For my part, I think a gini of 25 is pretty good, but we can do better, and there are many ways of doing this, redistribution from wealth to the poor being the most efficient, via taxation, full employment policies an robust social protections.

In terms of think tanks, and policy prescription I think we've addressed, on numerous occasions, what the general thrust of views is and policy preferences as well. Part of the trick is that we are also simultaneously trying to build a Europe which has increasingly disparate parts, and so, in terms of economic narratives, we often times need to emphasize themes. For instance, the anglo-disease theme, which is an expression against anglo-american neo-liberalism at root, and for either social democracy (roughly two-thirds of participants on these thread) or proper socialism.

In terms of policy, what are my impressions of where people tend to fall here?

Education : we are, by and large, in favor of heavy investment in free, equitable and meritocratic education, from cradle to grave (eg maternelle through doctorat and/or real apprenticeship and technical education to continuing training throughout one's career).

Trade unionism: again, by and large, hugely supportive of workers rights to band together for better pay and work rights, and supportive of policies which make it easier for workers to engage in participatory workplace democracy and have a real say in how teir workplace is organized and operations. And for social stability policies which make it harder to firms to hire and fire at whim, ignoring the greater good of stable employment practises to pursue shareholder profits.

Tax policy I think everyone here is generally for a fundamentally and comprehensively progressive tax regime, and many articles over the months and years have been to address the regressivity of this that or the other tax proposal in the many countries of the union which are tending to be more than suitably enthralled with the anglo-american model.

Monetary policy Here, you have somewhat of a point, though I think most people arguing about what is accomodative or proper tend to end up in the same place: expansionary policies limited to those parts of the economy which produce sustainable jobs growth, tight policies for those parts of the market which are consumption-based or feed asset speculation. We argue about how best to get there, but I think most everyone would agree that the best policy is an expansionary one, for as you point out, there are wholly excluded portions of our respective member states, and this is wrong.

I could go on, and I will avoid some of the more "social" of policies, or the "civil liberties" ones because anyway I tend to be in the minority on those....this being said, your commentary about inclusion and exclusion, and of championing middle class versus working class, is really quite good and something we should reflect on. And, we've discussed this before. For my part, the absolute goal of proper policy is to work towards bringing the more vulnerable, the poor, among us, materially in line, in station, to the middle classes, even if this means the middle classes suffer a little. (Of course, we can make the wealthy trade a lot more...). When everyone is, roughly speaking, equal, people stop being "other," because that which differentiates one from the other becomes minimal and, that which was "other" is no longer scary and, is no longer scared too.

You can not ensure of course absolute equality, but certainly it is inexcusable that one person makes 100 times more than another, or that many (including much of the middle class) live in luxury while some have neither roofs over their heads nor enough money to proerly feed and clothe their children, even in many countries in the EU.

Problem is, at least for some here, that you cannot move comprehensively and forecfully towards a more just and equal society, thus improving the lot of the more vulnerable among us, without some measure of authority, order, and coercion and this rankles some hereabouts. I think Goethe said, and I'm sure I'm paraphrasing badly, "better injustice than disorder," which sounds, at first glance, really not very progressive or left, unless you stop to consider how much injustice is done when there is no order.  

I for one though am optimistic, and have this feeling that the great wave of materialism, and, well, anglo-american hedonism, is passing.

Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant