Bruegel Event Recordings

Since the early 1990s, immigration has been a more important source of population increase in the EU than the natural change due to births and deaths, while in recent years Europe is facing a large inflow of refugees. At the same time, Eurobarometer opinion surveys reveal that immigration tops the list of challenges that EU citizens are most concerned about and therefore effective policies toward immigration are more important now than ever. How serious are Europe’s immigration challenges? What are the best experiences in integrating immigrants? What hurdles complicate the financial inclusion of refugees? What’s the impact of immigration on European labour markets, the economy and public finances? How effective is Europe’s response to the large inflow of refugees and how to best address the challenges of immigration?

As the EU and UK negotiators dive in further negotiations, it is becoming essential to discuss what our future relationship on policy and in the framework programme for Research & Innovation (R&I) should look like. R&I will clearly not be a ‘zero-sum’ game between the UK and the EU, and as such it will be critical that negotiations in this area are approached accordingly in order to preserve both sides’ capacity to produce world-class science, to innovate, and eventually to grow. This interactive event will be an opportunity to hear from high-level stakeholders in academia, business and government and grasp what is at stake for both sides in the Brexit negotiations.

What are the strengths and challenges of health care systems in each EU country? What are the common policy priorities and opportunities for EU value added?What role do healthcare systems play in public finances and macroeconomic developments? What are the economic values of investing in healthcare?

There is growing recognition that the productivity slowdown experienced over the past two decades is partly rooted in a rise of adjustment frictions that rein in the creative destruction process. One important dimension of this phenomenon is that firms that would typically exit or be forced to restructure in a competitive market – i.e. “zombie” firms – are increasingly lingering in a precarious state to the detriment of aggregate productivity. In this view, reviving productivity growth will partly depend on the policies that effectively facilitate the exit or restructuring of weak firms, while simultaneously coping with any social costs that arise from a heightened churning of firms and jobs. Findings from this new OECD project suggest that there is a wide scope for improving the design of insolvency regimes as measured by new cross-country indicators. It also shows that the survival of zombies is related to faltering bank health and the persistence of tax bias towards debt. Building on a large volume of cros

Some European economies are, or have recently been, reforming their labour markets to try to put in place a “flexicurity” model. Indeed, there is a strong demand for further flexibilisation of labour markets, employment and the work organization to adjust to globalization and the competition from other regions. But at same time, an equally strong demand exists for providing security to employees – and to vulnerable groups – and for preserving social cohesion which is the trademark of the European social model. http://bruegel.org/events/flexicurity-and-labour-market-reforms-in-europe/

Lack of access to energy is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) most dramatic socio-economic challenges. Solving this issue is a fundamental prerequisite to unleashing the economic potential of the region. Given the order of magnitude of the challenge, only a joint effort of SSA countries and of the international community can contribute to its solution. With this event, Bruegel seeked to discuss Europe’s current and perspective contribution in the area.

Technological development, and in particular, digitalisation has major implications for labour markets. The rise of collaborative platforms provides new employment opportunities in which individuals can benefit from information technologies for trading their assets among each other through efficient matching and reputation mechanisms. The emergence on these new internet based transactions is characterized by flexibility in supply of goods and services and in some cases by attractive prices for consumers. This event aims to discuss the various nuances and diversity that characterize crowd employment.

While global imbalances have fallen from pre-GFC peaks, progress in reducing imbalances has stalled in recent years. Imbalances are also increasingly concentrated in advanced economies, and continuation of large and persistent surpluses suggest automatic adjustment mechanisms might be weak. Drawing on the recently published IMF External Sector Report, the seminar discussed the methodology for assessing excess external imbalances, risks from current configuration of imbalances, and potential policy responses to help correct imbalances while supporting global growth.

This event discussed the roots of Europe’s trust deficit, the consequent decline in support for established political parties and institutions, and growing scepticism toward the European Union. The rise of populism, which we define as a political tendency distinguished by its anti-elite, authoritarian and nationalist elements and rooted in economic insecurity and identity politics, took a central role in this discussion. By addressing economic, security, and identity concerns, this events seeked to discuss how trust in Europe can be rebuilt. The event featured a presentation by André Sapir and Guido Tabillini of the report Europe's Trust Deficit: Causes and Remedies followed by comments and audience Q&A.

The idea of Universal Income has been around for years, proposed by many economists and sociologists around the world, but for a long time it was not tested at a large scale. However, some experiments are now taking place in Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, UK and Canada. A variety of Basic Income proposals are circulating today: its proponents claim that universal basic income (UBI) would provide benefits in terms inclusive growth and equality, but also in terms of efficiency of public policies given that UBI also could replace existing social policies. It could also provide some answer to the questions related to the future of employment (uberisation and robotisation of labour) At this event, we held a discussion on what could be its main benefits but also what could be possible disadvantages that could arise from the implementation of UBI (for instance in terms of disincentive to work). We also discussed how the Universal income might be implemented, examining particular proposals and experiments in more

On 6 July we held an event on non-performing loans. This event is jointly organised with European Economy - Banks Regulation and the Real Sector and SWP-Berlin. Panellists discussed the pros and cons of the foremost proposals put forward by several institutions and scholars on how to reduce the weight of impaired assets in banks’ balance sheet. The European- and national regulatory authorities are concerned about the repercussions of the growing impaired assets and their consequences on financial stability in the near future. The issue of European Economy – Banks, Regulation and the Real Sector (issue 2017.1), that was launched on this occasion, presents the main exit strategies from non-performing loans on the table and discusses their viability.

