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For almost two decades EU institutions have paid lip-service to capacitating welfare provision. With the new legislature, it’s time to ratchet up domestic social investment. A ‘golden rule’ of exempting certain types of social spending from the Eurozone fiscal rule book for about a decade would allow to invest in...
The crisis and the paradoxical response of austerity, imposed on the most affected countries, has interrupted a process of economic and social convergence that had barely begun to overcome strong asymmetries. In Europe, the gap has widened between the so-called “virtuous” countries, which despite the crisis still have room for...
The Financial crisis has left EU Member States in dire straits because of the falling tax revenues and the impact of austerity measures in many countries. As a consequence, public investment in social infrastructure has reached a 20-year low. Turning this around however could be the catalyst for the creation...
In a world with so much wealth, how is it possible that so many people have little or no access to healthcare? Or that different socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, or nationalities, mean poorer health for some? As a doctor, Social Democrat and Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, I find this...
For the last ten years, policies in Europe’s cities have become more and more liberal. Yet housing is a major concern for Europe’s citizens. It is the duty of the Progressives to refocus their attention on affordable housing, says Cédric Van Styvendael, President of Housing Europe, the European federation of...
‘The future of work’, is often discussed in relation to the inevitable effects of technology and doomsday scenarios of mass-unemployment. However, the increasing flexibility and precarity that we are witnessing today, are a consequence of decisions made by policymakers and businesses – they are not inevitable. Precarious work precarious lives:...
Social housing used to be one of the main instruments for governments to tackle housing problems in Europe in the post-World War II period. During the last decades many countries have experienced a government retrenchment from housing policy, involving cuts in government spending on housing, deregulation of housing markets and...
The creation of a European Labour Authority (ELA) is part of the European Commission’s initiatives aimed at ensuring fairer worker mobility within the EU. The challenges to make it efficient and social however are high. After proposing a revision of a set of European rules on the free movement...
The European Commission plans to set up a European Labour Authority (ELA) to ensure and control social standards for those who work in another Member State. Jan Cremers, however, says it lacks teeth. The ELA’s main task should be to complement, monitor and supervise the activities of labour inspectorates and...