Democracy with foresight: the key to a socially sustainable transition in Europe (and beyond)

How can the European Union steer a course towards long-term social and ecological well-being in a context of incessant emergencies? Two decades of perpetual crisis management have greatly eroded Europe’s capacity to pursue a sustainable future, as considerations of short-term expediency continue to hamper the four transitions that are necessary – green, digital, geopolitical and socio-economic. At the same time, however, few polities in the world are better suited to the design and promotion of long-term policies. This editorial draws on its authors’ respective research into progressive social transformation and sustainable European integration to identify a path for the socially sustainable transition which we now need and which the rest of this issue of Benchmarking Working Europe further explores.