Sustainable solutions to the formidable problems modern societies are going to face can only be social democratic ones. But, says Policy Network director Patrick Diamond, Social Democracy must first develop them. The welfare state of the 20th century is out of tune with the new challenges...

Lothar Witte, now FES representative in Tunesia, shows that it is national social policies, not EU guidelines, that determine the extent of social inclusion and equality in Europe. But EU economic policies pose a common challenge.

The European Social Model is an intellectual construction, not a visible reality. It denotes a promise which the united European democracies are bent to fulfill. Anthony Giddens, who provided the intellectual foundation for the spectacular renewal of the British Labour Party, maintains that major adjustments are necessary if the European Social Model is to be more than a hollow phrase in the future.

Christoph Zoepel, chairman of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment, delineates the basic framework for Social Democratic policy in post-communist Europe.

Hard economic realities make poverty in most of South Eastern Europe unavoidable for the time being, says Alfred Pfaller, director of the FES Bucharest office. But universal access to good education and health-care go a long way in eradicating social exclusion. And it is feasible.