The Sound of Economics: Recent Episodes

Bruegel

The Sound of Economics brings you insights, debates, and research-based discussions on economic policy in Europe and beyond.

The podcast is produced by Bruegel, an independent and non-doctrinal think tank based in Brussels. It seeks to contribute to European and global economic policy-making through open, fact-based, and policy-relevant research, analysis, and debate.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about the future of work with Bruegel’s Alexandre Mendonça and MIT professor Paul Osterman, author of a new book called Disposable Workers: the Transformation of Employment. In the United States and the European Union, companies are shifting away from long-term permanent jobs to a system with less certainty. Which industries have been most affected and how does that look for their workers? Who benefits from part-time work? Which workers are most disadvantaged? How can public policy adjust around these new dynamics? Artificial intelligence changes what skills workers need and immigration trends shape which workers are available. What conditions will help the economy grow and thrive?
Related research: * Osterman, P. (2026) ' Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment', Upcoming, Harvard University Press * Mendonça, A. (2025) 'On Labor Markets, Inequality and Productivity', Dissertation, Stockholm School of Economics * Christie, R., M. Grzegorczyk and D. Mulcahy (2022) 'Better pensions for the European Union’s self-employed', Policy Contribution 05/2022, Bruegel

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer, researcher Silvia Merler and Bank of France Deputy Governor Agnès Bénassy-Quéré to talk about common European debt and the idea of a 'safe asset'. What makes government bonds a part of public infrastructure as well as a tool for financing public goods? Why is how to borrow money for public goods treated as a separate question from how to spend it? Should the European Union sell more common debt or look at a layered system that works with national borrowers, such as the swap proposal put forward by Olivier Blanchard and Angel Ubide? Will United States Treasury bonds always be the world’s only major reference asset, or will the EU get a seat at that table? This episode discusses what a safe asset is, why it matters to Europe and what steps policymakers should take next.

Related research:

Lappe, M.S and J. Zettelmeyer (2026) ‘A sober look at the case for common European Union debt,’ Working Paper 20/2026, Bruegel
Bénassy-Quéré, A. (2025) 'Looking for a “fair” international monetary system,' VoxEU Column, 16 April, CEPR
Merler, S. (2025) 'More EU debt issuance would be the best response to Trump’s tariffs,' First Glance, Bruegel
Christie, R. (2022) 'If it doesn’t trade, is it really marketable debt?,' Blog Post, Bruegel
Christie, R. (2025) 'Unlocking the Own Resources Debate – Debt and Competitiveness,' Testimony, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero are joined by Bertin Martens and Paul Triolo to take stock of the global artificial intelligence race, from energy and chips to models and applications. They discuss China's progress in catching up to the US, what the recent turmoil around Anthropic's most advanced models reveals about the politics of releasing frontier AI and why Europe, dependent on the US for both chips and models, is left exposed on all sides. They explore whether an "Airbus for AI", an initiative for pooling compute, capital and expertise across member states, could close the gap, and what it would take for Brussels' new cloud and AI industrial proposals to matter at scale.

Relevant research:

García-Herrero, A. and B. Martens (2026) 'Stack battles: the US-China artificial-intelligence rivalry is moving beyond chips alone', Analysis 18/2026, Bruegel
García-Herrero, A. and B. Martens (2026) 'Europe needs a strategy to close the artificial intelligence compute gap', Analysis 13/2026, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about the future of European Union-United Kingdom relations with Bruegel’s Heather Grabbe and Richard Corbett, a former UK Labour Party MEP and also a former advisor to a president of the European Council. Did Brexit turn out the way its supporters hoped, and what have been the economic costs? Will the UK look to rejoin the single market any time soon? The EU has a slate of prospective new members lined up for closer relations who could take priority, especially Ukraine, whose candidacy has been fast-tracked because of the ongoing war. How does Kyiv’s progress affect British prospects? Would the UK have to join the euro if it wanted to come back fully? Are other kinds of relationships possible? With global uncertainty higher than ever, the UK and the EU still have great incentive to work together.

Relevant research:

García Bercero, I. and H. Grabbe (2025) 'The EU-UK reset: a first, big step in the right direction', First Glance, Bruegel
Grabbe, H. (2026) 'Symbolic membership for Ukraine could bring practical security benefits to the EU', First Glance, Bruegel
Berg, J., R. Christie and H. Geeroms (2026) 'The UK is still not ready for real rapprochement with the European Union', First Glance, Bruegel
Corbett, R. (2026) 'Institutional aspects of Ukrainian accession to the EU', Policy Brief, FEPS
Corbett, R. (2026) 'Is Britain considering a return to the EU?', Comment, Encompass
Corbett, R. (2026) 'Rejoining the EU Quickly is a Realistic Prospect', 26 May, International Policy Digest

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero invite Philippe Le Corre to examine the growing tensions at the heart of European Union-China relations. With China reporting a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, European industries face intensifying competition across a far wider range of sectors than before, from chemicals and green tech to pharmaceuticals and, most visibly, the auto industry. They explore whether the EU's new trade instruments are up to the task, why member state fragmentation may be a bigger obstacle than Beijing itself and how the risk of Chinese retaliation constrains every move Brussels makes.
Relevant research:* García Bercero, I., B. McWilliams and S. Tagliapietra (2026) ‘The flaws in the European Union’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act and how to fix them’, Policy Brief 10/2026, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie looks into the future with Bruegel’s emerging talents Maria Catarina Louro, Tillman Schenk and Théo Storella. Demographic change is coming for the world, as fewer new workers grow up to replace earlier generations of workers. China is at a crossroads of not only population decline but also industrial dominance, putting its economy in renewed competition with the United States and Europe. And artificial intelligence will change the workforce, the manufacturing base and the productivity outlook all over the world. How should current policymakers and thinkers shape the world that lasts beyond their lifetimes? How can the field of economics contribute?

