EconPol Europe Founding Conference: A new European network for economic research is launched

| Press release

The Founding Conference „The Euro – Which Way to Go?“ addressed a unique networking occasion for 200 top economists and representatives of institutions and media, headed by German ifo Institute.

EconPol Europe, the new European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research, has successfully concluded today its official Founding Conference and first Annual Meeting. The 2-day event focused on the challenges of governance of fiscal and monetary policy in Europe. It brought together around 200 high-level researchers, politicians, experts and journalists to exchange ideas on the economic and institutional development of the EU and the Eurozone. The event offered a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss the network’s latest research. Clemens Fuest, President of the German ifo Institute heading the network, is convinced that the Foundation Conference was a success: “Bridging national and EU positions is what we are aiming at, today we made the first important step in bringing the right people together.”

The conference’s schedule was- as follows: the afternoon of Thursday, 9 November 2017 was devoted to a panel discussion on the future of the European Monetary Union followed by a keynote address by François VILLEROY DE GALHAU, Governor of the Bank of France. The members of the panel discussion included Massimo BORDIGNON, Professor for Economics, Catholic University of Milan, Marco BUTI, Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission, Emmanuel MASSÉ, Deputy Secretary for European Affairs of the French Treasury and Thomas WESTPHAL, European Policy Director-General, German Federal Ministry of Finance. Daniel GROS, Director of CEPS moderated the panel.

Friday saw plenary sessions discussing migration and as macroeconomic imbalances, as well as parallel sessions on the EU budget without the UK contribution, latest Euro expansion plans and other topical issues. The sessions offered researchers the opportunity to present their latest results and discuss them with relevant influencers and experts from national and European institutions, the banking and the private sector.

EconPol Europe – The European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research is a unique collaboration between policy-oriented universities and non-university research institutes that will pool their scientific expertise to shape the future design of the European Union.

The network was launched in spring 2017 by the ifo Institute together with eight other renowned European research institutes as a new voice for research in Europe. The founding members are: ifo Institute – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, e.V. (Munich, Germany), Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS, Brussels, Belgium), Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (Paris, France), Institute for Advances Studies (IHS, Vienna, Austria), Toulouse School of Economics (TSE, Toulouse, France), University of Oxford (Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford, Great Britain), Università di Trento (Department of Economics and Management, Trento, Italy), VATT Institute for Economic Research (Helsinki, Finland) and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW, Mannheim, Germany). The new network is financed by the German Federal Ministry of Finance.