The Conference Sessions

Session 1: Reforming the global and European financial sectors – have the lessons of the last crisis been correctly learned?

Despite emerging financial reforms in the US, some European countries and internationally (Basel-3), many problems have not been solved in a satisfactory manner and many questions remain open, including: (i) how should the too-big-to-fail-problem in the financial sector be addressed? (ii) what are the potential costs of higher capital and liquidity requirements and other regulatory changes, as well as new financial sector taxation, discussed and introduced in several countries (risk of financial disintermediation and negative impact on economic growth)?; (iii) what form should the practical implementation of a macro-prudential regulation take?; (iv) what should the institutional architecture of international cooperation in the area of financial regulations and financial supervision be?: (v) how should the EU system of financial supervision be built?; (vi) what is the impact of monetary policy on financial sector risks and vice versa?

Moderator: Canan Yildirim
Confirmed panelists: Mark Allen, Rym Ayadi, Eric Berglof, Gyorgy Suranyi, Juan Zalduendo

Session 2: Is Europe going to repeat a Japanese-style stagnation trap?

The growth rate in the core part of the EU has been unsatisfactory for at least two decades. It has been higher in some peripheral EU economies, including new member states in Central and Eastern Europe but very often at the cost of serious macroeconomic overheating and resulting financial and real estate bubbles. The recent global financial crisis has placed even this modest growth record in doubt. In most EU countries recovery is slow and uncertain, and is accompanied by high and growing unemployment rates. Europe faces the danger of the kind of stagnation scenario that has been observed in Japan after its 1990 assets bust. The Lisbon Agenda of the early 2000s failed to deliver its promised goal of transforming Europe into “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. The effectiveness of its successor, the Europe 2020 Strategy calling for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth also raises doubts unless it is supported by far-going comprehensive structural and institutional reforms both at the Union and national levels.

Moderator: Iraj Hashi
Confirmed panelists: Itzhak Goldberg, Peter Holmes, Peter Harrold, Jan Svejnar, Istvan Szekely

Session 3: The European and global economic governance reform – what does it mean in practice?

The European debt crisis has triggered discussion on EU Economic Governance mechanisms, especially within the Euro zone, going far beyond changes in the Stability and Growth Pact and Excessive Deficit Procedure. It involves, among others, building a permanent debt resolution mechanism, closer coordination of budget and macroeconomic programming (European Semester), Excessive Imbalance Procedure, and various ideas of the European Economic Government, the European Pact for Competitiveness, etc. This requires a more general and systematic discussion in which particular areas of economic policy the prerogatives of the EU governing bodies (and which particular ones) should be strengthened, in light of the recent experience of anti-crisis policies.

The recent financial crisis also raised the question of institutional architecture of global economic policy coordination involving such fora and organizations as G7, G20, IMF, World Bank, Financial Stability Board, WTO and OECD. As important economic and political player and major shareholder of many global institution the EU is the key actor influencing global economic and financial governance and its evolution and it will continue to bear major responsibility for its effectiveness in addressing various global challenges such as reducing global macroeconomic imbalances, better global coordination of macroeconomic policies, including exchange rate controversies, financial sector reform, completing the Doha round, etc.

Moderator: Peter Mihalyi
Confirmed panelists: Daniel Daianu, Vladimir Mau, Lucio Pench, Susan Schadler, Jan Wouters

Session 4: The European and global fiscal crisis – is a default scenario unavoidable?

From beginning of 2010, the economic policies of the EU and its several member states have been partially driven by the danger of a sovereign debt default. Starting at the Euro area periphery (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) this crisis has the potential to affect several other economies in Europe (and outside) which have high and rapidly growing debt-to-GDP ratios. This challenge raises several questions, including: (i) what exact scenario of fiscal tightening should be implemented, taking into consideration the weak and uncertain economic recovery and political constraints? (ii) can fiscal consolidation be expansionary and, if yes, under which circumstances? (iii) what is the optimal policy mix (expenditure reduction vs. tax increase)? (iv) can monetary policy accommodate shocks created by fiscal consolidation? (v) what role can be played by fiscal discipline rules and special fiscal institutions (like the fiscal policy councils) at the Union and national levels? (vi) how should the future permanent debt resolution mechanism in the EU be designed (default vs. bailout components)?

Moderator: Wojciech Paczynski
Confirmed panelists: Leszek Balcerowicz, Vittorio Corbo, Fabrizio Coricelli, Christian Dreger, Marek Dabrowski

Session 5: Beyond the EU-27: perspectives of EU enlargement and European Neighborhood Policyy

Following the 2007 accession of Bulgaria and Romania, the process of further EU enlargement became stalled, partly as a result of the global financial crisis. Croatia’s accession has been delayed until 2013 and the EU membership prospects of other Western Balkan countries and Turkey are highly uncertain, for various reasons. Furthermore, the list of potential EU candidates is not limited to South Eastern European countries (and Iceland) and may also involve, in the future, countries of the former Soviet Union like Moldova and Ukraine. Countries of the former Soviet Union and the so-called Southern Mediterranean region are formally involved in other cooperation frameworks with the EU (the European Neighborhood Policy, EU Strategic Partnership with Russia, Eastern Partnership, Barcelona Process, Union for Mediterranean), none of which offer an EU membership perspective. So far these institutional forms of cooperation have demonstrated limited potential and limited incentives for generating reforms in the beneficiary countries, and have brought little progress in boosting both bilateral and regional trade and investment as well as economic and institutional modernization. The political and economic events in the CIS region in the last decade, as well as the recent political developments in North Africa and the Middle East, call for a deep review and general overhaul of EU policies towards these two regions.

Moderator: Alexander Chubrik
Confirmed panelists: Luca Barbone, Luc de Wulf, Kalman Mizsei, Veronika Movchan, Pekka Sutela, Dusan Vujovic

Keynote Addresses:

1/ Jacek Rostowski “The resolution of debt and financial crisis in Europe”

2/ Anders Aslund “Central and Eastern Europe – the Way Out of Financial Crisis”