Relevant research:

Bruegel Dataset (2023) 'China economic database', version of 27 May 2026, Bruegel
Dabrowski, M. and M. Catarina Louro (2025) 'Economic convergence, demography, labour markets: what progress have EU candidate countries made?' Analysis 29/2025, Bruegel
García-Herrero, A., T. Storella and J. Xu (2025) 'European companies operating in China: from digging in to rethinking their presence', Working Paper 14/2025, Bruegel
Richter, P. and T. Schenk (2025) 'EU data processing consent reform must account for market incentives', Analysis 39/2025, Bruegel
Schenk, T. (2026) 'Chips Act 2.0 and beyond: Indispensability, not self-sufficiency', Comment May 2026, Encompass

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s Simone Tagliapietra and Flora Marchioro about the European Union’s pathbreaking carbon trading scheme. Two decades in, what have we learned about capping emissions and using tradeable allowances to rein in pollution from energy-intensive sectors? What are the stakes of this year’s review of ETS, which includes electricity and heat generation, industrial manufacturing, domestic aviation and the maritime sector? Why is the EU now creating a second round of ETS 2, covering buildings and road transport, and what are its prospects? Who gets the money from ETS revenues and how is it earmarked? And how is the EU working to prevent carbon leakage and manage its new carbon border adjustment mechanism? This discussion will get you up to speed and ready for what comes next.

Relevant research:

Mramor, T. and S. Tagliapietra (2026) 'Europe’s emissions trading system is an ally, not an enemy, of industrial competitiveness', Analysis 03/2026, Bruegel
Tagliapietra, S. and G. Zachmann (2026) 'Five reasons why attacking the EU carbon market is economic self-sabotage', First Glance, Bruegel
Pahle, M., D. Sultani and G. Zachmann (2026) 'Defragmenting European Union climate policy', Policy Brief 03/2026, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses the European Commission’s spring economic forecast with Bruegel’s Andreas Billmeier and Mahmood Pradhan. Growth is slowing down while inflation surges in response to higher energy prices. Is the job market on the brink of a bigger slump? Will energy markets adjust again or will this cycle last longer? How might the European Central Bank react? Looking outside the European Union, how is the UK economy faring? Will the costs of Brexit force a reassessment of UK-EU relations in London? As long as global conditions remain so uncertain, European economies are unlikely to bounce back – so how can policymakers find the growth they need? With bigger economies like Germany and Italy in the doldrums while Poland, Denmark and Sweden show more resilience, how should the EU respond and what could be coming next?

Relevant research:

European Commission (2026) 'Spring 2026 economic forecast: Slowdown in growth as energy shock drives up inflation', 21 May
Weder di Mauro, B. and J. Zettelmeyer (2026) 'The new global imbalances: why care, why now and what should be done?', Essay 01/2026, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero sit down with Jonathan Fulton to interrogate some persistent assumptions about China's role in the Middle East. From the China–Iran partnership to the Saudi–Iran rapprochement, they explore whether the conventional wisdom misreads a deeply complex region – overstating Chinese ambition, understating local agency and flattening a relationship that is transactional, rather than strategic.

Relevant research:

Fulton, J. (2025) ‘Present without impact? How the Middle East perceives China’s diplomatic engagement’, Issue Brief, Atlantic Council
García-Herrero, A. (2026) 'What the war in Iran means for China', Analysis 06/2026, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with renowned economists Barry Eichengreen and Lucrezia Reichlin to discuss the past, present and future of money. Will the dollar remain the world’s global currency? How should we think about the euro and the renminbi? What about stablecoins? Eichengreen discusses current risks in the context of his new book Money beyond borders : global currencies from Croesus to crypto. Reichlin discusses Bruegel’s new paper, prepared for the 22-23 May 2026 informal meeting of European Union economic and finance ministers, which proposes allowing stablecoin issuers to pay interest and to have access to central bank reserves. As ministers gather in Cyprus, which currently holds the European Council presidency and was the birthplace of coined money in the 6th century BCE, we talk about how money came to be, where its risks lie and how to make the best use of it going forward.

Related research:

Reichlin, L., B. Sangers and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) ‘A new strategy to contain stablecoin risks in the European Union’, Policy Brief 09/2026, Bruegel
Reichlin, L. (2025) 'The European Union should embrace decentralised finance and make it safe', Analysis 40/2025, Bruegel
Eichengreen, B. J. (2026) 'Money beyond borders : global currencies from Croesus to crypto.' Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and research fellow Anne Bucher about how to make the European Union work better. Ukraine, Bruegel’s newest state member, will soon receive more financial support but needs Europe to keep up its sanctions on Russia. How will the enlargement process shape relations between Kyiv and its neighbours? Closer to home, how should the Brussels institutions tackle simplification and deregulation? Can the European Commission do a better job with impact assessments to manage the costs and trade-offs of its policies? Does the EU need tougher enforcement against national gold-plating? As member states and the European Parliament put their stamp on, and add complexity to, new legislation, policymakers must find the political will to make the system work.

Relevant research:

Bucher, A. and E. Golberg (2026) ‘Better regulation in the European Union needs a fresh start,’ Policy Brief 01/2026, Bruegel.
European Commission (2026) 'A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook', Communication, 28 April 2026.
Zettelmeyer, J. (2025) 'Draghi on a shoestring: the European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass', Analysis 02/2025, Bruegel.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about the defence industry with Bruegel’s Guntram Wolff and journalist Sharon Weinberger, author of the books Imaginary Weapons, The Imagineers of War and the forthcoming Valley of Death. What defence systems are Europe and the US buying? Are countries like Poland and the Baltic states re-inventing how the EU approaches joint defence? How is the defence industry structured and what have been the major changes of the past 20 years? Does Europe really need its own DARPA – the US defence innovation agency? What is the future of joint procurement and how should public policy act? With ongoing wars in Ukraine and Iran, as well as heightened uncertainty in Asia and around the world, these questions are back in the spotlight.

Relevant research:

Becht, M., J. Mejino-López and G. Wolff (2026) 'Who controls the defence industry?', Working Paper 08/2026, Bruegel
Kapstein, E., J. Ospital and G. Wolff (2026) ‘Reforming European defence procurement to boost military innovation and startups’, Policy Brief 04/2026, Bruegel
Weinberger, S., 'Washington Rewrites the Rules of Funding Technological Innovation', The Wall Street Journal, 20 April 2026
Weinberger, S. (2026) Valley of Death: How Big Tech is the Future of War, Little, Brown and Company

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about sustainable finance with Bruegel’s Silvia Merler and Dirk Schoenmaker. How will markets adjust to the European Union’s new disclosure framework, watered down by an 'omnibus' simplification package. Is it really simpler? Who is using the new disclosures and how could clearer rules attract more investment? How can the EU manage the creative destruction of transition and minimise the risk of stranded assets? They also discuss how United States asset managers invest and how they cast their governance votes. Should the European Central Bank offer a separate interest rate for finance linked to the energy transition? How do green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds and transition finance work in the market? For sustainable finance to reach its potential, the EU will need to improve its capital markets generally and find ways to make its disclosure framework more practical and internationally viable.

