The FEPS Call to Europe conference celebrates its 10th Anniversary in 2021. Over the past ten years, Call to Europe has evolved into a key progressive platform where experts, civil society representatives and policy-makers jointly contribute to a melting pot of progressive ideas. This incredible yearly gathering of Europe’s greatest progressive hub seeks to provide joint solutions to address common European challenges under a 3P rule: a Progressive, Participatory and Positive debate which is FEPSs’ driving force to fulfil its mission: bridging the gap.
Don’t miss out on Call to Europe Festival were the FEPS team promise is to deliver high-quality debates, inspire you to take action and offer you multiple networking opportunities.
Join us with for three-day virtual programme, where you will hear from progressive changemakers, politicians, experts and guests who will be engaging in lively discussions on how to bring about a Social Europe of Equality.
Register NOW and open the door to an incredible virtual festival and pan-European network that FEPS, its member foundations and sister organisations will be bringing directly to YOU on your screen.
INTRODUCTION TO THIS YEARS’ TOPIC
Europe is slowly recovering from the great pandemic shock of 2020, but the aftermath is dramatic. This has not only been a major health crisis but also the deepest economic recession in EU history and a brutal stress test for welfare systems in Europe and beyond. Without progressive strategies we may end up with more divided societies, which would in turn endanger democratic politics.
The pandemic crisis highlighted important social gaps in Europe:
gender gap: while more men die from the coronavirus than women, the burden on women has grown massively due to the need to combine wage labour with health and care services, making great efforts to improve the chances of survival
income gap: low-income people having less opportunities to continue employment in home office but more likely to face precarious contracts and hazardous working conditions – a problem mere gestures to key workers would not solve
territorial gap: disadvantaged regions experiencing higher mortality and falling further behind due to lack of adequate investment in health infrastructure as well as general economic opportunities through the neoliberal decades
intergenerational gap: the growing realisation that Millennials and Z generations will not enjoy the same standard of living or of opportunities as previous generations, which in turn has led to the emergence of political discourses around the crisis of the social contract between generations
Today children in families that cannot afford high quality instruments are bound to fall behind when schooling goes online or hybrid. In the absence of strong safety nets, the lack of job and income security of parents can easily be transferred on the next generation. We have to turn around such trends of social polarisation and design a welfare state for the 21st century.
We knew that inequality was a grave and growing problem in Europe in the pre-pandemic years, now it is an even greater task to pull together and turn towards an economic and social model that offers not only opportunities but also guarantees for closing the social gaps.
Emerging from the lock-down and overcoming the economic hardships also means that we have to recover Europe itself – our community beyond nation states that can deliver policy coordination and solidarity. With a stronger social dimension, the European Union must become the driver of progressive transformation.
