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🔊📺 Available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts
In this episode of FEPS Talks, host Matteo Dressler, our Policy Analyst for democracy and participation, sits down with Sabrina Repp, the youngest member of the European Parliament representing the S&D Group. With a background in activism for Germany's Young Socialists (JUSOS), Sabrina brings a fresh and youthful perspective to European politics.
The conversation touches on her experience as a young MEP, as well as the recent elections in Eastern Germany, where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) made significant gains. Sabrina provides insight into the political climate in her home region and reflects on what these results could mean for the broader European political landscape.
Together, they discuss the role of young voters, the rise of radical right parties, and how Social Democrats can better connect with younger generations. Sabrina also shares her thoughts on how the European Parliament can address the issues fueling the far-right's success, especially through her work on youth- and regional policies.
Tune in to hear Sabrina's firsthand experiences and her vision for a more engaged, democratic future. -
🔊📺 Available on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast
FEPS Head of Communications Ainara Bascuñana interviews Ottilia Maunganidze, lawyer and Head of Special Projects in the office of the Executive Director at the Institute of Security Studies, based in South Africa, and member of the Progressive Migration Group.
Following the Progressive Migration Group Conference on September 10, Ottilia discusses the New Pact on Migration and Asylum from the viewpoint of African countries and the pressing need to abandon the current stagnant and toxic narratives on migration that portray migration as a threat when it is a major driver of development and prosperity.
Over the course of two years, the Progressive #Migration Group - equally composed of EU and African experts - produced a series of policy proposals on a human-rights and development approach to #Migration and asylum and recommendations on adopting a new narrative.
Find out more about the work of the Progressive Migration Group
https://bit.ly/ProgressiveMigrationGroup -
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Matthias Kollatz has been working on public finance in various positions: as Vice-President of the EIB in Luxembourg but then as Financial Senator of Berlin. Here he shares his views about what changes the great financial crisis of 2008-9 brought about, and how important it has been in a post-crisis model to elevate promotional banks into a more central role.
He acknowledges some important steps of this financial transition, like the Juncker Plan that was launched in 2014. However, he believes that the German debt break (Schuldenbremse) is a product of a time when the investment needs of the economy were underestimated, and in particular there was no proper estimation of the financial implications of the Green Deal.
In order to deliver enough and the right type of climate investment, the EU and its member states need to upgrade their public and promotional banking capacity, but also reform their fiscal rules. Through similar innovations, adequate financing of social needs like housing could also be within reach. It is not the green and social ambitions that should be lowered but the common investment capacities of Europe that need to be upgraded. -
🔊 Available on Spotify and Apple Podcast
Professor Iain Begg (European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science) shares his views about two reports which have become key talking points in 2024 in EU circles: one written by Enrico Letta and another one authored by Mario Draghi. Though reports often fade away after they are published, the EU is bound to discuss the internal market as well as competitiveness to develop a coherent economic policy for the coming cycle.
According to Prof. Begg, a thorough analysis of the EU's finances (not just the conventional budget, but the wider 'galaxy' of off-budget mechanisms) would be justified. A fresh approach, including establishing an EU level financial framework and a sharper focus on EU public goods is needed. A new progressive reform should build on the legacy of the Juncker Plan (2014) but also the Next Generation EU (2020) which may inspire common solutions in support of our climate but also defence policies.
In 2025, the European Commission needs to present its proposals for a new Multiannual Financial Framework. Now is the time to launch wide-ranging debates –without taboos— on key elements of the EU budget: cohesion as well as agricultural policy, but also new expenditure programmes. Reforms to these major policy fields will be necessary given the broader interest in EU enlargement which, at least from a budgetary perspective, should not be as tricky as one might believe. -
🔊📺 Available on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast
In this episode of FEPS Talks we welcome Sergei Stanishev, who is leaving the European Parliament after ten years. He summarises his insights gathered as a MEP, but also as the President of the Party of European Socialists, a position he held between 2011 and 2022.
He assesses the EP election outcome from a socialist perspective, and reflects on the evolution of EU social democratic politics over the recent decades. The conversation reaches out to topics including the Green Deal, migration, as well as the prospects of creating peace in Eastern Europe again.
Stanishev concludes the podcast by outlining political tasks and strategic priorities for the upcoming period. Stanishev reminds the listeners that originally, social democracy faced the rise of industial capitalism, which had to be reformed. Today, the mission is to tame the formidable technological and economic trasformations, and put them in the service of the people. -
This podcast was recorded just a few hours after the polling stations across the EU closed. It features Matthias Ecke, a returning Member of the European Parliament from SPD in Germany. Together with him, Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training, dives into the campaign's evaluation, analyses the outcomes and considers successful progressive strategies for the future. Jointly, they search for answers on how to halt the march of the right-wing radicals further and safeguard politics from aggression, but even more so, how to bring the attention of the citizens back to the key progressive proposals.