Relevant research:

Merler, S. (2025) ‘How to improve the European Union’s sustainable finance framework’, Policy Brief 05/2025, Bruegel.
Merler, S. (2025a) 'Streamlining or hollowing out? The implications of the Omnibus package for sustainable finance', First Glance, 03 March, Bruegel.
Schoenmaker, D. (2026) 'Risks for Europe of US dominance of global asset management', Policy Brief 07/2026, Bruegel.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero sit down with Isabelle Mejean and Vincent Vicard to present their study on Chinese trade deflection, a chapter in the 2026 edition of the Paris Report, a CEPR-Bruegel initiative. They discuss the scale and speed of this redirection, what the European Union can do about it and the bigger structural problem facing European industry.

Relevant research:

Emlinger, C, I Mejean, K Lefebvre and V Vicard (2026), ‘EU under pressure? Exploring Chinese trade deflection‘, in Rey, H, B Weder di Mauro and J Zettelmeyer (eds), Paris Report 4: The New Global Imbalances, CEPR Press, Paris & London.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this special episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s Zsolt Darvas and Heather Grabbe about the historic Hungarian election of April 2026. Péter Magyar and his TISZA party won in a landslide over the Fidesz party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power for the past 16 years and changed the course of the European Union. Can Hungary unlock its EU funds and stay within its budget guardrails? What about the energy sector? Will the new government be more transparent about contracts with ties to Chinese and Russian investment? Is Hungary’s outlook on Ukraine likely to change? Will Hungary ever join the euro? How will the winners put together a new government to carry out their campaign promises? The discussion covers all this and more after nearly 80% of Hungarian voters went to the polls.

Related research:

Darvas, Z. (2026) ‘Hungary’s new beginning – under tight fiscal constraints’, First Glance,13 April, Bruegel.
Darvas, Z. (2019) 'With or without you: are central European countries ready for the euro?', Policy Contribution 12/2019, Bruegel.
Grabbe, H., J. Pisani-Ferry and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) ‘Updated assessment: Memos to the commissioners responsible for EU foreign, enlargement, and partnerships policies’, First Glance, 30 January, Bruegel.
'Hungary's revived euro adoption prospects', Finance Focus Event, 06 May 2026 with Júlia Király and Nicolas Véron, Bruegel.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about global imbalances with Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Beatrice Weder di Mauro, director of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). To launch the 2026 edition of the CEPR Paris report, they discuss why trade deficits and surpluses are soaring and what risks should worry us most. US external and public debt is at a historic high, raising new questions about the dollar as a safe haven. China seems on track to export even greater quantities at low prices, undermining the viability of industry everywhere else. Is a soft landing still feasible? What are the implications if not?

Relevant research:

Rey, H., B. Weder di Mauro and J. Zettelmeyer (eds) (2026), Paris Report 4: The New Global Imbalances, CEPR Press, Paris and London.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about electric cars with Bruegel’s Ugnė Keliauskaitė, Antoine Mathieu Collin and Ben McWilliams. Europe is navigating its transition to green technology while facing energy shocks from the Iran war. How will the automotive sector adapt? Can the European Union make the most of its industrial and trade policy instruments to support industry with minimal protectionism? What do electric vehicle supply chains look like now? Who pays the costs to consumers and industry of making these changes, or funding the related government programmes? Bruegel’s clean tech tracker shows what manufacturing is happening in Europe and where the investment is coming from. How are these trends shaping the global auto trade, and what will be Europe’s best shot to secure jobs and growth? As the US and China ramp up industrial policy, the EU needs to stay competitive.

Relevant research:

Bruegel Dataset (2025) 'European Clean Tech Tracker'.
García-Bercero, I., A. Mathieu Collin, B. McWilliams, N. Poitiers and S. Tagliapietra (2026) ‘Made with Europe’ not ‘Made in Europe’ should guide EU industrial policy’, First Glance, 10 February, Bruegel.
Keliauskaitė, U., B. McWilliams and G. Zachmann (2026) 'Dependence on fossil fuels, not on the United States, is Europe’s worry', Analysis 05/2026, Bruegel.

This podcast has been supported by the European Climate Foundation. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this podcast lies with the authors. The European Climate Foundation cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained or expressed therein.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about fossil fuel challenges with Admir Šahmanović, Montenegro's Minister of Energy and Mining, Bruegel’s Western Balkans expert Nina Vujanović and Rouven Stubbe of the Helmholz-Zentrum Berlin. How does Montenegro’s energy mix fit with its efforts to become the next member of the European Union? Do electricity subsidies for consumers make it harder to transition away from Communist-era coal-fired power plants? What new renewable energy projects are in the pipeline? Will the Iran war speed up progress? How does Montenegro work with EU neighbors like Croatia and Italy, and what is the role of the EU’s Energy Community programme? The EU’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) poses a big hurdle for most of the Western Balkan countries. Bruegel’s experts break down the challenge in conversation with a top policymaker from the region.

Relevant research:
Vujanović, N., R. Stubbe and M. Catarina-Louro (2025) ‘The Western Balkan energy sector: between Russia, the European Union and the green transition’, Working Paper 33/2025, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks about the European Union’s innovation hopes with Bruegel’s Fiona Scott Morton and Reinhilde Veugelers as well as Tobias Tröger, SAFE Chair of Private Law, Trade and Business Law, Jurisprudence at Frankfurt’s Goethe University. The European Commission on March 18 released its “EU Inc.” proposal to make it easier for innovative companies to get their start and scale up. The new plan uses a lawmaking tool known as the 28th regime. What is it and how does it work – will it help companies find financing and navigate thickets of national and local bureaucracy? What else can you do with it? Is the Commission proposal good? What are some alternatives? And what will this mean for Europe’s notaries? Promising firms have a lot to gain from these conversations, if good policy design follows.

Relevant research:

Christie, R. (2026) ‘28th regimes to help Europe’s capital markets’, First Glance, 09 March, Bruegel.
Enriques, L., Casimiro A. Nigro and Tobias H. Tröger (2026) ‘Why the 28th Regime Proposal Falls Short of Europe's Challenge’, Oxford Business Law Blog.
Enriques, L., Casimiro A. Nigro and Tobias H. Tröger (2025) ‘Mandatory Corporate Law as an Obstacle to Venture Capital Contracting in Europe’, The CLS Blue Sky Blog.
Scott Morton, F. and R. Veugelers (2025) ‘Regime 0: Europe-wide incorporation for startups to kickstart innovative growth,’ Policy Brief 33/2025, Bruegel.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about the economy and politics of Italy with Bruegel’s Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol and Francesco Papadia. Why does Italy always feel on the brink of a crisis, even as it has been one of the European Union’s strongest and most important countries since the bloc’s founding? With public finances that are outperforming France but growth persistently elusive, the country has a two-sided performance that will require – and may not get – significant structural reforms to stabilise. What will be the consequences for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni from the upcoming referendum on the legal system? Her far-right origins have morphed into a complex mix of centrist and right-wing positions, an experience that could offer a window into the coming French elections. From 1941’s Ventotene manifesto to today’s war in Ukraine, Rome has been one of Europe’s most complex and important political centres.

On 12 March 2026, China approved its 15th Five-Year Plan, setting the country's economic and strategic direction through 2030. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero sit down with Bert Hofman for a first assessment of the plan. They discuss its key priorities — from industrial policy and export-led technology growth to social policy and redistribution — and examine what Beijing's new blueprint means for the European economy.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with Klaas Knot, former governor of the Dutch central bank, and Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer about the big issues facing the European Union economy. Will euro-area inflation rise in response to energy price shocks from the US and Israeli attacks on Iran? How quickly can monetary policy respond when trouble emerges? How is the Dutch economy doing compared to the rest of Europe? Meanwhile, the European Commission has proposed an Industrial Accelerator Act to protect EU manufacturing from the onslaught of Chinese exports – how does it stack up against the status quo? This episode features insights from two of Europe’s top economists on the major challenges of 2026 and the role of the European Central Bank in keeping the euro-area economy together.

Relavant research:

Mathieu Segers Lecture 2026 with Klaas Knot (in Dutch)
García Bercero , I, B. McWilliams, N. Poitiers and S. Tagliapietra (2026) '‘Made with Europe’ not ‘Made in Europe’ should guide EU industrial policy' First Glance, Bruegel, 10 February.
McWilliams, B., S. Tagliapietra and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) ‘Reconciling the European Union’s clean industrialisation goals with those of the Global South’, Policy Brief 18/2025, Bruegel
Steinbach, A, G Wolff and J Zettelmeyer (2025), ‘Rethinking the governance and funding of European rearmament‘, in Gensler, G, S Johnson, U Panizza and B Weder di Mauro (eds), The Economic Consequences of The Second Trump Administration: A Preliminary Assessment, CEPR Press, Paris & London.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel’s Elina Ribakova, Simone Tagliapietra and Guntram Wolff to talk about the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. What happens to energy prices as military action intensifies and the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted? If this conflict is a net positive for Russia, what does it mean for the ongoing fighting in Ukraine? How can Europe rally its defence industrial base? How does this complicate trade and political relations with China? Even if oil and gas prices rise only temporarily, this conflict will cause lasting shocks and force a new reckoning with the European Union’s energy dependence.

Relevant research:

Tagliapietra, S. (2026) 'How will the Iran conflict hit European energy markets?' First Glance, Bruegel, 2 March.
Ribakova, E. (2025) 'Ukraine, Europe and the new economics of war' Opinion, Financial Times
Mejino-Lopez, Juan, and Guntram B. Wolff. "Boosting the European Defence Industry in a Hostile World." Intereconomics, vol. 60, no. 1, ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, 2025, pp. 34-39
Hilgenstock, B. and E. Ribakova (2025) 'Why Russia’s economic model no longer delivers', Analysis, Bruegel, 16 July
Dabrowski, M. (2025) 'How resilient is Russia’s economy after four years of war?' Working Paper 32/2025, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks to former EU Competition Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager -- now chair of the board at Danish Technical University -- and Ditte Brasso Sørensen, who leads Think Tank EUROPA’s Stocktaking EU project, about how Europe can reduce its dependencies without grasping for the impossible goal of full economic independence. How can the European Union make its state aid framework fit for purpose? Can Europe anchor its own AI companies, and how will the big US firms manage their European business? What is the role of clean technology and critical raw materials in securing the EU’s future? Denmark’s experience of European integration, particularly on key topics such as Greenland and the euro, shows how countries can balance sovereignty with shared purpose.

Related research:

Brasso Sørensen, D. (2026) 'STOCKTAKING EU - Taking stock of the Commission's first year', EUROPA, available at: https://thinkeuropa.dk/en/node/4391
Grabbe, H. and J. Zettelmeyer (2024) ‘Not yet Trump-proof: an evaluation of the European Commission’s emerging policy platform’, Policy Brief 03/2025, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/not-yet-trump-proof-evaluation-european-commissions-emerging-policy-platform

China’s banking sector has expanded from a fragile, state-dominated system in the 1990s into the largest in the world. But this increased scale has not brought with it a shift toward market-driven finance, with the core logic of state-directed control over credit remaining a central feature of Chinese banking. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Fraser Howie to examine how banks continue to serve state priorities, funnelling household savings into politically favoured sectors while sustaining local governments and state-owned firms.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about nature and markets with Bruegel’s Heather Grabbe and Estelle Cantillon, FRNS research director at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. They explore policy efforts to make protecting natural resources more of a financial priority, such as nature credits and nature shares, as well as the difficulty of setting up these kinds of systems. How can public money and private investors cooperate? How does a program like this avoid cheating, moral hazard and failure to deliver? Both government resources and investor buy-in will be necessary for habitats and biodiversity to find their way onto the world’s balance sheets.

Relevant research:

Cantillon, E., E. Lambin and B. Weder di Mauro (2025) 'Policy Insight 145: Designing and scaling up nature-based markets', CEPR Policy Insight, 145, CEPR Press, available at https://cepr.org/publications/policy-insight-145-designing-and-scaling-nature-based-markets
Fiore, A. and H. Grabbe (2025) ‘Nature markets: how can credits and shares provide durable, additional finance?’ Policy Brief 20/2025, Bruegel
Pisani-Ferry, J., B. Weder di Mauro and J. Zettelmeyer (eds) (2025) 'Paris Report 3: Global Action Without Global Governance: Building coalitions for climate transition and nature restoration', Report, CEPR Press, available at https://cepr.org/publications/books-and-reports/paris-report-3-global-action-without-global-governance-building

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Pascal Saint-Amans and Roel Dom to talk taxes. What happened to the OECD global minimum tax and the digital services levy debate in the wake of Washington’s turn against international agreements? How is the European Union gathering resources for its next budget? What is the difference between a tax and a levy – and why does it matter? Tax policy is social policy, and Bruegel’s new EU Tax Observatory project will shine a light on what’s going on.

Relevant Research:

Christie, R. (2021) ‘Do robots dream of paying taxes?’, Policy Brief, 05 October, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/do-robots-dream-paying-taxes
Darvas, Z., R. Dom and M. Lappe (2025) 'CORE concerns: why a turnover based levy is wrong for the EU budget’, First Glance, 22 July, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/core-concerns-why-turnover-based-levy-wrong-eu-budget
Dom, R. (2026) 'How the global minimum tax amendments could reshape Europe’s tax incentives', Analysis, 14 January, Bruegel, available at: https://doi.org/10.64153/WEHR5625
Dom, R., C. Greppi-Maturana and P. Saint-Amans (2025) ‘Shifting priorities, slow progress: an analysis of EU tax recommendations,’ Working Paper 29/2025, Bruegel, available at: https://doi.org/10.64153/SIZA8089
Saint-Amans, P. (2026) ‘With Trump, what is left of the global minimum tax?’, Newsletter, 19 January, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/newsletter/trump-what-left-global-minimum-tax
Saint-Amans, P. (2026) 'Has the global minimum tax survived Trump?' Analysis, 13 January, Bruegel, available at: https://doi.org/10.64153/HIUN6608

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Ignacio García Bercero and Ben McWilliams to talk about the evolution of the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, known as CBAM. When will companies start paying? Which countries and sectors will be hit the hardest? And how will cross-border carbon levies work for electricity markets, given how hard it is to trace emissions to electrons? We discuss what it means to crack down on carbon leakage and how the EU can make the most of its new tools going forward.

Relevant Research:

CBAM and carbon pricing: forging fair paths to climate stability, Bruegel Event, 22 May 2024
McWilliams, B. R. Stubbe and G. Zachmann (2025) 'The case for delaying the application of the EU’s carbon border levy to electricity', Analysis, 19 November, Bruegel, available at https://doi.org/10.64153/ZFMB9781
Zachmann, G. and McWilliams, B. (2020) 'A European carbon border tax: much pain, little gain', Policy Contribution 05/2020, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/european-carbon-border-tax-much-pain-little-gain

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Yuyun Zhan is joined by Bruegel Senior Fellow Alicia García-Herrero and Jürgen Matthes of the German Economic Institute to discuss a growing concern for Europe’s economy: the undervaluation of Yuan, the Chinese currency and its impact on European competitiveness.

Is China’s price advantage the result of productivity and innovation, or of deeper structural distortions such as subsidies, overcapacity, and currency management? And what policy options does Europe realistically have when existing trade defence instruments seem ill-suited to address economy-wide price and exchange-rate effects?

Relevant research:

Matthes, Jürgen, 2025, Yuan Undervaluation against the Euro: Unfair Cost Advantages for China?!, IW-Report, Nr. 36, Köln
García-Herrero, A., T. Storella and J. Xu (2025) ‘European companies operating in China: from digging in to rethinking their presence’, Working Paper 14/2025, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie and Bruegel’s Zsolt Darvas discuss the European Union’s next seven-year financial plan with MEP Johan Van Overtveldt, chairman of the European Parliament’s budget committee. Negotiators have until the end of 2027 to figure out roughly €2 trillion in funding, with the parliament and member states not expected to sit down together until next year. How can the EU pay for public goods? Will countries and regions be willing to overhaul the way they finance farmers and other key sectors? Meanwhile, the EU may need to revisit proposals to borrow against the Russian central bank’s frozen assets, held at Euroclear, within two years. The next budget will need to accommodate support for Ukraine as well as Europe’s current mandates.

Related research:

Christie, R., J. F. Kirkegaard and Z. Darvas (2025) 'What should Europe pay for?', Podcast, 01 October, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/podcast/what-should-europe-pay
Christie, R., J. Van Overtvedlt and N. Véron (2024) 'What to do with frozen Russian assets', Podcast, 21 February, Bruegel, available at: https://www.bruegel.org/podcast/what-do-frozen-russian-assets
Darvas, Z., Dom, R., Lappe, M., P. Saint-Amans and A. Steinbach (2025) 'Bigger, better funded and focused on public goods: how to revamp the European Union budget', Blueprint 37, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/book/bigger-better-funded-and-focused-public-goods-how-revamp-european-union-budget

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Mario Mariniello and Bertin Martens to discuss technology regulation in the European Union. Brussels hopes to make its complicated rulebook more fit for purpose with digital “omnibus” plans, intended to streamline and improve oversight. But artificial intelligence, data collection and relations with United States tech giants are tricky subjects that may not be so easily addressed. How should companies manage data? What are the consequences for EU citizens, particularly those from minority language groups? And what kind of innovation can policy encourage in Europe? New technologies move fast, and the EU will need to balance precaution with experimentation.

Related research:

Christie, R., Cipollone, P., Hernández de Cos, P. (2025) 'Digital euro: why now and what's next', Podcast, 18 June, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/podcast/digital-euro-why-now-and-whats-next
Mariniello, M. (2025) 'The European Commission’s Digital Omnibus could increase risks, not growth', First Glance, 13 November, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/european-commissions-digital-omnibus-could-increase-risks-not-growth
Mariniello, M. (2025) 'Efficiency and distribution in the European Union’s digital deregulation push', Policy Brief, 20 November, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/efficiency-and-distribution-european-unions-digital-deregulation-push
Martens, B. (2025) 'The European Union needs more than the digital omnibus to make digital services competitive', Analysis, 8 December, Bruegel, available at https://doi.org/10.64153/NIRG1605

Will Europe do what it takes to defend the continent and the single market? In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Senior Fellows Simone Tagliapietra and Reinhilde Veugelers to discuss the highs and lows of the past 12 months. As Bruegel celebrated its 20th anniversary with close to 100 events held across the European Union, the EU itself grappled with how to support Ukraine, how to boost its self defence and how to strengthen its economy to face modern challenges. From the Green Deal to competitiveness, technology and innovation, Europe has the potential to lead if its members – particularly France and Germany – can find the political will.

Explore 2025 Wrapped where we highlight 20 outputs of the year.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Professor Amita Batra, of Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for South Asian Studies, and Bruegel Senior Fellow Ignacio Garcia Bercero to discuss the European Union-India trade relationship and its potential. What scope is there for a free trade agreement, particularly regarding tricky sectors like steel and automotive manufacturing? How will Europe’s new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism affect the dynamic? Is there room for closer cooperation given the geopolitical pressures posed by the United States and China? Working together, India’s growth and the EU’s trade experience have the potential to find more common ground, if political obstacles can be overcome.

Related research: * Batra, A. (2022) India’s Trade Policy in the 21st Century, Routledge * García-Bercero, I. and A. Sapir (2025) ‘The time is right to make a European Union-India trade deal happen’, Policy Brief 19/2025, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Marc Hijink to examine the Nexperia case – the Dutch semiconductor firm owned by China’s Wingtech – and how it became a flashpoint in Europe’s evolving relationship with China. We unpack how corporate governance disputes, US export controls, Chinese industrial policy and Europe’s growing focus on tech sovereignty collided in a single, high-stakes conflict.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses Ukraine peace talks with Bruegel’s Guntram Wolff and Nicolas Véron, and how the EU can manage the high-stakes standoff between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington. Over the past week, proposals from both sides of the Atlantic have jumpstarted efforts to find a way to stop the fighting. The EU is also locked in an internal debate over how to leverage Russia’s frozen cash to help Ukraine, a debate that affects the euro’s global reputation as well as the current budget. Bruegel’s experts take on the debate and gauge its chances for moving forward or petering out.

Related research:* Charles Lichfield & Nicolas Véron, An EU reparations loan is the right way to help Ukraine, Bruegel First Glance, 14 October 2025 * Mejino-López, J. and G. Wolff (2025) ‘Europe’s dependence on US foreign military sales and what to do about it’ Policy Brief 27/2025, Bruegel

New ideas on reaching climate targets as COP30 gets underway

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Georg Zachmann and professor Jos Delbeke, former Director General of the European Commission’s climate division, to discuss how Europe can use its ambitious climate targets to best catalyse global decarbonisation. Zachmann proposes to develop the European Emission Trading System into an anchor for mitigation activities in other sectors and countries. Delbeke acknowledges the need to enhance the ETS so that it can continue to play its important role in the efficient decarbonisation of the EU economy. But he cautions against a direct use of foreign mitigation credits in EU trading systems. Ten years after the Paris accord, how can Europe be more proactive in the global debate and make the most of this year’s UN climate conference?

Related research:* Zachmann, G. (2025) 'A Strawman Proposal to Use International Flexibility in Achieving Developed Countries Climate Targets to Catalyse Global Decarbonisation', De Gruyter Bill * Europe’s energy future: balancing climate goals and competitiveness, Bruegel event, 14 November 2025 * International decarbonisation through coalitions of the willing: carbon pricing, climate finance, trade and nature, Bruegel event, 20 November 2025

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Alexandra Jour-Schroeder, deputy director general of the European Commission’s DG FISMA, and Bruegel’s Silvia Merler, to discuss savings, investment and financial literacy. Sharing national best practices, monitoring what works and using EU funding can all support member state efforts to keep citizens in the know. They also discuss ways the EU can support development of accessible savings accounts and products. Better understanding of financial markets allows households to save for the future in ways that reflect their own priorities.

Related research:
* European Commission (2025), "EU to boost financial literacy and investment opportunities for citizens", available at https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/eu-boost-financial-literacy-and-investment-opportunities-citizens-2025-09-30_en * Christie, R. McCaffrey, C. and D. Pinkus (2024) "EU savers need a single-market place to invest", Analysis, Bruegel

Fixing gender inequality could reap big gains for the entire economy

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with economist Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Bruegel’s Marie-Sophie Lappe to discuss gender inequality and how economics can help to fix it. The data shows that it costs more to be a woman in society, especially a Black woman, in areas ranging from health care, to pension savings and workplace routines. These extra burdens dragthe whole economy down – but this also means that progress towards gender equality can pullthe whole economy up.

Related research: Christie, R. (2023) ‘Taking up space’, European Commission * Christie, R. and M. De Ridder (2022) 'Closing the gender gap for self-employed women in the European Union’, Bruegel Blog, 20 July * Darvas, Z. (2025) ‘How has Europe’s gender wealth gap evolved, and why?’, Bruegel Newsletter, 03 November * Darvas, Z. and N. Ruer (2025) 'Gender wealth inequality in the European Union: a distributional perspective', Working Paper 26/2025, Bruegel * Darvas, Z., Kreko, J., A. Laczkovich and N. Ruer (2025) ‘Unequal wealth: Exploring socioeconomic disparities across the EU’, Eurofound * Goldin, C. (2025) ‘Babies and the macroeconomy’, Economica, 93:1-26 * Lappe, M.S. and D. Pinkus (2025) ‘Europe’s savings debate should focus on the bigger picture’, First Glance, Bruegel, 11 September * Opoku-Agyeman, A. G. (2025) The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid*, Penguin Random House * Ostry, J. D. (2025) ‘Gender diversity and economic growth’, Working Paper 02/2025, Bruegel

As COP30 approaches, what is the real state of EU–China climate relations?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Cecilia Trasi to explore the state of EU–China climate relations. The discussion explores how both economies share a vision for a green transition but follow strikingly different paths—China prioritising industrial policy and green technology exports, the EU focusing on costly emission pricing and regulation.
They also identify pragmatic areas of collaboration like common taxonomies for green finance or joint circular-economy initiatives. They also reflect on whether either side can lead the global climate agenda in a fragmented geopolitical landscape.

Relevant research* Trasi, C. (2025) 'Convergence, not alignment: EU-China climate relations ahead of COP30', Analysis, 9 October, Bruegel * García-Herrero, A. (2025) 'Escalating US-China rare earth tensions signal determination to decouple', First Glance, 15 October, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Marie-Sophie Lappe and Francesco Nicoli, authors of a recent study on green public procurement, as well as Karolis Granickas of the Open Contracting Partnership non-governmental organisation. They discuss how governments decide what to buy, and what European policy can do to make this process work better. Is there a way for this purchasing to advance the climate transition agenda too? How can governments balance price, product choices and the impact on their local economies? How does this fit with the global context and balancing the pros and cons of non-EU products? This podcast aims to demystify the contracting cycle and unpack some of the issues at stake.

Related research:* Lappe, M. and F. Nicoli (2025) ‘Advantages and pitfalls of green public procurement as a European strategic tool’, Working Paper 21/2025, Bruegel * Towards a Green Procurement Union: trade-offs and strategic choices, Bruegel event, 24 September 2025 * See Open Contracting Partnership website: https://www.open-contracting.org/what-is-open-contracting/sustainability/

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Heather Grabbe and Guntram Wolff to talk about the real costs of a changing climate. With all the fuss over how to manage the climate transition, economists may be overlooking the rising expenses of the changes happening now. From the rising cost of insurance to future housing shocks, evolving weather trends and water scarcity mean the world could be facing big hits to productivity and gross domestic product. What will be the scale of the change? What should economists be studying? How should policymakers act? They discuss what happens when these shocks collide and intensify, rather than occurring one at a time, and how the world can respond.

Related research: Barata da Rocha, M., H. Grabbe and N. Poitiers (2025) ‘Climate risks to global supply chains’, Working Paper 20/2025, Bruegel * Claeys, G., M. Le Mouel, S. Tagliapietra, G.B. Wolff and G. Zachmann (2024) The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation Implications and Policies*, Cambridge University Press

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie speaks about migration trends in the Western Balkans with Bruegel’s Nina Vujanovic and Nina Ruer, as well as Professor Herbert Brücker from Berlin’s Humboldt University in Germany, Since 2015, workers have been heading to Germany from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, aided by a regulation specific to that region. How have those workers assimilated? What has been the effect on the countries they leave behind? Can better policy address youth unemployment and skills shortages? The discussion tackles the data, the outlook and the political context for Germany, the Western Balkan countries and the EU accession process.

Relevant research:* Ruer, N. and N. Vujanović (2025) ‘Migration flows from the Western Balkans to Germany: implications and recommendations’, Working Paper 19/2025, Bruegel * Ruer, N. and N. Vujanović (2025) 'Understanding Serbian youth discontent through the lens of the labour market', Analysis, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s Rebecca Christie, Zsolt Darvas and Jacob Funk Kirkegaard discuss the European Commission’s budget plan and the battle for the next multiannual financial framework. Will the budget be enough to cover the EU’s needs? What is an “own resource” and how do the member states contribute? Can the EU overhaul the way it supports agriculture, and does it make sense to merge support for farmers with support for lower-income countries? And how will Europe find the money to help Ukraine and finance its own defence and security needs? As the financing debate heats up, Europe will need to decide what public goods it values enough to invest in.

Relevant research: Darvas, Z., R. Dom, M.S. Lappe, P. Saint-Amans and A. Steinbach (2025) 'Bigger, better funded and focused on public goods: how to revamp the European Union budget', Blueprint* 37, Bruegel, available at https://www.bruegel.org/book/bigger-better-funded-and-focused-public-goods-how-revamp-european-union-budget * Sapir, A., J. F. Kirkegaard and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) 'Geopolitical shifts and their economic impacts on Europe: Short-term risks, medium-term scenarios and policy choices', Report 1/2025, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Ben McWilliams to explore China’s quest for energy self-sufficiency and especially its attempt to become an “electrostate”. Can a country transform its vast energy needs into a strategic advantage; and what does it mean for the world if that country is China? And where does Europe stand in this race?

Relevant research* Alicia García-Herrero and Haoxin Mu, China can decarbonise the world – but even that won’t fix its overcapacity problem, Bruegel Analysis, 25 September 2025 * European Clean Tech Tracker, Bruegel dataset, Compiled by Marie Jugé, Ugnė Keliauskaitė, Ben McWilliams and Simone Tagliapietra, last updated 3 September 2025 * Heussaff, C. and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Upgrading Europe’s electricity grid is about more than just money’, Policy Brief 04/2025, Bruegel * How we made it: will China be the first electrostate? Financial Times, 20 May 2025

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks with Niclas Poitiers and Damien Levie, head of the FDI screening unit in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security. They discuss how the EU aims to reduce risks, track projects and coordinate national procedures related to non-EU investments in companies and critical infrastructure. How can the EU protect itself when investors from China, the U.S. and other countries want to make a purchase? How should countries decide which deals are important? Would a so-called 28th regime, or pan-EU legal framework, offer a way around bureaucratic backlogs? This conversation explains what is at stake as the Commission, member states and the European Parliament start talks on how to revise the rules.

Relevant research:* Interinstitutional talks begin on EU’s revised FDI screening mechanism, News article, Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security, European Commission * Rethinking global supply chains: insights for a changing world, Bruegel event, 18 September 2025

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101061123.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we discuss the State of the Union address that Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered on 10 September 2025.

