Beyond its immediate impact on wage setting, if it had ruled differently the Court wd have dealt a harsh blow to confidence in the EU as a vehicle for social progress and cohesion and not just for market opening
(positive vs negative integration).
ETUC statement: www.etuc.org/en/pressrele...

2/2

Update
@delong.social has just issued this assessment of Biden(omics). He details its overwhelmingly positive impacts, and shows the failure to cut though media misrepresentation to which several commentators also drew attention: open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...

Seen thru this lens, Biden(omics) appears all the more clearly as a tragedy of historical proportions. Had he been fit, his genuinely pro-worker policies would have tied in many of the forces discussed here and likely avoided the loss of swing states.
@mcopelov.bsky.social @deanbaker13.bsky.social
2

My point is, exactly, that it is not a matter of (increasing) total spending.
It cannot, I think, sensibly be disputed that Russia has weakened itself militarily and economically by its attack on Ukraine and that this theatre ties up the bulk of its remaining capacity.

PS

🚨 Brussels-based followers 🚨
This Thursday @etui.bsky.social is hosting a presentation on the prospects for the German and European economies by Peter Bofinger, with Laszlo Andor.
www.etui.org/events/globa...

Even in Germany fiscal space is limited after the shocks of recent years. After years of damaging self-denial, to splurge now on military kit will inevitably squeeze out vital spending in other areas. Voters will notice. This is a gift that the Putin-friendly far right will greedily accept.
7/7

And, of course, "security" is about so much more than military strength. Europe's citizens and workers crave the economic and social security that comes from investment in climate resilience, research and development, Just Transition measures, a solidaristic neighbourhood policy, among others.
6/

Even defining "security" in purely military terms, a go-it-alone strategy by Europe's largest member state makes no sense. EU countries already hugely outspend Russia (which is anyway weakened and bogged down in Ukraine): what is needed is coordinated deployment and targeted joint procurement.
5/

Even if the armaments will be largely domestically sourced, the longer-run multiplier effects of military spending are likely to be much smaller than from investments in clean tech and measures to facilitate its deployment.

4/

On top of this come massive public and private investment needs to accelerate and cushion the green and digital transitions; the €800bn figure cited in last year's #Draghi report, subsequently revised upwards, implies around €250bn for Germany - a year.

3/

Germany suffers from huge under-investment in physical & social infrastructure going back decades.
www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
It has finally thrown off the debt brake, the most obvious manifestation - except for Deutsche Bahn train delays - and proximate cause of this failing.
2/

First three come, first served. (Sorry no more can do.)
on.ft.com/4q6i77E

First three come, first served. (Sorry no more can do.)
on.ft.com/48u8Qjw

Ich schätze Ihre umweltpolitischen Kommentare aber das ist nur noch beschämend und menschenverachtend.

He was never going to get anywhere with his European ideas without German support, and it was not forthcoming.