Social Policy
Europe at the Crossroads: It’s Now or Never!
The European Union is one of the grandest projects in human history – the creation of a new economic, and eventually social, super-state out of the ashes of post-war despair. The founders had a cunning plan: They would create an economic imperative around the production of essentials such as coal and steel, convinced that a [...]
A Year is Good but a Strategy is Better
We have had just about everything since the first one in 1983: small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, languages, equal opportunities, intercultural dialogue. I am talking about ‘European Years of…’. The last mentioned – the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008) in case you missed it – had Charles Aznavour as world intercultural dialogue ambassador. Whether [...]
Some not so unpleasant demographic arithmetic
At a recent presentation in Brussels a European Commission representative asserted that the costs of ageing implied huge problems of sustainability and a rising burden on the – smaller – working population in the future. Based on the analysis in a recent major report on the sustainability of public finances, he stated that, if policies [...]
Towards a Reformed Conservatism? I don’t think so.
The big political event in Britain over the last week was the launch of Phillip Blonds’ new Tory think tank ResPublica. I’ve known Phillip for a few years – since he was a humble academic in far flung Cumbria – and have watched him move at incredible speed to the centre of debate under the [...]
Finding a New Language and Making New Alliances
Social democrats must find a new common language, and learn how to work with new social constituencies.
Any serious discussion of the future of social democracy needs to assess the recent historical fortunes of social-democratic parties in government across Europe as a whole, as well as the enduring credibility of its key ideas. What can [...]
The Future of Social Democracy
In spite of their rhetoric, the right’s solutions to the crisis will lead to ordinary people paying the costs.
This past year has been overshadowed by the dark clouds of economic crisis. Ordinary people have taken many hard knocks. Unemployment is rising. Businesses are going bust. Homes have been repossessed. Pensions have been decimated by stock [...]
The missed Opportunities of the Labour Party Conference
I have just returned from the British Labour Party’s annual conference. It was a sobering affair. Gordon Brown and his ministers are trying to start a ‘fight back’ against the Conservatives who, at the start of the week, held a commanding lead in the opinion polls. This is a tough ask. Any party that has [...]
A Shift in Spending to Save Jobs
UK unemployment figures released yesterday show the highest rate of unemployment since the mid-1990s. This is a worrying situation but the UK is not the worst affected country in Europe. In Spain, for instance, unemployment is approaching 20%.
These figures point to a crucial question for public policy in the UK and other European countries: when [...]
The Social Democratic Challenge
Social democracy, in any meaningful sense of the word, has been in crisis for decades. Even amongst the Nordics the game for years has been accommodation to capital and not leadership of it. In the immediate post-war years social democracy set the agenda, next came a period of capital accommodating itself to our social agenda [...]
What does Brussels want?
Maybe now, in the midst of the slump, is not the right moment in time to be pondering an integrated social policy for Europe, as other issues appear more pressing and the economic downturn seems to dominate everything.
But maybe now is in fact precisely the right time to be considering these things: it is a [...]
Europe on the Way to a Social Union?
The European Commission’s ‘Renewed Social Agenda’, published at the beginning of July 2008, bears the auspicious subtitle ‘Opportunities, Access and Solidarity in 21st Century Europe’. The Agenda outlines a framework for European social policy in the areas of employment and social affairs, education and youth, health care and the information society.
However, since social policy remains [...]
Interview – ‘The only solution is to refuse to comply with ECJ rulings’
In recent judgements undermining the right to strike and compliance with collective agreements, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has dealt a fresh blow to hopes for a ‘Social Europe’. Political scientist Fritz Scharpf explains the reasoning behind rulings from Europe’s highest court – and explores what can be done to oppose them.
Herr Scharpf, why [...]