Social Issues
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Gender equality: EU wants to break “glass ceiling”
6 March 2012733PresseuropRzeczpospolita, Süddeutsche Zeitung -
Romania: Forgotten miners in the Valley of Tears
13 January 201210716 Die Tageszeitung Berlin -
Employment: A two-speed Europe
5 January 20123PresseuropLa Tribune -
Lithuania: Nurses go Norway
20 December 20111061 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius -
Iceland: Reykjavik to allow Romanian workers
10 November 2011573PresseuropTimpul -
Employment: The dream of a flexible labour market
19 October 201112916 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Occupy Protests: Educated, poor and in revolt
17 October 20114PresseuropFrankfurter Rundschau -
EUROPEAN OF THE WEEK: Guido Strack - the downfall of a whistleblower
6 October 201122810 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Solidarity : Countries cutting off Europe’s poor
21 September 20112279 La Libre Belgique Brussels -
Economic crisis: Youthful members of the full-time precariat
15 September 20119664 Polityka Warsaw -
United Kingdom: Cameron quizzes EU work directive
6 September 2011PresseuropThe Daily Telegraph -
Economic crisis: Please tax me, I’m fabulously rich
30 August 20114271 The Guardian London -
Social unrest: The street bankers
11 August 20118385 Der Standard Vienna -
Spain: Back to work permits for Romanians
10 August 20111PresseuropLa Razón -
Romania: Who is to gain from weak recovery?
3 August 2011PresseuropRomânia libera -
Greece: Papandreou fights his left-wing family
19 July 201153 The New York Times New York -
Austerity: Belt tightening general across Europe
1 July 20111PresseuropPúblico -
Food poverty: EU cuts funding to the poor
1 July 20111971PresseuropLe Soir -
United Kingdom: Politicians united against mass strikes
29 June 2011PresseuropThe Independent -
Jobs: Youth unemployment endemic in Europe
27 June 2011PresseuropPolitiken -
Luxembourg: Euro-demonstration against austerity
22 June 20111PresseuropLa Voix du Luxembourg -
Czech Republic: "Social Armageddon" in Prague
17 June 20112PresseuropLidové noviny -
Czech Republic: Prague paralysed by transport strike
16 June 2011PresseuropHospodářské Noviny -
United Kingdom: The summer, autumn, winter of discontent
14 June 2011PresseuropThe Times -
Unemployment: Italy's youth population in total slump
18 May 20111603PresseuropCorriere della Sera -
Romania : Hounding the black economy
9 May 2011PresseuropEvenimentul zilei -
Germany: Not so poor kids
6 May 2011PresseuropFinancial Times Deutschland, Financial Times Deutschland -
Labour market: Work in Germany? Yes, maybe
29 April 20111571 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurt -
Spain: Amnesty for moonlighting
26 April 2011PresseuropLa Vanguardia -
Belgium : Anti-austerity march on European Council
23 March 2011PresseuropLe Soir -
Romania: Who's afraid of new labour code?
17 March 20111PresseuropGandul -
Portugal: Interns to be paid even less
1 March 2011Presseuropi -
Pensions: Everyone will work longer, except Poles
7 February 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Bulgaria: Sofia embarassed by latest jobless figures
2 February 2011PresseuropDnevnik -
Spain: Green light for pension reform
28 January 20111PresseuropABC -
Employment: Come back to Germany, Pepe
24 January 20111182 La Vanguardia Barcelona -
Italy: Battle over the future of Fiat
11 January 2011PresseuropCorriere della Sera -
Spain: Record unemployment - glimmer of hope
5 January 2011PresseuropABC -
Austerity: Hard-up families in affluent Austria
15 December 2010PresseuropDer Standard -
Romania: Austerity targets pregnant mothers
7 December 20101PresseuropGandul -
Portugal: Half a million working poor
2 December 2010PresseuropJornal de Notícias -
Austerity : Rage spreads across Europe
25 November 2010PresseuropPúblico -
Debates: Mind the pay gap
15 November 20102122 The Times London -
Portugal: Brussels down on national labour law
5 November 2010PresseuropDiário de Notícias -
Austerity: Pity the poor civil servant
27 October 2010129 Il Foglio Milan -
Austerity: Unions head for Judgement Thursday
25 October 2010PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Netherlands: EU court rules against unscrupulous bosses
22 October 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Press review: Thatcher heirs make the dream come true
21 October 2010631 Presseurop -
United Kingdom: Paris calling, but why not London?
