Publications

Despite Europe’s mass investments in border controls, people keep arriving along the continent’s shores under desperate circumstances. European attempts to ‘secure’ the borders have quite clearly failed, yet more of the same response is again rolled out in response to the escalating ‘refugee crisis’. Amid the deadlock, this paper argues that we need to grasp the mechanics of the European ‘border security model’ in order to open up for a shift.

This report traces the EU’s policy response to the conflict in Syria. It argues that in the EU’s efforts to assert influence against the Assad regime through threatening – and eventually – withdrawing from EU-Syrian partnership agreements and imposing

sanctions, the EU has actually reduced its influence in the region. Instead this dis-engagement has exposed the EU to increasing humanitarian costs (particularly with the refugee crisis), and increasing threat of extremism. This report thus considers what the EU should do in responding to the conflict in Syria, particularly in engaging with justice approaches to conflict resolutions, including an engagement with civil society.

This paper analyses multiple policy instruments used by the EU and their effects in the Western Balkans from a conflict networks perspective, developed by the authors. The conflict network perspective is an agential approach to the effects of networks on peacebuilding outcomes that analyzes relations rather than actors or categories. It allows us to capture an enduring character

of relations developed through war-time violence which are sustained and reworked in the context of a local political authority in response to the international peace-building efforts.

This paper confronts the challenges of developing a European Union human security strategy for the Horn of Africa (HoA). It observes that the EU already has a broad strategy of regional engagement, driven by strategic interests, but there is a need for greater coherence and prioritization to respond to the specific forms and logics of governance that shape security in this region and to emerging security threats. It provides an overview of the history, geography and politics of the HoA and examines EU policy, and differences between its perspectives and those of the governments of the HoA, and civil society.

Progressive Economy Initiative supported by the S&D Group (January 2016): The ‘Journal for a Progressive Economy’ aims to foster an informed and sincere public debate on the economic, social and environmental policy of a progressive economy. The 7th issue ‘Technological Revolution’ features a variety of articles on three different topics: the creation of the right conditions for a new world of work, the possibility of an equal digital revolution and innovation in the digital single market.

Colin Miller (June 2015): The question of English Votes for English Laws (EVEL) presents progressives with political and constitutional challenges. This paper, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Compass, is based on consultation with MPs and constitutional experts. It recommends a solution based on three elements: dealing with EVEL in an appropriate matter, implementing a deep rooted process of localism and devolution and establishing a constitutional convention that examines the complex question of the relationship between the nations, regions, local government and neighbourhoods and the replacement of the House of Lords with a House of Nations and Regions.

Engelbert Stockhammer (April 2015): Wage-led growth is an equitable strategy for recovery that realises that wage growth can support demand via consumption expenditures and it can also induce higher productivity growth. The Research Essay provides an overview of the concept of wage-led growth, both as an analytical concept and as an economic policy strategy. It distinguishes between wage-led and profit-led demand regimes and argues that the available evidence indicates that demand in most economies is domestically wage-led.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and High Pay Centre (April 2015): Most British workers underestimate the importance of the European Union in guaranteeing many of their key rights at work shows a new research published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the High Pay Centre think-tank. Rights including holiday pay, regular breaks at work and a maximum working week of 48 hours are guaranteed as a result of the EU Working Time Directive, yet just 25 % of those interviewed knew that these rights originated at EU level.

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Social Europe Journal (Edt., March 2015): The Pegida demonstrations that took place in Dresden and some other big German cities have attracted a significant amount of attention in the media across Europe and beyond. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Social Europe organised a joint project to analyse the Pegida phenomenon and its context. It has provided a fascinating but deeply worrying look beneath the surface of European politics. It has revealed that Pegida and the wider context of European populism are best understood as symptoms of continuing social and economic changes that so far lack convincing political answers. This eBook compiles a series of articles from authors from different European countries, addressing the issue from their respective angle.

Dieter Rucht (March 2015): After appearing as if out of thin air in Dresden on 13 October 2014, the protest movement Pegida soon spread to several cities in Germany and other European countries, growing larger by the week and sparking an overwhelming amount of media interest. Pegida gives voice to a widespread mood that has so far been expressed primarily in representative surveys and scientific studies, but rarely in a distinctive protest movement. In his paper, the author takes a look at the undercurrents in society that can explain the Pegida phenomenon.