Béla Galgóczi

Béla Galgóczi is senior researcher for the European Trade Union Institute and author of Towards a Just Transition: Coal, Cars and the World of Work (ETUI, 2019).

Is Europe socially fit for the ‘Fit for 55’ package?

by Béla Galgóczi on 19th July 2021

The centrality of market mechanisms to the European Commission’s climate package poses big questions as to its effectiveness and distributional … [Read more...]

Why should just transition be an integral part of the European Green Deal?

by Béla Galgóczi on 4th December 2019

In our series on ‘just transition’, Béla Galgóczi focuses on what it means for the key sectors of coal and cars. That there is a … [Read more...]

2008: The Year East-West Wage Convergence Came To A Standstill

by Béla Galgóczi on 30th August 2017

The crisis has put an end to wage convergence of the poorer Central and Eastern European new EU member states (EU-11, being: Czechia, Estonia, … [Read more...]

After COP 21: The EU Needs To Revise Its Climate Policy Targets

by Béla Galgóczi on 18th February 2016

The 2015 COP21 summit in Paris was presented as a last chance to reach a global agreement to control climate change caused by human activity. The fact … [Read more...]

Europe’s Fading Climate Policy Ambitions

by Béla Galgóczi on 1st October 2014

Europe is losing momentum in greening its economy, and its former leadership in this area is eroding rapidly. Indeed, after a 60% drop in clean energy … [Read more...]

WSI policy brief: the formula for a social Europe

The strengthening of the social dimension of the EU is back on the agenda of European politics. The European Pillar of Social Rights, the revision of the Posted Workers Directive and the initiative for a European minimum wage are interpreted by some as a turning point. However, the road to a more social Europe is still very long. Against that background, this paper formulates a social Europe thus: social minimum standards plus a reconfiguration of the internal market and economic and monetary union in a manner compatible with the pillars of the European social model.

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Living, working and Covid-19 (update April 2021): mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year

The third round of Eurofound's Living, working and Covid-19 e-survey, fielded in February and March 2021, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe following nearly a full year of living with restrictions. The report analyses the main findings and tracks developments and trends across the 27 EU member states since the survey was first launched in April 2020. It pinpoints issues that have surfaced over the course of the pandemic, such as increased job insecurity due to the threat of job loss, decline in mental wellbeing, erosion of recent gains in gender equality, fall in trust vis-à-vis institutions, deterioration of work–life balance and growth of vaccine hesitancy. The results of the survey highlight the need for a holistic approach to support all the groups hit hard by the crisis, to prevent them from falling further behind.

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Discover the new issue of the Progressive Post!

Social rights for platform workers, fiscal-rules reform and EU enlargement, as well as the challenges and opportunities for social democrats in the post-pandemic context, are the main topics of the latest Progressive Post magazine.

After more than a year of the pandemic, we are in a crucial political moment: policy decisions made now will drive reforms and sustainable growth in the years to come. For progressives to take ownership of these topics, this issue of the Progressive Post analyses some of these opportunities.

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Global Wage Report 2020/21: wages and minimum wages in the time of Covid-19

The ILO’s Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world. This seventh edition examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages evolved in the first half of 2020 during the Covid-19 crisis: in the case of Europe, the report shows 1.2 per cent real wage growth during 2019, while the impact of Covid-19 would have reduced the total wage bill by 6.5 per cent by the second quarter of 2020.

The report reviews minimum-wage systems across the world and identifies the conditions under which minimum wages can reduce inequality and presents extensive data on levels of minimum wages, their effectiveness and the number and characteristics of workers paid at or below the minimum wage. It highlights how adequate minimum wages, statutory or negotiated, can play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the crisis.

‘The Global Wage Report is central to the analysis of wage trends and labour market developments as well as to the theoretical debate about the role of labour in the econom’—Hansjörg Herr, Berlin School of Economics and Law.

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