Job Creation in a Post-Growth Economy

A study commissioned by the Greens/EFA

The study examines the relationships between jobs, GDP and energy consumption over the years and to check how far we went with energy efficiency. It also lays the foundations of a green macroeconomic model which allowed us to estimate the impact of innovative measures such as working time reduction and green taxation on energy.

Caterpillar and Alstom cases show urgent need for European reindustrialisation policy

MEPs have today voted in favour of a resolution on the need for a European reindustrialisation policy, in light of the recent Caterpillar and Alstom cases. The Greens/EFA group secured a range of amendments, which included the need for:  more ambition on green targets and indicators;greater dem...

Greens/EFA Round up

Debriefing of the Strasbourg plenary week 12-15 September 2016

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary included: Car emissions scandal; Work-life balance; Rule of law in Poland; Situation in Turkey; State of the Union; Social dumping in the EU; Asylum - additional measures for Italy and Greece; Apple tax ruling; Copyright reforms; External investment plan; Nomination for Sakharov Prize 2016; Informal EU Council on security.

State of the Union

European Union still best answer to the challenges we face

Commenting on today's State of the Union address from President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms said: "The European Union, with all its achievements and its shortcomings, is still the best answer to nationalism. We are better able to defe...

Social Dumping

Time to end the exploitation of workers across the European Union

The European Parliament today adopted the Balas report on "social dumping within the European Union".Today’s decision is significant in the context of the forthcoming negotiations on the controversial directive on posted workers.Commenting after the vote, Greens/EFA member of the Committ...

Protecting universal postal services

MEP Jill Evans has defended the Universal Service Obligation to deliver and collect post at least five times a week within the EU. Jill Evans was speaking on behalf of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament's debate on the application of the EU's Postal Services Directive. MEP...

Creating Labour Market Conditions Favourable for Work-Life Balance

The European Parliament voted today to back a report on Creating Labour Market Conditions Favourable for Work-Life Balance. Commenting on the report, and the forthcoming Commission proposals, Greens/EFA MEP Tatjana Ždanoka said: "Achieving a good balance between our private lives and wor...

Has the G7 learned its lesson?

Not at all!

The G7 club of industrialised nations met this week in Japan against a backdrop of economic gloom, geopolitical tension and rising concerns on climate change. Despite being viewed by many as remote and undemocratic, the G7 meetings are still seen as politically important, which explains the masses...

Make the digital single market inclusive!

The Juncker Commission placed the completion of the Digital Single Market (DSM) as one of its ten priorities. However, the current approach of the European Commission is way too narrow.

From seed to store, clothes production should be safe and sustainable

How many different stages do you think it takes to produce your clothes? Two? Twenty? In fact, the average number is closer to six, from planting the cotton seed to distribution on the shop floor. Six is not a big number. So why it is that retailers often don't know the conditions under which the clothes they sell were made?

Jill Evans MEP asks 'who made my clothes'?

Press release from EFA MEP Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru)

As the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza clothing factory tragedy approaches this Sunday, Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans is backing a campaign for ethical clothes labelling in Europe. Over a thousand people died and more than two thousand five hundred were injured in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013 when th...

Undeclared work

New EU platform must not become debating club

The European Parliament today voted to approve the establishment of a European Platform to prevent undeclared work. The Greens welcomed the new platform, with social policy spokesperson Terry Reintke stating: "Undeclared work is a widespread phenomenon in Europe, which leads to the exploitation...