We are currently going through one of the biggest transformations in financial history. New technologies enable new forms of financial transactions that have a big impact on the whole financial sector. At this event we discussed how FinTech disrupts the financial sector and assessed the proposed regulatory measures as well as their potential impact on the financial industry. Specific topics and questions addressed were: -How has Fintech affected the design and delivery of financial services? -What are the associated concerns and how should they be addressed under an EU-wide framework? -How do FinTech developments contribute to the competitiveness of the European economy? -What are the associated challenges for banks? -What policy measures should we adopt in order to protect and provide a secure environment for the growth of FinTech start-ups? -What are the most effective and efficient online payment rules? -How can we achieve digital interoperability in the financial sector? -What will be the impact of Brexi

In the run-up to Brexit, UK-based financial firms are considering their options on how to organize their operations across the future divide between the UK and EU27. In turn, national regulators and European supervisory authorities need to determine how much they ask for in terms of “substance” requirements to authorize local operations of investment banks, asset managers and insurers – i.e. how self-sustaining these operations have to be in relation with those that may remain in Britain. This debate raises important questions about regulatory arbitrage, international openness, EU27 supervisory architecture, and the internal market for financial services

On 11 May Bruegel and the Financial Times held an event to discuss the direction Europe is likely to take after the French elections. Guntram Wolff, Director of Bruegel and Tony Barber, Europe Editor of the FT, were joined by Jean Pisani-Ferry, Director for Programme and Ideas of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing France and the EU. For more information about the event see http://bruegel.org/events/ft-french-election/

Standardisation, standard-setting organisations and standard-essential patents have been the subject of considerable discussion and debate in both academic and policy circles. At this event which was co-organized with the Association for Competition Economics (ACE), Pierre Régibeau presented his recent study, which assesses problems related to the standardization process and consider a number of policy options that might help alleviate these problems. His presentation was followed by panel discussion on the associated challenges and their potential solutions.

The European Union enacted the far-reaching General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) back in 2016; however, privacy of electronic communications continues to be governed by the e-Privacy Directive, a 2002 instrument that is widely felt to have failed to keep up with technological and market evolution. In its Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy of May 2015, the European Commission promised to “review the e-Privacy Directive with a focus on ensuring a high level of protection for data subjects and a level playing field for all market players.” The Commission made legislative proposals to this end in January of 2017. Are we on the way to finding the right balance? For more information about the event see the webpage: http://bruegel.org/events/protecting-the-privacy-of-electronic-communications-getting-the-next-steps-right/

On April 12 Bruegel organised an event with Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, who spoke about the global outlook and policy priorities ahead of the upcoming 2017 IMF Spring Meetings. Christine Lagarde was introduced by Jean-Claude Trichet, Chairperson of the Board of Bruegel. The event was chaired by Guntram Wolff, Director of Bruegel. For more information about the event consult the event page: http://bruegel.org/events/global-outlook-and-policy-priorities/

On 31 March 2017 Benoît Coeuré was at Bruegel and spoke about Communication as a tool for monetary policy, specifically in a low-interest rate environment. For more information, and to read the full speech consult the webpage of the event: http://bruegel.org/2017/03/central-bank-communication-in-a-low-interest-rate-environment/

At this event, Reiko Aoki, Commissioner at the Japan Fair Trade Commission presented the findings of her research and her views on the efficiency of the Japanese and international IP system. Her presentation will be followed by panel discussion on associated challenges in Europe and what is the proper way to address them. We discussed the following questions: -How should we design IP policies to incentivise investments that promote economic growth? -How we can incentivise small-and-medium enterprises to invest more in R&D and grow? -What is the impact of IP in high technology and very dynamic markets? -Can competition policy act as an instrument to induce more innovations? -What is the relationship between market competition and innovation? -Can we learn valuable lessons by comparing the Japanese IP system with the European one? For more information regarding the event see http://bruegel.org/events/intellectual-property-and-competition-policy-in-europe-and-japan/

During the electoral campaign, Donald Trump illustrated his climate-sceptic views, defining climate change as a ‘hoax of the Chinese government’, and promising to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Following the presidential inauguration of January 20, the White House immediately released the ‘America First Energy Plan’, which calls for a deep de-regulation of the energy industry, including the elimination of key environmental policies, and for a wider exploitation of domestic oil, gas and coal resources. Unsurprisingly, climate change is not even mentioned in the plan. For more information about the event consult: http://bruegel.org/events/trumps-energy-policy-america-first-climate-last/