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Go big or go home

When it comes to industrial policy, the EU remains big in ambition but meager in substance. This is not surprising. With its renewed strategy, the EU Commission aims to follow the international trend towards more active industrial policy. However, it has to do so within a framework that was designed to discourage – indeed even prevent – the investment-centered policies at the heart of the current discussion. For the EU’s industrial strategy to really have teeth, it needs new financial instruments, a stronger macroeconomic focus on growth and employment and better governance.

Beyond Wirecard

Financial supervisory authorities in the EU are not sufficiently independent of political and economic influence. As the financial scandal surrounding Wirecard shows, this risks creating conflicts of interest that undermine the integrity of the European financial system and harm the goal of an integrated banking and capital markets union. This Policy Brief therefore proposes Europeanwide requirements for the independence, accountability and transparency of national financial regulators. Ten years after the establishment of the European System of Financial Supervision, it is high time to regulate the governance of national supervisory authorities across Europe and thereby strengthen financial supervision throughout the EU.

Beyond transparency: Getting serious about greening Europe’s financial system

The financial sector must divest from unsustainable business. This is imperative to achieve a climate-neutral economy and to safeguard financial stability. The European sustainable finance regulatory agenda of 2018 launched important initiatives that increase transparency on climate risks. Now it is time to move to the second stage and incorporate climate risks in the risk models and capital requirements of banks, pensions funds and insurance firms. This will reduce their exposure to potential losses from climate risks and at the same time render sustainable investment alternatives more attractive.

Prepare for the worst

Amid a severe health, social and economic crisis, banks again take centre stage on the political agenda. This policy paper explains why decisionmakers are worried about a looming banking crisis, sets out the existing European bank crisis management framework and makes proposals for addressing its shortcomings in readiness for a possibly systemic banking crisis. Instead of taking the supposedly easy way out and bailing out banks again, now is the right time to prepare for the worst in Europe’s bank crisis management framework.

Virtual #BarTalkEurope, 08.12.2020

Virtual #BarTalkEurope: Digital and sustainable – Europe's path to recovery

EU TO GO SPEZIAL - 23.04.2020

EU to go spezial. Virus vs. economy - a European answer?

Event

Virtual #BarTalk on the Stability of the European Banking System in the Corona crisis

EU to go spezial - 13.12.2019

Industrial policy: digital, productive, European?

16.05.2019, #BARTALKEUROPE

Debating Europe's future: Combining social with economic integration

07.03.2019, EU to go spezial

Digital Taxation

Repair and Prepare: Strengthening Europe

This project delivers ideas and analyses for a stronger European economy. It covers three areas: We outline a reform agenda for the Eurozone that addresses key economic, political, and legal aspects; we propose improvements to make the European Single Market fit for the future; and we address the prospects for and determinants of sustained growth and prosperity in a Social Europe.

We set out ideas on how to make the Eurozone more stable and less prone to crisis. This includes proposals to complete the Banking Union, strengthen economic coordination among member states, and improve the Eurozone’s crisis management capacity.

We identify an array of traditional and new growth factors for a modern, innovative European Single Market. We analyse how Europe can better facilitate public and private investment, innovation and mobility and suggest policy proposals for how best to equip the Single Market for the digital age. The negotiations on Brexit and the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) serve as critical inputs and will shape Single Market reform over the years ahead.

The legacy of the euro crisis and the challenges posed by demographic, structural and technological change put social issues at the heart of rethinking Europe’s economy. We suggest innovative solutions for addressing economic transformation processes and reducing social divisions in Europe. We also investigate how best to strengthen fair participation in the economy and how best to improve the Europe-wide employment and educational opportunities of EU citizens.