What an extraordinary year 2020 was! And what an extraordinary challenge it is to drive Europe to a sustainable recovery in 2021!
It is a commonplace at the time of crises that the world will not be again what it was before. This is perhaps doubly true this time, due to Covid-19 and its manifold consequences. With an EU diving into health policy coordination, a counter-cyclical budgetary component fi nanced by joint debt issuance, reinforced Kurzarbeit schemes and a youth guarantee, there seems to be a Social Democratic momentum. However, it remains to be seen whether in the
period of recovery we manage to keep the Green Deal and the social agenda in focus, and whether we are able to step up European solidarity. The answers to these questions will determine our future for a very long time.
The Progressive Yearbook 2021 presents some key issues of the past year, including the emerging concept of the Health Union, the rule of law conundrum, pioneering policies like the Child Guarantee, and the added value of Social Democratic governments.
In the past year, the US elections were the most important, while in 2021 the German Bundestag elections will be the most signifi cant. This yearbook offers readings on both. Predictions cover the economic recovery, the developments in Belarus, and the conference on the future of Europe.
In 2020, FEPS had to learn to work amidst the extraordinary circumstances, to adapt to the conditions of confinement, to organise research projects and public events online, and to maintain close collaboration with our member foundations despite it all. In 2021, we look forward to continuing the move to a new operational model, to returning to our new headquarters, and to putting these newly learned skills at the service of the progressive recovery and partnerships.
This second edition of the FEPS Progressive Yearbook could not but revolve around all these themes, and around the many ways that the Covid-19 pandemic has im- pacted on our lives and on our countries. But it also addresses the unforeseen op- portunities that this multidimensional crisis has opened up for an extraordinary leap forward in EU cooperation, for a post-pandemic reconstruction of Europe based on a digital and green transformation, and for the European progressive parties which have been able to prove the relevance of their values and commitments in the emergency circumstances caused by the pandemic.
The Progressive Yearbook aims to be an instrument for the progressive family to reflect on this intense past year but also to look to the future and the challenges that await us. FEPS hopes that this book will help the reader look back in order to move forward.
What an extraordinary year 2020 was! And what an extraordinary challenge it is to drive Europe to a sustainable recovery in 2021!
It is a commonplace at the time of crises that the world will not be again what it was before. This is perhaps doubly true this time, due to Covid-19 and its manifold consequences. With an EU diving into health policy coordination, a counter-cyclical budgetary component fi nanced by joint debt issuance, reinforced Kurzarbeit schemes and a youth guarantee, there seems to be a Social Democratic momentum. However, it remains to be seen whether in the
period of recovery we manage to keep the Green Deal and the social agenda in focus, and whether we are able to step up European solidarity. The answers to these questions will determine our future for a very long time.
The Progressive Yearbook 2021 presents some key issues of the past year, including the emerging concept of the Health Union, the rule of law conundrum, pioneering policies like the Child Guarantee, and the added value of Social Democratic governments.
In the past year, the US elections were the most important, while in 2021 the German Bundestag elections will be the most signifi cant. This yearbook offers readings on both. Predictions cover the economic recovery, the developments in Belarus, and the conference on the future of Europe.
In 2020, FEPS had to learn to work amidst the extraordinary circumstances, to adapt to the conditions of confinement, to organise research projects and public events online, and to maintain close collaboration with our member foundations despite it all. In 2021, we look forward to continuing the move to a new operational model, to returning to our new headquarters, and to putting these newly learned skills at the service of the progressive recovery and partnerships.
This second edition of the FEPS Progressive Yearbook could not but revolve around all these themes, and around the many ways that the Covid-19 pandemic has im- pacted on our lives and on our countries. But it also addresses the unforeseen op- portunities that this multidimensional crisis has opened up for an extraordinary leap forward in EU cooperation, for a post-pandemic reconstruction of Europe based on a digital and green transformation, and for the European progressive parties which have been able to prove the relevance of their values and commitments in the emergency circumstances caused by the pandemic.
The Progressive Yearbook aims to be an instrument for the progressive family to reflect on this intense past year but also to look to the future and the challenges that await us. FEPS hopes that this book will help the reader look back in order to move forward.