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🔊📺 Available on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast
This episode of FEPS Talks features Joanna Maycock, an award-winning feminist campaigner and co-author of the policy study “Women Civil Society Organisation Leaders for systemic change.” Interviewed by Ainara Bascuñana, Head of Communications at FEPS, Joanna analyses how transformational feminist leadership is the key to addressing society's increasingly complex challenges and to a paradigm shift towards more sustainable, caring and inclusive societies.
They also delve into the study's findings, bringing to the forefront the data and remaining barriers female CSO leaders face in the workplace. The episode concludes with recommendations on how to change the work culture and support feminist leadership in Europe.
Read “Women CSO leaders for systemic change”
📕 https://bit.ly/WomenCSOLeadersForChange -
🔊📺 Available on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast
In this episode of FEPS Talks, MEP Agnes Jongerious, Head of the Dutch Delegation to the S&D Group, for which she’s also coordinator in the EMPL committee, looks back at the activities of this legislature to take stock of the achievements done on minimum wages and platform work.
She explains the relevance of representing workers’ interests within the European Parliament and stresses the work done with the progressive family at the European level, in collaboration with the EU Commissioner Schmit and PES, for which she leads the Social Europe Network.
Interviewed by FEPS Director David Rinaldi, Agnes is not short of ideas for the next European Legislature and suggests making bold steps on public procurement, minimum income, and a European local employment guarantee, in line with the zero unemployment areas that are emerging in different member states. -
🔊📺 Available on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast
Inspired by the recent conference organised by the Belgian presidency of the EU Council on Social Europe, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch shares her assessment of the „La Hulpe declaration”, and expresses some regret for the lack of full support from the side of business. She offers a shortlist of the most important achievements of the current EU mandate, praising EU Commissioners Nicolas Schmit and Helena Dalli. She elaborates on the high risk of returning to an austerity focused macroeconomic policy in the EU, while the workers of Europe would need a new orientation for investment and job creation, especially to facilitate a just transition. We learn that the Unions are awaiting the new MEPs and the incoming European Commission with very concrete demands and policy ideas. At the very end of the conversation, Esther Lynch also reveals her personal plans for Labour Day. -
Professor Jonas Pontusson is sharing his views about the need for a “social democratic renewal”. There is no simple recipe for this, and one needs to research political economy as well as sociology for a proper assessment of the dynamics of progressive politics today. But the discussions on the decline of social democracy already started in the early 1990s, after which the rise of the “Third Way” created a feeling of revival for a while. In the long run, a most critical relationship is the one between social democracy and the working class. The assumption that the working class automatically supports socialists was probably never true, but today the relevance of the social democratic programme is highlighted by the growing inequalities and the rise of the so-called precariat. Sweden offers an example for a more resilient social democratic organisation and representation. Nevertheless, it also applies there that the offer must stress better the economic agenda: improving redistribution and finding ways to strengthen economic democracy. In various countries, new forms of workers’ activism give hope for revitalising the labour movement and social democratic politics as well.
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Brexit is not an issue of the past but the present, and it remains with us for the foreseeable future. FEPS Secretary General László Andor discusses its causes and consequences with Professor Catherine Barnard (University of Cambridge, Trinity College). They agree that in 2016 the pro-Brexit side in reality voted against EU membership, but not for a clear vision of the UK outside of the EU, and the UK is still working out what it wants to be as a country and where. The animosity against the EU had developed over time and across political spectrums, not just within the backbenchers of the Conservatives. Without the UK, however, the EU is finding it easier to move towards a Social Union to ensure that welfare states can be made more resilient.
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Professor Björn Hacker authored a book about Social Europe for the FEPS Primer Series. Secretary General László Andor interviews him about some key aspects of the book, and especially about the evolution of the paradigm. Key thinkers and political leaders like Willy Brandt, Jacques Delors and Maria Joao Rodrigues are mentioned during the conversation, which also elaborates on why the assessment of EU social policy must pay attention to economic governance at the same time.
A key part of this joint reflection focuses on the significance of the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights, and the conversation ends with discussing further needs and opportunities to develop the EU social dimension. -
In this episode of FEPS Talks, Professor Emerita Marguerite Mendell (Concordia University) shares some lessons from her long-term engagement with the development of the social economy in Quebec, but also her contribution to related discussions in Europe and various international organisations.
