Peer2Politics

Amid all the mayhem and turmoil of recent weeks, here's a news story you may have missed. The Romanian parliament unanimously passed an amendment to the country's "Law on the Sale of Food Products" bill which states that every large supermarket in the country must ensure that 51% of the fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, honey, dairy products and baked goods they stock are "locally sourced". As a demonstration of how enlightened policymaking can unlock Transition, it's an eye-catching and paradigm-shifting piece of legislation. But is it legal, and, actually, does that matter anyway?

From Spain to Finland, from Greece to Scotland, the Europe Tomorrow team studied more than 2500 social innovations.

In the context of our foresight project on the “sharing economy” we carried out a second workshop on 25-26 February. Building on the relevant drivers of change identified in the 1st workshop in December 2015, a set of four future scenarios was developed to be further enriched and used as a basis for discussion. About 40 participants from “sharing economy” platforms, academia, international organisations, trade unions, agency work industry, think tanks, and Commission Services shared their views and ideas about future platform-mediated labour markets, a sector of the ‘sharing economy’ with potentially strong implications for the future of work, and the focus of this workshop.

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Op-ed: Big US companies could use patent licensing to throttle EU startups.

When they started throwing volunteers in jail, it was a sign of things to come. The first five were locked up on smuggling charges after they rescued 51 people from a stranded dinghy the coastguard would not look for. “They treated us like terrorists,” said one, when they were released on bail for €5-10,000 per…

Europe’s post-crisis response of fiscal austerity, neoliberal structural reforms and expansionary monetary policies has unambiguously failed.

A 10-year-long megaproject will go beyond quantum computing and cryptography to advance other emerging technologies

In a communication published earlier this month, the European Commission policy makers explain the key regulatory issues at hand and provide policy  guidelines for member states. A short spoiler: it focusses on topics that  most of us find dry and even boring. But it is worthwhile understanding the main questions and suggestions raised by the Commission because they will
determine the political discourse in the future and therefore affect stakeholders in the collaborative economy. That is why Paula summarizes the most important points for you as short and spicy as possible. Read more... 

In this guest post, researcher and author Boyd Cohen argues that Europe will overtake the US as the dominant global innovation hub, and explains why.

SumOfUs is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy. It's not going to be fast or easy. But if enough of us come together, we can make a real difference.

In a leaked transcript, IMF staffers are caught on tape suggesting that a threat of an imminent financial catastrophe was needed to force other players into accepting its measures such as cutting Greek pensions and working conditions, or as Bloomberg puts it, "considering a plan to cause a credit event in Greece and destabilize Europe."