Progressive structural reforms. Proposals for European reforms to reduce inequalities and promote jobs, growth and social investment.
Progressive structural reforms. Proposals for European reforms to reduce inequalities and promote jobs, growth and social investment.
During the crisis, Europe’s focus was narrowly concentrated on financial and fiscal consolidation, leaving aside the urgently needed social consolidation exposed by the failure to reach the anti-poverty and employment targets of the Europe 2020 strategy. Despite this, the European Commission keeps promising it will earn a social AAA rating, while necessary reforms to achieve a meaningful shift towards upward social convergence, predistribution and equality are absent. (Neo-liberal) austerity measures that hit public services, education, health and social services, can no longer be an option to restart the European economy.
This publication presents the results of the SOLIDAR Social Progress Lab 2015 – a space for academics, policy-makers and civil society actors to think about necessary strategies and policies to achieve a more social and inclusive Europe. It collects the analysis of 10 academic scholars from across Europe, with a focus on identifying and targeting inequalities, shaping social investment and shaping European policies that affect social safeguards, thereby seeking to enrich the policy debate about alternative structural reforms at European and national level.
This edited volume includes forewords by Nicolas Schmit, Luxembourg's Minister for Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy, as well as Thomas Händel MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. It has been developed with the support of the Social Progress Lab’s scientific advisory group consisting of Dr. Rémi Bazillier (Université d’Orléans, France), Dr. Giovanni Cozzi (University of Greenwich, United Kingdom), Dr. Amandine Crespy (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Prof. Dr. Ferdi De Ville (Ghent University, Belgium) and Dr. Angela Wigger (Radboud University, the Netherlands), with guidance by Dr. Lieve Fransen, special adviser to the Social Progress Lab process.