Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Society


Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher. We use the values of freedom, sustainability and equality as the foundation on which we examine society’s most pressing challenges. We are committed to publishing cutting-edge thinking and new ideas from the most thought-provoking people. This archive page brings together Social Europe articles on society.

EU social agenda beyond 2024—no time to waste

Frank Vandenbroucke 7th February 2023

As a high-level group on social protection and welfare reports today, Belgium’s social-affairs minister advances the next EU social agenda.

Europe’s stars must shine for artists and creatives

Isabelle Van de Gejuchte 6th February 2023

A Spanish decree to provide more security for artists and other cultural workers should accelerate EU-level action.

Ukraine war: attitudes changing to women soldiers

Jennifer Mathers and Anna Kvit 1st February 2023

Attitudes to women in the Ukrainian military are changing as thousands serve on the front lines.

Setting standards for national equality bodies

Evelyn Collins 31st January 2023

Advancing gender equality in the EU depends on strong equality bodies in the member states.

Homelessness among asylum-seekers in Brussels

Simona Barbu 26th January 2023

The ‘securitisation’ of migration and asylum has not only meant drownings in the Mediterranean but also destitution in Europe’s cities.

Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s future

Claes-Mikael Ståhl 24th January 2023

This week the European Commission will publish a proposal to revivify social dialogue. It must be more than words.

Labour conflicts in the digital age

Donatella Della Porta, Riccardo Emilio Chesta and Lorenzo Cini 23rd January 2023

Digitalisation is not technologically determined but socially shaped—including by new forms of collective action.

Making labour law fit for all those who labour

Nicola Countouris, Mark Freedland and Valerio De Stefano 17th January 2023

EU anti-discrimination law applies to all ‘personal work’—not just employment contracts—the Court of Justice has ruled.

Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and Qatar

Frank Hoffer 12th January 2023

With the ITUC General Council due to meet tomorrow, answers are urgently needed to the deeper issues raised by this affair.

Defending women’s rights in a broken justice system

Irene Donadio 15th December 2022

The right to a fair trial is no longer guaranteed in Poland, say the activists protesting against strict abortion laws.

Europe-wide inequality during the pandemic

Michael Dauderstädt 13th December 2022

The pandemic increased inequality between member states but Europe-wide inequality has continued to decline, if more slowly.

Citizens need clarity on Europe’s challenges

Mary McCaughey 12th December 2022

A cocktail of insecurity, misinformation and mistrust imperil Europe’s future. Reliable, accessible data are at a premium.

Health and care workers have had enough

Tuscany Bell and Jan Willem Goudriaan 9th December 2022

Workers from across Europe descended on Brussels to demand adequate investment in health and social care.

Making women with disabilities visible

Marine Uldry and Pirkko Mahlmäki 2nd December 2022

Unemployed, underpaid, excluded—women with disabilities remain invisible in social policies related to employment.

Accessibility can improve everyone’s lives

Jakob Rosin 2nd December 2022

In a digitalised world, accessibility is ever more at a premium for the visually impaired—who should be involved in finding solutions.

Killing Twitter

Antara Haldar 2nd December 2022

Elon Musk claims he bought the platform to ‘help humanity’ by investing in a public good—the world’s digital town square. But the people, not the pavement, make the town square.

European Child Guarantee: making it a reality

Bruno Ribeiro Barata, Ally Dunhill and Enrico Paolo Tormen 30th November 2022

Portugal, whose national plan is launched today, offers a model for a transversal and localised approach.

Ukraine: sustaining inter-community ties

Kseniya Rubicondo 23rd November 2022

How have those Ukrainians on the ground committed to integration reacted to the invasion? Stories from its Intercultural Cities network offer inspiration.

Energy bills: direct payments needed, not fossil subsidies

Luke Haywood 22nd November 2022

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

Sophie King-Hill 22nd November 2022

The international football governing body’s action in Qatar conflicts with its own guidance on human rights.

The most wonderful time of the year

Kate Pickett 14th November 2022

The splurge of Christmas consumerism, especially in Britain, Kate Pickett writes, is partly driven by status anxiety.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 8
  • Next Page »

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube