*ETUI-Béla Galgóczi 158 results

"This article examines the decision by the Serbian government to approve the highly controversial Jadar project to mine lithium at a site in the western part of Serbia. Lithium is a critical raw material with a variety of applications including, most strategically, in terms of its role in the batteries that power electric mobility. While it is not particularly rare, known global reserves of this critical raw material are heavily concentrated in a small number of places very few of which are in Europe. Consequently, there is sizable political pressure to develop an industry, where reserves can be found, within Europe. The authors – editors of the SEER Journal – consider why Europe needs to develop a lithium industry as well as some of the environmental considerations surrounding lithium mining, these being sizable enough for protesters to have played a significant role in halting the Jadar project in 2022. They conclude by locating the decision to reopen the project in the context of Serbia's European integration and point to some of the implications for Serbia's relations both with the EU and with its neighbours."

"Angesichts der von der Europäischen Kommission vorgeschlagenen Ziele, die Treibhausgasemissionen bis 2040 um 90% zu reduzieren (ausgehend vom Niveau des Jahres 1990), ist es klar, dass wir beim Tempo einen Zahn zulegen
müssen. Die EU hat in den drei Jahrzehnten bis 2020 eine Treibhausgasreduzierung von 30% erreicht und sollte dementsprechend in den zwei Jahrzehnten zwischen 2020 und 2040 auf weitere 60% kommen – das ist doppelt so viel Einsparung in einem um ein Drittel kleineren Zeitfenster. ..."

"Key messages
• Achieving the prospective 2040 climate targets proposed by the European Commission demands that the pace of decarbonisation be stepped up. This will require the European Green Deal to have dedicated industrial policies and a stronger social dimension.
• Setting the European economy on a viable pathway towards net zero not only needs industrial policy targets but also sufficient financial resources to achieve them.
• Industrial policy has a key contribution to make to ensuring that the digital and green transitions are just transitions, with support for, and the creation of, quality jobs being a paramount consideration.
• Industrial policy must create a level playing field in terms of environmental and labour standards and protect industries in the European Union (EU) from unfair competition. It also needs to mobilise massive investment to scale up low-carbon technologies and innovation.
• Tight fiscal rules and the deadlock on an increase in EU resources seems to lead to incremental adjustments, resources being scraped together from existing EU funds and an excessive reliance on the mobilisation of private investment.
• This practice will not result in closing the investment gap but could end up in industrial policy being driven by the competitiveness agenda and dependent on state aid, flexibilisation and deregulation, all of which undermine labour standards and put pressure on wages and working conditions.

This policy brief makes the case that such a worst-case scenario must be avoided and sets out recommendations for the next EU political cycle."

"Climate emergency has been recognised as a top policy priority by more and more policy-makers and the restructuring process it entails is seen as the main challenge of the coming decades. The welfare state that emerged in the context of a fossil fuel-based extractive economic model, based on a belief in sustained growth, cannot remain unaffected by the ongoing transition to a net-zero economy (Gough et al., 2008). Possible linkages between the welfare state and climate and environmental issues largely remain unexplored and until very recently discussion of social welfare systems in Europe has been disconnected from ecological concerns and policies and as well from the just transition narrative that took a prominent role in shaping the social dimension of climate policies. Both on the other hand assume continuing economic growth. This article aims to present a broad mapping of the current debates mainly at EU level, highlighting possible alternative directions (from green growth to sustainable welfare; from technology to behavioural changes). It proceeds through selected literature reviews offering a dialogue between different perspectives and opening successive routes of questioning. It also highlights the current limitations in the analysis of the role and the shape of welfare states in tackling environmental challenges and labour market transitions."

"This second issue of the SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe for 2023, ‘Albania and Romania in focus', collects articles drawn from empirical evidence from both countries. For Albania, the articles deal with poverty, gender equality and political representation. As a follow-up to the previous issue of SEER, we also continue the analysis of the vulnerable situation of Romanian workers in the EU, notably in Germany and Austria, based on publications by the journal Sociologie Românească. "