I am a news- and EU enthusiast who, after one year working in EU communication, has started a postgraduate programme in international investigative journalism. I am currently interning as an editorial researcher in POLITICO Europe’s newsroom in Brussels.
The Commission proposal for a European Solidarity Corps comes at a time when solidarity between and within states is at a low point. By marrying solidarity with paid work experience the initiative breaks a vicious circle of non – solidarity in the age of individualism. There is, after all, nothing like a bit of self-interest to build social cohesion from the ground up. Flexible security is the missing component in rigid social security systems that have long ceased to offer real security to Europe’s youth.
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The EU licks its wounds after the Brexiteers’ narrow victory in June. The Union’s support base, which has crumbled under the EU’s reaction to the economic crisis, needs an answer to prevent further decay. That answer might take the shape of what the EU is still largely lacking: a social rights dimension. But can the EU successfully wield this very sensitive national competence to fight the fear to lose authority? The answer is in the dosage. If social rights are the EU’s weapon of choice to fight its negative image, the Pillar is a blunt knife to the European citizens’ heart.
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In an utterly predictable move, Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen fought off the EU’s third-ever yellow card. The objections to her proposed amendment to the Posting of Workers Directive signalled, as usual, more than subsidiarity-related distress. But even with the yellow card spat easily shoved aside, the disagreement spells trouble: if anything, the dispute reveals a lack of vision that puts the very idea of the internal market at risk.
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The defeat of the Brazilian team at the hands (feet?) of the German Mannschaft two years ago is etched in our collective minds. The match – though remarkable – had little to do with that. What stuck was the reaction of the public and the images of heartbroken football fans that went around the globe. They showed a nation that had betted a lot on football – and lost.
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