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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.

Aligning the social pillar with human rights

Birgit Van Hout 2nd March 2021

The Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights could lead to a profound shift in the enjoyment of human rights in the EU.

EU credibility as a people’s union rests on the social pillar

Liina Carr 24th February 2021

Buffeted by the pandemic and by populism, the EU needs the European Pillar of Social Rights to become a solid anchor of security for all.

Vaccine nationalism won’t defeat the pandemic

Sharan Burrow 23rd February 2021

International co-operation is vital to make vaccination, as a public good, available to all.

Fewer Italians than Swedes hold anti-feminist views

Tatev Hovhannisyan 17th February 2021

New research from anti-extremism charities reveals ‘unexpected patterns’ of opinions towards feminism across Europe.

The false scarcity of vaccine trade tensions

Katie Gallogly-Swan 8th February 2021

The row over the EU introducing vaccine export controls has occluded its rejection of a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights.

A rail renaissance for Europe

Lena Donat 28th January 2021

The European Year of Rail can support the Green Deal and sustainable recovery. Europe needs more international trains with easier booking.

Big Tech media and the EU’s weak reed of ‘competition’

Steven Hill 26th January 2021

The attack on the US Capitol revealed the dangers of Big Tech media platforms—but envisaged EU competition laws won’t fix them.

Must try harder: recovering from educational inequality

Shane Markowitz 19th January 2021

School closures during the pandemic have hit socially excluded students hard. The EU needs to ensure every child can reach their potential.

Culture, creativity and coronavirus: time for EU action

Elena Polivtseva 19th January 2021

The pandemic has highlighted a longer-term failure adequately to address the working conditions of cultural professionals in Europe.

Reinforced European Youth Guarantee can be a lifeline

Sergei Stanishev, Iratxe García Pérez, Ana Mendes Godinho, Agnes Jongerius, László Andor and Paul Magnette 18th January 2021

A strengthened European Youth Guarantee allows member states to tackle rising youth unemployment—Eurostat figures show that’s urgent.

Our good health: economic fuel or core value?

Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Gediminas Cerniauskas and Birute Tumiene 14th January 2021

Solidarity in health has never been so urgent or imperative—a European Health Union would be its ideal expression.

Designing vaccines for people, not profits

Mariana Mazzucato, Henry Lishi Li and Els Torreele 2nd December 2020

For all the hope spurred by the efficacy announcements of multiple Covid-19 vaccine candidates, national and private interests are trumping health justice.

Not part of Europe anyway?

James Wickham 30th November 2020

The language of the Brexit stand-off is of a ‘level playing-field’ versus ‘sovereignty’. But beneath that, it’s about divergent social models.

Care, capitalism and politics

Kathleen Lynch 26th November 2020

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted how the welfare state of the future must be built on an ethic of care rather than self-interest.

Greater equality: our guide through Covid-19 to sustainable wellbeing

Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson 25th November 2020

The pandemic has reinforced the case for egalitarianism to define the ethos of the welfare state.

How good journalism can drive out bad

Olaf Steenfadt 24th November 2020

With a Digital Services Act in the offing, regulation of platforms can make public-interest journalism sustainable again.

The Global Fund for Social Protection: an idea whose time has come

Olivier De Schutter 17th November 2020

The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of social protection, especially in the developing world. A new global fund is needed—and it’s affordable.

The smart city—a social city

Estrella Durá Ferrandis and Cristina Helena Lago 13th November 2020

For decades urban development has followed the impulses of capital. The right to a home and the right to the city must be won by the citizens.

A new pact for asylum in Europe?

Mohamoud Yusuf 11th November 2020

The European Commission is caught between the needs of frontline states receiving refugees and those in the rear resisting responsibility-sharing.

Time to transform transport

Lorelei Limousin 6th November 2020

Europe has the chance to revolutionise how people and goods move and help cap global warming, while creating jobs and improving health.

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ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


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Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


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