Bruegel Event Recordings

Eurozone finance ministers have announced after their June meeting a newly-proposed Eurozone budget. One product of the negotiations is the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC), designed to act as a tool for the budget and to be implemented by 2021. However, the ministers were unable to decide on details like the budget's funding and uses. Many have criticised the resulting proposal as a diluted and diminished version of the original proposal for a budget by French President Emmanuel Macron. Bruegel was honoured to welcome French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, who has described the budget as a "mini revolution", to elaborate on the ongoing discussion concerning the practicality of the agreement and the success of the negotiations.

Payments, in the EU as in the rest of the world, are increasingly being disrupted by new technologies, new business models, and new service providers. What challenges does this shift imply for EU financial services policy? This event featured a conversation concerning new developments of tech-enabled payment processes and their consequences on European financial service policy.

Bruegel was excited to host this event where speakers and experts from a variety of fields discussed the evolving party alignments in the European Union. The results of the May 2019 European Parliament election have highlighted the rise of liberal-centrist, green and nativist parties, and a relative decline of the traditionally dominant centre-left and centre-right, against a backdrop of political mobilisation and higher turnout. As the political landscape of Europe continues to shift, its important to understand the ever-changing context in which EU politics occurs.

In recent times, China’s presence in Africa has steadily been on the rise. One of the key channels in which China is influencing Africa’s economy is investment, particularly through its Belt and Road Initiative. Europe has traditionally been the largest investor in Africa, and the rise of Chinese investments is challenging the status quo.

At this event we will looked at how small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) financial inclusion is at the core of the economic diversification, growth, and job creation challenges many countries are facing. This event featured the presentation of Financial inclusion of SMEs in the Middle East and Central Asia, a recent paper by the IMF, which discusses the macroeconomic benefits that could stem from improved access to finance for SMEs in these two regions, which lag behind other regions when it comes to SME access to finance. It also highlights the range of reforms needed to unlock SME financial inclusion—from macro-financial conditions and public sector size, to institutional and regulatory issues related to competition, credit information, property rights and solvency frameworks.

Bruegel, the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics co-hosted this event about the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. The legacy of the crisis is stronger and better capitalized banks, as well as regulators and supervisors with increased clout who pay more attention to systemic risk. However, the crisis has also left us with high leverage in advanced economies, especially in terms of sovereign dept over GDP. At the same time, interest rates are at very low levels. All of this, together with the digital disruption of the sector, poses formidable challenges for the banking industry. This event featured the first report in the IESE/CEPR Future of Banking series report, tackling three important areas of post-crisis regulatory reform: Basel III and its aftermath; resolution procedures to end ‘too big to fail’; and expanding the role of central banks with a financial stability remit. The report presents an extensive analysis of the banking

Bruegel was happy to host a discussion about the following issues: the completion of a Monetary Union in an evolving international community, a European monetary policy and financial system, and lessons learned through the past year in the European economy. This event featured the presentation of the Euro Yearbook 2018, where the authors set out to describe, analyse, and discuss the process leading to a European Monetary Policy. The results were presented by the project's director Fernando Fernández. Afterwards, a discussion proceeded regarding the takeaways from the 2018 Yearbook in light of the current European debate.

Major differences in economic resilience—an economy’s ability to withstand and adjust to shocks—persist across the euro area. This reflects in part the lack of independent nominal exchange rates, and the consequent greater reliance on other mechanisms to adjust to shocks. Greater risk sharing and integration within the euro area would help soften economic shocks, but countries’ own policies are vital. At this event the new IMF Economic Counsellor and director of research, Gita Gopinath, and staff will present a new IMF study focused on how euro area member states can enhance their resilience by reforming labor and product markets and strengthening corporate insolvency regimes. Some questions discussed at the event: Have recessions in euro area economies become more severe and frequent since the start of the monetary union? Can national reforms of labor market institutions, product market regulations and corporate insolvency regimes help countries in facing downturns? Would national structural reforms reduc

During this event, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström joined Bruegel Senior Fellow André Sapir for a conversation centered around trade policy. As one Commission reaches the end of its term, the EU finds itself entering a new chapter of policymaking and priorities. With the European elections, and the formation of a new administration, questions arise surrounding the agenda concerning trade in the new European Parliament.  This conversation addressed the past and future of European trade with one eye on the past 5 years and another on the future of trade policy going into the next half decade. Commissioner Malmström also reflected on her tenure and addressed her remaining objectives.