21 October 20102702 The New York Times New York -
France: Are things getting out of control?
19 October 2010821 Presseurop
In Ceausescu's times thousands of Romanians, drawn by high wages, flocked to the coalfields of the Jiu Valley. Today many of the mines in the valley are closed and the miners have been left to fend for themselves. Many are sliding into criminality.
Faced with the economic crisis, Lithuanian medical staff are increasingly leaving to work in Norway, where salaries are much higher. Although they do not become exiles, they do have to contend with a permanent schedule of return journeys between Oslo and Vilnius.
In spite of the euro crisis, there are no signs whatsoever of an exodus of Greek, Spanish or Portuguese migrants. Only a few Southern Europeans are daring to move to healthier euro countries in an attempt to escape unemployment and low wages. Extracts.
He wanted justice, and for it risked family, work and health – to lose it all. Guido Strack was once an ambitious officer with the European Commission. But that was before he began to draw attention to abuses in his department.
Six member States refuse to allow funds from the Common Agricultural Policy to be used as food aid to the poor. On 1 January 2012, the budget for assistance to 18 million Europeans may drop from 480 to 113.5 million euros. It's a possibility that revolts La Libre Belgique.
The crisis has accelerated the emergence of a new social class in Europe. Dubbed "the precariat" by sociologists, it is made up of young people with no prospect of a decent job or a reasonable standard of living.
As governments prepare their 2012 budgets, with the middle classes expected to tighten austerity belts to clean up the public accounts, more and more super-rich in several countries are expressing their readiness to share the burden and are asking to pay more tax.
Europe is bailing out its financial centres, but not its youth. Three basic conditions – education, employment and housing – are denied them. So when they fight back, says Der Standard's writer, they're just following the message from the top: take what you can and get out.
As part of his package of austerity measures voted in June, the Greek PM plans to sell off state assets like the national electricity board. But in a manner symptomatic of how deeply intertwined his country’s various forces are, he faces the hostility of a union his own party helped create.
On 1 May, the doors will open wide for Poles, Czechs and other eastern Europeans now free to work in Germany. But no one expects a stampede. Quite the opposite: German companies will have to woo the new guest workers ardently and assiduously.
In one corner - Germany, in search of skilled workers to feed its recovery. In the other, a Spain in crisis, where young graduates have no future. As in the sixties, a new flow of economic migrants might be making their way north.
Both on the left and right, consensus in growing that the ever widening gap between executive pay and ordinary wages is squeezing out the middle class, and undermining our democracies, writes Times columnist Anatole Kaletsky.
They used to have it made — nice easy work, good pensions and job security — but the swingeing cuts that have come with the crisis threaten to end forever the cushy life of Europe's fast-disappearing civil servants.
While Britain’s left leaning press is howling at the sheer scale of Chancellor George Osborne’s €91.5 billion cuts, conservatives are praying that this scaling back of the state will quickly lead to growth.
While millions are taking to the streets of France to protest against the Sarkozy government’s proposed raising of retirement age, England, once the scene of anti-Thatcher riots in the nineties is quiet as her heirs in the Cameron adminstration implement the severest cuts in living memory.
The campaign against pension reform has provided a catalyst for other movements that are less easily controlled. Now that marching workers have been joined by huge numbers of secondary school students, the French press worries about a situation that could soon get out of hand.