Dr Cleo Davies – Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia On the 29th April 2021, the Financial Services Bill received royal assent. Touted as a milestone for financial services by the UK government, John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury who guided the Bill through Parliament, declared “For the first time in decades, …
The State Aid Temporary Framework for COVID-19, the Banking Communication, and Burden-Sharing
Dionysios Pelekis www.linkedin.com/in/dionysios-pelekis In November 2020, the Commission approved an aid scheme designed to support the liquidity of the Italian banking sector. This measure authorised Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance to grant a State guarantee on the liabilities of banks based in Italy, and on loans granted discretionarily by the Bank of Italy …
Gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic
By Dr Birte Böök Post-doctoral researcher at Utrecht University and content manager of the gender stream of the European Equality Law Network When the COVID-19 crisis swept across the world in 2020, it quickly became clear that the global pandemic exacerbates existing inequalities in all areas of life. While comprehensive data is still lacking, …
Addressing In-Work Poverty: The EU Minimum Wage Directive and Collective Bargaining
Ben Paterson, European Social Policy MSc, School of Social & Political Science, University of Edinburgh In 2019, the rate of workers at risk of in-work poverty within the twenty-seven European Union countries (and the UK) was 9.2%. The growing number of working households in poverty has facilitated a debate on an EU-wide minimum wage …
COVID-19 in the EU: A Death Sentence for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?
Iro Nestoros, European Social Policy MSc, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh Introduction The UN Secretary General António Guterres, in respect of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) emphasized that “In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe”. In the midst of a pandemic, against a …
Work-life balance: A key to European Union recovery in the post-pandemic period
Shirong Zhou, European Social Policy MSc, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh The pandemic has highlighted the need for an improved work-life balance policy in order to increase women’s participation in the labour market, thus guaranteeing a sustainable economic growth in the post-pandemic period within the EU. As the coronavirus pandemic …
Algorithmic discrimination in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for EU equality law
By Janneke Gerards, Utrecht University Law School and Raphaële Xenidis, Edinburgh University Law School and iCourts, Copenhagen University Early 2020, the European Commission recognized in the preamble of its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence that AI ‘entails a number of potential risks’ including ‘gender-based or other kinds of discrimination’. It therefore deemed ‘important to …
Europeanization at a Crossroads: Accession and Informality in Serbia
Europeanization at a Crossroads: Accession and Informality in Serbia Alexander Mesarovich, PhD Candidate in Politics at the University of Edinburgh While 2020 marks a dramatic year globally in Serbia it will be, in addition to the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the year that protesters stormed the Parliament (Narodna Skupština) in protest against what was …