In her view, a number of European countries offer remarkable examples of social economy transitions and experiments, and also at European Union level there have been important initiatives to develop the necessary ecosystem. The question that remains nevertheless is how to assure implementation within member countries.
Going beyond a transatlantic comparison, she also mentions recent efforts from African countries. At the end of the conversation with FEPS Secretary General László Andor she explains the connection between her commitment to the social economy and the inspiration stemming from the study of the works of Karl Polanyi. -
Teresa Ribera, Third Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, receives the Progressive Person of the Year award from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) this Wednesday, January 24th, 2024.
Ribera is an outstanding leader and international policymaker in the fight against climate change who has helped European socialists develop a robust climate agenda over the past decade.
FEPS awards the title of Progressive Person of the Year to social democratic policymakers who contributed to the most important progressive policy initiatives of the past year. Previous recipients include Frans Timmermans, Sanna Marin, and Roberto Gualtieri.
🎤 Event: https://bit.ly/PYB2024
📕 Book: https://bit.ly/ProgressiveYerabook2024 -
Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Henderson explains the key factors behind the outstanding growth performance of the Chinese economy in the past 40 years. He opines that this era of rapid growth seems to be coming to an end, but the systemic rivalry between China and the USA remains a dominant issue in the period ahead. The position Europe takes in regard to this rivalry will be decisive for our global future. The volume and nature of Chinese investment and the methods applied to access natural resources and acquire advanced technology justify a derisking strategy on the side of the European Union. However, it is important to view this global economic competition without racist undertones. While facing competitive pressures, Europe should avoid the blind alley of military confrontation and look for opportunities to learn and build productive cooperation as well.
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FEPS Talks invited Israeli political scientist and former minister Yossi Beilin to reflect on the tragic developments in Israel in the past month. Dr Beilin was an active participant of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s and, together with FEPS Secretary General László Andor, he elaborates on the chances of a new peace process after the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. He compares this shock to that of 9/11 in 2001 suffered by the United States, and highlights the role of leaders who need to find a constructive solution to such complex situations. Dr. Beilin insists that a new peace process is possible, but for that both the United States and the European Union need to develop a different approach than in the past decade. He proposes (with a Palestinian group, led by JD Hiba Husseini) a Palestinian-Israeli Confederation, which will follow the EU model.
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Brazil's political landscape fascinates experts across the globe due to its vibrant democracy, complex socio-political landscape, and the country's ability to navigate diverse ideologies and challenges while continuously striving for progress. Brazil's voice and actions have the potential to shape global policies and contribute to finding solutions to pressing global challenges, such as climate change, sustainable development, and changing peace and security architecture. What will the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva bring? To find out more listen to our new episode on EU-Brazil relations with Maiara Folly, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Plataforma CIPÓ & Andriy Korniychuk, FEPS Policy Analyst on International Affairs.
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FEPS Secretary General László Andor speaks with Dr. Steffen Angenendt, Senior Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Dr. Angenendt has been involved in migration research and debates in the last three decades and offers an overview of the evolution of policies in German and European context. The 2015 migration crisis is a major milestone which gave rise to Willkommenskultur in Germany but also put more light on the death of thousands of migrants trying to arrive to the EU in difficult circumstances. The two speakers assess the efforts of the EU which has been trying to complete a „migration pact” and the reasons for various European governments taking diverse positions. Dr. Angenendt points to some critical measures that could help improve the practice of managing migration through EU borders and underlines the importance of dialogue between European and African experts.
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In Barcelona, FEPS Secretary General, László Andor, talks with Professor Gösta Esping-Andersen, whose name is familiar to all who have studied sociology or political economy in the last 30 years. They explore the connection between the role of families in reproduction, the quest for gender equality, and rising social inequalities. Professor Esping-Andersen shares his view about the resilience of welfare states against crises such as the pandemic but also the current war in Ukraine, and he does not hide his opinion on the migration policy of the Danish government. The link between social democratic identity and the universalist welfare state appears as a key part of the conversation, which ends with outlining a potential role for the European Union in support of the well-being of children.
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Anna Diamantopoulou, President of DIKTIO, former minister in Greece and former EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, engages in a talk with David Rinaldi, FEPS Director of Studies and Policy, to reflect on the ongoing and upcoming societal transformations that require innovation and ambition on welfare policy. The exchange looks at the contribution of the Commission’s ‘High-Level Group on the Future of Social Protection in the EU and of the Welfare State in the EU Members’ which President Diamantopoulou chaired. What are the implications of moving towards a life-course perspective? What are the political lines around care and family policy that will shape the future of this policy field? How to finance welfare if stagflation endures?
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