The coronavirus pandemic hit when the world was still reeling from the Great Recession, delivering a serious blow to economies everywhere. Will European welfare states be able to absorb this new shock? Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noel urge welfare states to consider long-term objectives for greater resilience to short-term crises.
Brought into high relief by the COVID-19 pandemic, unregulated commercial surrogacy generates risk and damage to families, children, and mothers. In this article, Law researcher Sylvie Armstrong argues that a self-sufficiency approach in Europe, where commercial surrogacy is widely banned, is the best strategy available for protecting the parties involved.
The French Senate recently walked back a state of emergency provision that shielded decision-makers from criminal responsibility related to their actions during the COVID-19 crisis. Law researcher Sophie Duroy analyses the provision, its rationale, and proposes an approach to high-risk decision-making that ensures legality while safeguarding effectiveness.
The extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19 put severe limits on movement in the EU, setting up a potential conflict between air carriers and ticketed passengers who could no longer depart. Will the Commission’s guidelines on the matter help or hurt consumers? Law researcher Marc Steiert takes a look.
