debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The problem with the concept of ‘Social Europe’ is that there is no one social model that applies. Moreover, there is a collective action problem for member states even if they wish to achieve a single model – a point discussed later. But without a social dimension as a counterfoil to monetary and economic integration [...]
European policy-makers have some vitally important decisions to make in the coming weeks. The June meeting of the European Council is due to consider the role of social policy in the wider context of economic and monetary union (‘EMU’). The background to this process consists, firstly, of the adoption in November 2012 of the Blueprint [...]
Listening to some EU leaders, you might think the economic crisis is all but over. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the millions of Europeans still suffering unprecedented hardship and deep cuts in living standards know only too well. While policy-makers pay lip-service to the importance of Europe’s ‘social dimension’, their policies [...]
The Euro crisis has by no means been surmounted. As a result of tough austerity measures Europe faces now a recession. On behalf of drastic cuts in social security provisions, real wage cuts in many member states and record high levels of unemployment in the Eurozone the future of the European Social Model is in [...]
The Euro crisis and the remedies the European institutions and member states have been attempting to administer for nearly four years have been subject to repeated scrutiny, in terms of both the diagnosis and the policies implemented. However, has sufficient consideration been given to the institutional questions this crisis raises, particularly with regard to economic [...]
As shown by Professor Martin Seeleib-Kaiser from Oxford University, Europe is a social model and it is time that the European Union understands this. As historically welfare states have been used for nation building, if the EU wants to become a strong entity it needs a European welfare state including solidarity and certain minimum welfare [...]
The acronym ‘ESM’ stood for a long time for a set of common European social values, goals, illusions even, to express a certain common identity for the EU especially when compared to other regions of the world, notably the US. For a few years now, ESM is the leading acronym in the media for the [...]
A genuine social dimension of Europe is not possible without the participation of those primarily benefitting from it and therefore the participation of their representatives. Collective bargaining, the social dialogue, has been established in the member states over many years and it ought to be extended to the European level. This is a complex task [...]
On 27 and 28 June 2013 the EU Council will meet to discuss and decide on the social dimension of the EMU. This debate will take place amid the worst crisis Europe is facing in decades, that starting as an economic and financial crisis is acquiring the characteristics of a social, humanitarian and political crisis. [...]
Recently, hundreds of lawyers specialised in social and labour law have signed a manifesto to protest against the systematic attacks on social dialogue and social justice of the European Union; an attack that could lead to the disappearance of the European Social Model. The European Social Model is not doing well. In the past, some [...]
The Monetary Union needs a ‘genuine’ social dimension instead of austerity dogma. The new European governance architecture with its central European Semester mechanism of coordination, reporting and monitoring in economic, budgetary, employment, social and many other policies enables the EU to better organise the decentralised policies by common targets and rules. But as progress in [...]
The UNDP claims ‘the Rise of the South’ is having a significant impact on economic growth and societal change. In a notable challenge to the gloom of recession in the West and all the continuing and, indeed scarcely unjustified, talk of continuing crisis, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently published its 2013 Human Development Report (HDR) [...]
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