Globalization and Europe’s Social Problems

Accelerating globalisation poses policy challenges to our European social model; their should be a relatively high degree of equity in our societies, that major risks should be insured, that poverty should be avoided and the risk of falling into poverty minimised...Challenges to the European social model stemming from globalisation may be roughly grouped into three. First, globalisation implies an accelerated reallocation of labour between sectors and firms. Second, globalisation, along with skill-biased technological change, puts pressure on the distribution of income, adversely affecting low-skilled workers in particular. Third, and finally, European governments need to secure adequate financing for social spending. With increasingly mobile tax bases, tax competition can undermine the ability of a tax system to be used to tackle the adjustment costs arising from globalisation. In addition, and quite apart from the challenges posed by globalisation, the European social model will come under immense pressure in future years as a result of population ageing. How do we resolve these issues? Lets have a dialogue