The EU-LAC Economic Forum was established in 2016 as a high level gathering for in-depth research-based exchanges on economic issues between European, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) policy makers and experts. This year’s edition featured three public sessions addressing strategic topics such as the future of regional integration, the 5G challenge and the EU-LAC collaboration, and the impact of the Global Compact for Migration on EU-LAC relations.

The EU-LAC Economic Forum was established in 2016 as a high level gathering for in-depth research-based exchanges on economic issues between European, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) policy makers and experts. This year’s edition featured three public sessions addressing strategic topics such as the future of regional integration, the 5G challenge and the EU-LAC collaboration, and the impact of the Global Compact for Migration on EU-LAC relations.

The EU-LAC Economic Forum was established in 2016 as a high level gathering for in-depth research-based exchanges on economic issues between European, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) policy makers and experts. This year’s edition featured three public sessions addressing strategic topics such as the future of regional integration, the 5G challenge and the EU-LAC collaboration, and the impact of the Global Compact for Migration on EU-LAC relations.

The EU-LAC Economic Forum was established in 2016 as a high level gathering for in-depth research-based exchanges on economic issues between European, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) policy makers and experts. This year’s edition featured three public sessions addressing strategic topics such as the future of regional integration, the 5G challenge and the EU-LAC collaboration, and the impact of the Global Compact for Migration on EU-LAC relations.

This year all eyes are on Ukraine as the country goes to the polls twice. After electing a president in April, Ukraine will vote for a new parliament. This new government will be in charge of the Ukrainian economy for the next five years. This political change is unfolding as the Ukrainian economy is slowly recovering from the deep economic crisis of 2014-15, and is under the pressure of sovereign debt and an aggressive Russia. What are the main challenges for the Ukrainian economy in the coming years, and what should the new government do to meet these challenges? How could the EU and other international partners help in putting Ukraine on a path to sustainable economic growth?

As the newly elected European Parliament and the new European Commission pick up their function, the EU Climate Strategy will be one of the major challenges going forward. Both the implementation at EU level and the translation into national energy coordination are full of potential controversies, be it on the speed of decarbonisation (2030, 2040), the targets (80% or 95% reduction by 2050), and - foremost - the appropriate energy mix between fossil fuels, nuclear, renewables, imports, etc. In addition, the appropriate instruments to coordinate European and national targets have yet to be determined.

This event revolved around the topics tackled in the book Principles of Sustainable Finance by Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade. Finance is widely seen as an obstacle to creating a better world. In this book, authors explain how the financial sector can be mobilized to counter this. Using finance as a means to achieve social goals we could divert the planet and the global economy from their current path, and towards a more sustainable world. Speakers representing various sectors joined us to discuss the theses from the book.

For the sixth, and final, event of the joint Bruegel-FT Spitzenkandidaten series we were joined by Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate for the European elections of the Party of European Socialists (PES). We expect a passionate debate about the economic programme of this lead candidate. This event is a part of a series of talks and debates with Europe's Spitzenkandidaten and political leaders. Journalists from the FT, along with a Bruegel Director or a senior scholar, will explore and challenge the main political parties' policies for the future of the continent in front of an invited audience. The events will be livestreamed on the Bruegel website. For more events, see here: http://bruegel.org/europe2019/

For the fifth event of the joint Bruegel-FT Spitzenkandidaten series we were joined by Manfred Weber, the lead candidate for the European elections of the European People's Party (EPP). This event is a part of a series of talks and debates with Europe's Spitzenkandidaten and political leaders. Journalists from the FT, along with a Bruegel Director or a senior scholar, will explore and challenge the main political parties' policies for the future of the continent in front of an invited audience. The events will be livestreamed on the Bruegel website. For more events, see here: http://bruegel.org/europe2019/

For the fourth of the joint Bruegel-FT Spitzenkandidaten series we were joined by Jan Zahradil, the lead candidate for the European elections of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR). This event is a part of a series of talks and debates with Europe’s Spitzenkandidaten and political leaders. Journalists from the FT, along with a Bruegel Director or a senior scholar, will explore and challenge the main political parties’ policies for the future of the continent in front of an invited audience. The events will be livestreamed on the Bruegel website. For more events, see here: http://bruegel.org/europe2019/

For the third of the joint Bruegel-FT Spitzenkandidaten series we were joined by Luis Garicano, one of the candidates for the European elections of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). This event is a part of a series of talks and debates with Europe's Spitzenkandidaten and political leaders. Journalists from the FT, along with a Bruegel Director or a senior scholar, will explore and challenge the main political parties' policies for the future of the continent in front of an invited audience. The events will be livestreamed on the Bruegel website. For more events, see here: www.bruegel.org/europe2019/