Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Among the British press, which overall shows a bias for leaving the EU, the Guardian is seen as one of the few papers with a friendly attitude towards remaining. However, there are pro-Brexit voices within the Guardian, too. On 20 May, Larry Elliott, the paper’s Economic Editor, made his argument for Britain to leave the EU: “Brexit may be the best […]
In March 2016 the European Commission presented the preliminary outline of a European Pillar of Social Rights as part of the work undertaken towards a deeper and fairer Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The Pillar is not meant to introduce new social rights and principles, but rather to complement and operationalise the existing EU social […]
The drift to illiberal Pop-Nat – populist nationalist – politics in Europe continues. Across the Atlantic Donald Trump exemplifies Pop-Nat politics. There is no sign that the grip of Orban-Kaczynski style politics is weakening. They represent the soft EU version of Putin-Erdogan political control. Elections are held. A market economy exists. People can travel and publish. But […]
For Brexiters, history is already written: the EU is on course to become a superstate. Britain had better jump off the train before it happens, and other enlightened nations would be well-advised follow suit. Those who have studied European integration in recent years know that this claim is not just gross exaggeration – it is […]
The more our societies diversify into a loose network of lifeworlds, the more important it becomes to find a platform to hold them together. This common platform cannot be made out of a potpourri of policies, but needs to be built around a credible narrative about a better future for all. Shaping the Society of […]
On June 23 Britain has a choice, to leave or to remain as a member of the European Union. Polling indicates that it will be a tight race. But also that a lot of women, almost twice as many as men, are undecided. These women could determine the fate of economic prosperity and social progress […]
There is no uniform interpretation of Universal Basic Income (UBI). The simplest definition may be that UBI is a public program in which the state (at any level—national, regional, or local) transfers to everyone the same amount of money (usually similar to the level of income that defines a country’s poverty line). Among the earliest […]
The Democratic Party primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is being fought in the shadow of “neoliberalism” – in the shadow, that is, of the economic policies and general economic philosophy successfully espoused by Ronald Reagan in the United States and by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. Neoliberalism is that economic philosophy […]
Gordon Brown’s exchange with Gillian Duffy on the streets of Rochdale was a defining moment in the UK’s 2010 general election. It also revealed much about the evolution of political parties of the left in the past 50 years. Mrs Duffy told Mr Brown, then Labour prime minister, of her life-long commitment to his party […]
In recent months, the Slovak government has been strongly criticized by EU-member states for its anti-migration attitude and European media have commented on the refusal to take in 800 refugees via the EU relocation scheme. Slovakia – along with other Visegrad (V4) countries – has been accused of failing to show solidarity with other member […]
17 May is International day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face distinct disadvantages in the labour market ranging from discrimination in recruitment, wages or promotions to harassment and bullying in the workplace. Such problems are present across the entire EU and on average, 19% of LGBT employees feels […]
UK Labour has suffered another bad set of election results. But the failure of Labour is not the fault of the Corbynites or the Blairites. Social democracy is in crisis the world over: obliterated in Greece, failing in government in France and in retreat almost everywhere else. Nowhere are social democrats ideologically, programmatically or organisationally […]
Europe’s refugee crisis is far from solved, but there are signs that the agreement finalized by the European Union and Turkey on March 18 is reducing the flow of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece. According to Frontex, the European border-management agency, the 26,460 migrants detected crossing the EU’s external borders in the eastern […]
Why, in 2016, has the European Trade Union Confederation found it necessary to start ringing alarm bells in defence of basic trade union rights in the EU? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agreed in 1948 as a reaction to the horrors of the Second World War, states: “Everyone has the right to form and […]
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble famously remarked that “elections change nothing”. He was talking about debt and public finance. The European Commission now seems intent on confirming Schäuble’s maxim when it comes to ensuring the protection of public health and the environment. Voting in the European Parliament, public opinion and credible, independent scientific research appear […]
Ideas spread fast, bad ideas spread faster. Over the last few months, the European Commission has tried to give new impulse towards achieving a ‘Social Triple A’ rating. At the beginning of March, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen launched a social package comprising an outline of the European Pillar of Social Rights and […]
Since 2009, when the financial crisis that started in America in 2008 shook the eurozone to its core, crisis management has become Europe’s new normal. Indeed, crisis has followed crisis in Europe, and this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Europe has had a financial crisis, a Greek crisis, a Ukraine crisis, and, since the […]
The European Union (EU) has strong legislation in place that protects workers from being exploited and also enables businesses to engage in fair competition. Workers are mobile and can move freely within the EU single market across borders – without being dependent upon traffickers. Yet, the latest Eurofound report shows that trafficking for labour exploitation […]
A lot of hype has built up around digitalisation, in some Member States as well as in Brussels. On one side, the over-enthusiastic camp bases its assumptions on wishful thinking: digitalisation will bring a circular economy with less waste, better use of resources, fantastic opportunities for information, communication, connectedness and transparency, easier reconciliation of life […]
The resistible rise of the Far Right in Austria. The presidential election is on a knife-edge before the deciding round of at the end of May. It did indeed come as a shock that moment when the blue bar on the TV screen last Sunday at 5 pm shot upwards: 35 per cent of the […]
As the European Union begins to disintegrate, who can provide the leadership to save it? German Chancellor Angela Merkel is widely credited with finally answering Henry Kissinger’s famous question about the Western alliance: “What is the phone number for Europe?” But if Europe’s phone number has a German dialing code, it goes through to an […]