Political Economy Conference: "EMU at 20: Quo Vadis?"

On 15 March 2019, the Department of European Political and Governance Studies held its annual Political Economy Conference.

2019 marked the 10^th anniversary of the annual Political Economy Conference of the College of Europe’s Department of European Political and Governance Studies. Participants were invited to reflect on changes to euro area governance over the last decade in order to identify whether these changes have yielded their expected outcomes, which reforms remain in order to ensure a robust monetary union, and the political feasibility of such reforms. The evolution of the ECB and the establishment of banking union were the focus. Leading academics and practitioners engaged in a debate on the future of economic and monetary union.

To reflect upon these topics, the conference gathered a wide range of experts in the field, coming both from the institutions and from academia. The conference started with a keynote address by John BERRIGAN, Deputy Director-general of DG FISMA. After that, the first panel was dedicated to the topic "The ECB: Political and Independent?" and counted on the interventions of Gabriel GLÖCKLER, European Central Bank; Benjamin BRAUN, Max Planck Institute; Christy ANN PETIT, European University Institute; and Tobias TESCHE, European Commission.

A second panel focused on the topic "Banking Union: Is the European banking sector sufficiently robust?". It counted on the participation of Sabino FORNIES-MARTINEZ, European Commission; Lucia QUAGLIA, University of Bologna; Aneta SPENDZHAROVA, University of Maastricht; and Vera SPRATLEY, Single Supervisory Mechanism.

The conference ended with some closing remarks by Thomas WESTPHAL, Director General of European Policy section, German Finance Ministry.

For further information, please contact rachele.tesei [at] coleurpe.eu (Rachele TESEI).