Tag archive for ‘European Parliament’
A European Minimum Wage Policy for a More Sustainable Wage-Led Growth Model
Compressing the wage structure from the lower end would lead to a more egalitarian distribution of income and stabilise the wage share. This can be achieved by a European minimum wage target according to which, in every country, the minimum wage – determined either by law or by collective agreement – should be at least [...]
The EU2020 Strategy and Europe’s Crisis – First Ensure the Survival of the EU!
Angela Merkel may have got just about everything else wrong, but she was right to tell the German parliament that urgent action is needed to save the euro area, otherwise the future of Europe is at stake. Europe’s reaction to the sovereign debt crisis has been an almost unmitigated disaster – denial, delay and dithering [...]
Charlemagne got it wrong
Get conservative British journalists to write about European Union matters and you can mostly count on a biased rant that disregards most of the relevant facts. The latest article in the Economist’s Charlemagne Blog is another great example of this. In this piece the author even manages to pull off an especially difficult trick: Swiping [...]
The EU 2020 Strategy puts the European Social Model at Risk
For social democrats, the principles guiding any crisis exit strategy must be the smooth transition to a model based on sustainability and solidarity. This requires to recognise the social origins of the crisis and to draw the correct policy implications from it. This is not only a political, but also an ideological battle, as recent [...]
New Priorities for the EU Institutions
The priorities must be formulated, as always, in a manner that takes into account both form and content. I shall accordingly deal with both aspects, while placing greater emphasis on the latter. A first priority will be to ensure that the new institutional balance resulting from the Lisbon Treaty can be made to work. The [...]
2010 will be the Year of Parliaments
2010 will be the year when democratic accountability takes a front seat in the European Union. That is because the Lisbon Treaty gives bigger roles to the European Parliament, national parliaments and to civil society. The big winner from the Lisbon Treaty is undoubtedly the European Parliament. It has fully become an equal lawmaker with [...]
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 [...]
The Future of Social Democracy: A Spanish Vision
To solve our current problems realist and practical policies are required, but they must also always retain a social-democratic ethos. The European election of July 2009 showed an interesting paradox: despite the fact that, according to data from the European Election Study (1986-2004), 58 per cent of European citizens position themselves as centre-left or left, [...]
The very real Powers of the European Parliament
As 2009 draws to a close, a new European order is taking shape, although admittedly with a whimper rather than a bang. The Lisbon Treaty has finally staggered into life. The member state governments have chosen the first ever full time Council President and a new and more powerful High Representative for Foreign and Security [...]
What now for Social Democracy in Europe?
The reality is more complex than a simple story of social democracy in inevitable decline. On the face of it these are testing times for left-of-centre, social-democratic movements in Europe. The results of the June 2009 European parliamentary elections served to stress the point that in spite of the economic meltdown, social-democratic parties have been [...]
Is Progressive Populism still possible?
Especially in the post-communist countries, social democrats must rediscover their populist and internationalist roots. The recent predicament of progressive politics has been best described by Thomas Franks in his book ‘What’s the matter with Kansas?’ (2004): the poor and unprivileged classes seem to vote against their own best interests, and progressive populism has been replaced [...]
Down, but (definitely) not out
Social democrats need to work more closely together in Europe to reassert a policy agenda reflective of their values. Social-democratic parties are not dominating decision-making in Europe. The recent gain in Greece was matched with losses in Germany and Bulgaria, and in Portugal we retained control but lost absolute majority. This decline was reflected in [...]
