Policy briefing EU has to invest in the social and civil dialogue to ensure more social cohesion and social progress. The Alliances to fight poverty came together in Spain the 24th of April 2014 to discuss the impact of the crisis on the social and civil dialogue. One of the perverse effects of the crisis and especially of the austerity measures is the deterioration of democracy in Europe. The seminar…
Commission lacks ambition in replying to first European Citizens’ Initiative” (19 March 2014) The European Commission (EC) published a Communication today that gives its official response to the first successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) which called on the EC “to implement the human right to water and sanitation in European law.” In the Communication, the European Commission does recall the importance of the human right to water and sanitation and…
The new report of the Social Protection Committee is out. On the basis of this report, the Council of the European Union (EPSCO) adopted the conclusions at its meeting on 10th March 2014, stressing the fact that the key factor for achieving the Europe 2020 objectives for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is working toward policy coherence between the economic and social objectives of the Union. Further to their impact…
The Spring alliance, an alliance of Social platform, CONCORD, ETUC and BEE has published their manifesto. You find here the document Spring Alliance Manifesto They have three priorities: improve democracy, establish more cohesive and equal societies and ensure quality employment for all. These three topics encompasses 16 proposals. Many of them we find also in our memorandum. PRIORITY A – IMPROVE DEMOCRACY Improve democratic control and oversight, in particular of economic…
One of our proposals is to promote investment in the real economy instead of of investments in financial assets that have no productive counterpart. One of the obstacles for an economic recovery is that at this moment their is more investment in financial assets than in the real economy. Because of the low intrest rate, created by the Central Banks to help the governments to finance their debts, investors are…
The IMF launched a new working paper on the issue of redistribution. An important working paper because it shows that redistribution doesn’t obstruct growth. IMF has recognized in recent years that one cannot separate issues of economic growth and stability on one hand and equality on the other. Indeed, there is a strong case for considering inequality and an inability to sustain economic growth as two sides of the same…
Social Platform made a short report of our conference and published it in The Social Compass February 18, 2014. On February 13, the Alliances To Fight Poverty organised a Round Table event to present and discuss the Memorandum “Another Europe is possible: for a fair distribution” putting forward their priorities in view of the forthcoming European elections. Different stakeholders were invited to present their views on the Memorandum, including Claire…
The “Alliances to fight poverty” organised a conference to present their “Call for a social, democratic and sustainable Europe”. More than 80 guests listened to prof Richard Wilkinson, 6 social organisations, 4 European Political parties. They had also the task to vote for our proposals. Richard Wilkinson introduced the conference with a broad presentation where he explored the relation between poverty and inequality. He started from the statement of Sahlin M.…
Opinion. The European elections would seem to be turning into a battle between two great images of Europe: on the one hand is the image of the usurping juggernaut that Eurosceptics emphasize; and on the other hand we have the image of the extensive federal state that the European federalists propagate. However, both images are strikingly similar. They look upon Europe as a new state: a new state with full…
Minimum wages have re-appeared on policy agendas accros Europe and the US. There are some reasons. First, in the richer EU countries the minimum wage is seen as an attractive tool to curb the downward pressure on wages that is caused by the stream of low-wage immigration. Second, many advocates of statutory minimum wages see the as an alternative tool that could substitute collective bargaining in protecting workers against low…