Social Europe

Services Now Outpace Manufacturing as the Engine of Development

In India, a worker who leaves the factory floor for services now adds more to national income.

California Rewrites the Welfare State While Europe Looks Away

Trump and Sanders now converge on sovereign funds holding corporate shares, scrambling familiar ideological lines.

Simpler AI Rules Must Not Mean Weaker Safety for Europe’s Workers

The Digital Omnibus strips machinery from the AI Act’s high-risk regime, leaving worker safeguards in limbo.

A Transatlantic Reckoning: Why Europe Needs a New Pact Beyond Defence Spending

The European Union faces an existential choice: succumb to economic nationalism or forge a new transatlantic order.

The Shadow of Unfreedom: A New Authoritarianism Grips the Globe

A harsh, right-wing authoritarianism is rising, casting a shadow of unfreedom as classic conservatism fades.

Germany Lifts Limits on Military Spending Amid Nuclear Threat in Europe

As nuclear doubts grow, Germany faces tough choices amid fears Trump’s NATO retreat could spark nuclear proliferation across Europe.

Author: Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta is Professor of Economics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence.

Author: Mark Blyth

Mark Blyth is The William R. Rhodes ’57 Professor of International Economics and Professor of International and Public Affairs at the Watson Ins…

A Changing Europe: Strategic Autonomy and Security in 2025 and Beyond

Strategic autonomy, internal divisions, and external threats: Can the EU adapt and lead in an era of profound change?

Populists Are Taking Over—Here’s Why Democracy Is Failing

Dissatisfied voters and outdated systems fuel populism’s rise. Can bold reforms restore trust in liberal democracy?

The vanishing act of Social Europe: Will it rise again?

Grand promises of a “strong social Europe” have given way to a sidelined agenda.

The European Investment Bank’s roadmap … to 2008

The EIB proposes that housing renovation and energy efficiency be financed via ‘securitised’ loans.

Codetermination in Spain: chronicle of a death foretold?

A failed initiative to advance democracy at work nevertheless contains lessons for how to pursue the cause.

Farmers’ protests: against whom the horn honks?

The fragility of our food system and lack of social acceptance of EU policies must be addressed in the next mandate.

Deinstitutionalisation, disability and delay

After a decade of inertia, the EU has made little progress on the deinstitutionalisation of disabled people.

Author: Michael Bröning

Michael Bröning is a member of the Basic Values Commission of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and director of the Friedrich Ebert Stift…

The lure of progressive authoritarianism

The left needs to rediscover the virtue of liberty.

Author: Kate Holman

Kate Holman is a freelance journalist based in Brussels who worked for a number of years as a writer and editor at the European Trade Union Conf…