At long last, the Industrial Accelerator Act is out. #MadeInEU criteria and robust European employment requirements for foreign direct investment feature, despite political fights. ‘Made in EU’ criteria can support EU prosperity and social cohesion, if used wisely: zoe-institut.de/en/publicati...

I’ve really appreciated the focus Martin Wolf has put on the issue of demographic change and the situation of mothers over the past few months. All of the past columns on this issue are well worth a read.

In this month's @zoe-institute.bsky.social newsletter I reflected on European unity (or lack thereof) as leaders try and make progress on improving #competitiveness, as well as the recent calls by UN Secretary General Guterres to go #beyondGDP. zoe-institut.de/en/news/futu...

This is really excellent news, smart politics and I would hazard a guess that Ed Miliband has a hand in it #beyondGDP

My dear Leuven ❤️ glad others appreciate it as much as I do www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...

I do enjoy the period when European Commissioners are halfway out the door. The speeches and remarks are much more telling 😆 Here is Gentiloni on the new fiscal rules:

How can countries meet the basic needs of their citizens without overburdening the 🌍’s ecosystems? The mainstream economic paradigm is unfit to address this challenge, as it lacks a satisfactory description of how the economy is embedded within broader societal & environmental systems.

Out of curiosity, am reading a bit about the market for farmland. This briefing is from January. "Meanwhile, non-farmer buyers – who are a mix of private and institutional investors and lifestyle buyers – accounted for 56% of sales" rural.struttandparker.com/article/engl...

The moon rising over Lake Malawi

Mothers are working more than in the past - but are still most impacted by childcare requirements. On current progress, it would take until the 2220s to reach gender parity and close the gender parenting gap.

This fascinating MERGE project report presents the findings of survey & interview data which explored the significance of GDP in policymaking, the use of metrics, datasets and models, awareness of #beyondGDP concepts and the barriers and drivers of moving #beyondGDP. mergeproject.eu/survey-report/

#JUST4ALL project webinar today on empowering and engaging marginalised people in the #justtransition giving me an opportunity to talk about the wonderful Fair Energy Transition for All Project and its valuable lessons on integrating vulnerable people in policymaking fair-energy-transition.eu

In Malawi, the letter L and the letter R are pretty much interchangeable. In one US election when Obama was elected, the front page of the national newspaper led with the headline, “The Great US Erection.” Shame that this time it is such a turn off.

It’s positive to see that Commissioner-Designate Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness, Ms Roxana Minzatu has made commitments in her written answers for the Parliamentary hearings in November on #socialinvestment, especially in the context of the #EuropeanSemester.

On the new 🇪🇺 European Commission structures, a few observations. First, it is positive that there is an effort to have cross-cutting themes which better recognises the complexity of policymaking. How this works in terms of DG oversight, cooperation and coordination remains to be seen.

In May, I moderated a roundtable looking at the desirability, feasibility and potential impact of a transformative indicators initiative aiming to overcome the pre-eminence of conventional socio-economic evaluations such as GDP. Here is the final report👇🏼 zenodo.org/records/1368...

You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you? I’m not sure whether this is good or bad…

Such an interesting policy dialogue today @EPC, part of the ToBe Horizon Europe project. It looked at historical efforts of sustainable, forward-looking policymaking, current examples and expectations for the UN Summit of the Future. Watch here👇🏼 eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

This is simultaneously a deeply uncomfortable read and a very important one by Adam Tooze on.ft.com/3AIoqJm

Oh, my dear Eden, you’re not as angry as I am… lerayner.wordpress.com/2024/08/26/m...

The supermarket in Lilongwe city centre might need to update its magazine offerings at some point

Might not look like much to you but this earned me a spontaneous round of applause. You try drawing a portrait of someone with the paper held on the top of your head! lerayner.wordpress.com/2024/08/23/a...

This is wonderful to see. Well done Australia! “We certainly can and should be walking and chewing gum at the same time and doing things to address immediate issues as well as thinking about the long term [about people’s wellbeing],” Smith said. www.themandarin.com.au/253195-austr...

The Short History of an Old Idea - why the British and other western governments continue to cling to flawed fiscal rules rather than embrace the transparency that comes with accrual accounting and a focus on net worth. My latest open.substack.com/pub/nixons/p...

Returning from holiday to immediately dive into Ursula von der Leyen's political guidelines has been a bit of a crash landing back into work mode but it is encouraging to see so many important elements included, many of which can be found in the MERGE paper published a few weeks ago.

As part of ToBe and MERGE projects, this paper sets out an agenda which steers the EU towards sustainable and inclusive wellbeing, moving us out of our current cycle of permacrisis, building a more resilient, secure and stable EU. www.epc.eu/en/publicati...

Proud to have contributed to this bible of EU social policy with Tommaso Grossi on the socio-ecological dimension of the Green Deal Industrial Plan: 'Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2023 An ambitious implementation of the Social Pillar' 📘 etui.org/Z7x #EU #SocialEurope #EPSR

The #GreenDeal in times of #polycrisis: Aligning short-term responses with long-term commitments✒️ Read it here 👇 www.epc.eu/en/publicati...

"We strongly believe the #SocialPillar should remain the compass that ensures no one is left behind when we navigate all the current challenges" Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian Minister of Social Affairs Find out why its implementation is pivotal: 📕https://bit.ly/SocialPillarEU

My EPC colleagues and I looked into the EU’s resilience capacities in three areas most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis: health and social, economy and governance. Read the full paper here👉https://regroup-horizon.eu/publications/social-economic-and-governance-resilience/