-EU Reset Needs Strategic Planning, Not Summit Improvisation

Jannike Wachowiak

Without careful preparation and raised ambitions, the 2026 summit risks becoming a missed opportunity to inject real momentum into UK-EU relations.

Brazil in the Labyrinth: State, Democracy and Inequality

Francisco Gaetani

As Brazil approaches crucial elections, the country must confront deep structural challenges that have undermined democratic progress for decades.

Why Europe Should Be Serious About Transparency on Pay

Marianna Baggio and Christine Aumayr-Pintar

The EU's Pay Transparency Directive offers a powerful tool for equality, but only if member states implement it with rigour and ambition.

Europe’s Industrial Crisis: Invest Now or Accept Decline

Judith Kirton-Darling and Isabelle Barthès

Across 18 sectors, only aerospace and defence remain globally competitive—Europe must abandon naivety and act decisively.

Trump’s Ukraine Deal Is the Wrong Way to Peace in Ukraine

Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder thinks the proposed settlement negotiated by Russia and the US would make the world far more dangerous.

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New Edition - Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025

Can Europe preserve its distinctive social model while simultaneously rearming, reindustrialising, and reorganising its economy in a more conflictual and competitive world? This is the central question raised in this new edition of the Bilan social, a reference publication released every spring for more than 25 years by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Social Observatory (OSE).

READ HERE
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Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

LISTEN HERE
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Read the book "The open future and its enemies" 

A robust democracy must not leave the future in the hands of the alliance between Big Tech and the far right. AI must be politically reined in and democratically shaped so that humanity retains its sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as the driving force of progress. Yet it has long since become a challenge to democracy. The book argues that uncontrolled AI will erode our freedom, self-determination and democracy.

READ THE BOOK
Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2026

Minimum wage policy across Europe has shifted significantly, with many EU countries raising wages above average and anchoring them to adequate living standards. This trend is consolidating as countries increasingly adopt the reference values recommended in the European Minimum Wage Directive — recently upheld by the European Court of Justice.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

S&D Africa Days 2026

We are pleased to invite you to save the date for the S&D Africa Days 2026, taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2026, in Brussels. 

At a time when Africa is too often viewed through narrow and one-sided narratives, this initiative reflects a key political priority for the S&D Group: to advance a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. 

MORE INFO
FES Advertisement

“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

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