Bruegel's Rebecca Christie, Simone Tagliapietra, Reinhilde Veugelers and Jeromin Zettelmeyer discuss whether the EU is ready to meet the moment. How can Europe boost its economic and geopolitical independence? What steps are most needed to improve productivity and green growth. Did Von der Leyen give a good speech, given the difficulties of asserting European influence in the aftermath of the U.S. recent trade talks? They discuss how Europe can integrate and boost its economy to prepare for a better future.
Relevant research:* Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Draghi on a shoestring: the European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass, Bruegel Analysis, 3 February 2025 * McWilliams, B., S. Tagliapietra and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Europe’s energy information problem’, Policy Brief 07/2025, Bruegel * Aghion, P., D. Hémous and R. Veugelers (2025/2009) ‘No green growth without innovation’ Policy Brief 24/2025, Bruegel (Original work published in 2009)

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie discusses central bank independence and credibility with Francesco Papadia and Lucrezia Reichlin, Bruegel fellows and former top officials at the European Central Bank. As the Federal Reserve comes under increasing political pressure in the U.S., understanding what central banks do and why they are needed is more important than ever. Traditional monetary policy, digital currency, financial supervision and climate-related initiatives all play a role in how central banks operate today.

Relevant research: Lucrezia Reichlin and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, The European Central Bank must adapt to an environment of inflation volatility, Bruegel Analysis, 12 June 2024 * The ECB’s Digital Euro and new operational framework: is there an overlap?* Bruegel event, 2 June 2025 * Véron, N. (2024) ‘Europe’s banking union at ten: unfinished yet transformative’ Book, Bruegel * Véron, N. (2025) ‘Breaking the deadlock: a single supervisor to unshackle Europe's capital markets union’, Bruegel blueprint series 35, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we explore where Europe fits into a world of geopolitical uncertainty and whether it can rise to the challenge. Host Rebecca Christie is joined by Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Bruegel's Director, and Jason Furman, the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard University and former top economic adviser under President Barack Obama.

They argue that the EU needs to use mobilise all its resources to safeguard growth, advance low-carbon transition and strengthen its defence capacity. Achieving this, however, means breaking down internal barriers, which will demand ambitious transitional reforms from both member states and the EU itself — and time is of the essence.

We will continue our discussion in Bruegel Annual Meetings 2025. Sign up to follow the livestream on 3 September.

Relevant research: Jason Furman, Trump’s tariffs leave us in the second worst of all worlds*, opinion, Financial Times, 4 Aug 2025 * Sapir, A. (2025/2005) ‘Globalisation and the reform of European social models’ Policy Brief 22/2025, Bruegel (Original work published in 2005) * Dom, R. and N. Poitiers (2025) ‘The European single market: restarting the perpetual revolution’, Working Paper 15/2025, Bruegel * Heussaff, C. and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Upgrading Europe’s electricity grid is about more than just money’, Policy Brief 04/2025, Bruegel * Pisani-Ferry, J, B Weder di Mauro and J Zettelmeyer (eds) (2025), ‘Paris Report 3: Global Action Without Global Governance: Building coalitions for climate transition and nature restoration‘, CEPR Press, Paris & London.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by ECB Senior Economist Christoph Kaufmann and Bruegel’s Stavros Zenios to unpack how disaster risk, political instability and investor behaviour collide in euro-area bond markets. They explore why investment funds respond differently to fiscal and political shocks, compared to other investor groups, and what are the consequences for both periphery and core countries. The conversation also addresses the disciplining role of markets, the sustainability of public debt and the need for a euro-area safe asset.

Relevant research:

Ajovalasit, S., A. Consiglio, G. Pagliardi and S. Zenios (2024) "Incorporating political risk into analysis of sovereign debt sustainability", Analysis, Bruegel
Anaya Longaric, P., K. Cera, G. Georgiadis and C. Kaufmann (2025), “Investment funds and euro disaster risk”, Working Paper No. 3029, European Central Bank

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we explore the shifting strategies of European companies operating in China, as unveiled in a new Bruegel paper co-authored by Alicia García-Herrero, Théo Storella, and Jianwei Xu. Host Yuyun Zhan speaks with Alicia and Théo about the findings, which are based on panel survey data from the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

The discussion dives into the four typologies of firm strategy, doubling down, hedging, hibernating, and exiting. Why are some firms staying despite envisioning less profitability? Why are others hedging their bets by expanding elsewhere? Speakers also also touch on broader macroeconomic challenges such as deflation, overcapacity and declining foreign direct investment in China, with implications for European policy and business resilience.

This conversation was recorded on 25 July 2025, just after the EU-China Summit.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Simon O’Connor, head of the secretariat for the Ukraine Donor Platform, along with Tyson Barker (Atlantic Council) and Bruegel’s Elina Ribakova.

The guests discuss the challenges of financing reconstruction while the war is ongoing, the role of the defence industrial base, and Ukraine’s growing strategic importance to European defence. They also examine Ukraine’s evolving partnership with the U.S., the future of reconstruction efforts, and the importance of reform and anti-corruption in long-term planning. With the Ukraine Donor Platform helping to coordinate financial support, speakers highlight the delicate balance between urgent wartime needs and planning for a resilient, post-war economy.

Relevant research:* Ukraine Donor Platform meetings in Rome, 9-10 July, 2025 * Strategic lessons from Ukraine for strengthening European security — KSE Institute report * Charting a Path Forward for the U.S.-Ukraine Minerals Deal

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses how insurance funds invest in the global economy with Patrick Hoedjes, Head of Policy and Supervisory Convergence Department of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and Bruegel’s Jesper Berg, Marie-Sophie Lappe and David Pinkus. Where is the money going? What role does European policy play? How can we make sure citizens understand their options and have confidence in the system? They also discuss new research on how much insurance company and pension fund investments stay in Europe, a key question in the EU capital markets debate.

The discussion is based on an upcoming Bruegel Policy Brief written by Marie-Sophie Lappe and David Pinkus.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel’s Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Affiliate Fellow Ben McWilliams to discuss new research on climate action and international cooperation. They present their chapter in the Paris Report 3, exploring the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries, the design of the Clean Industrial Deal, and relatively high energy costs. They discuss how the EU could work in partnership with developing countries to achieve efficient global industrial decarbonisation.

Bruegel has released two Policy Briefs which feature in the Paris Report 3: Global Action Without Global Governance: Building coalitions for climate transition and nature restoration, a joint initiative by Bruegel and CEPR (Pisani-Ferry et al, 2025). This year’s focus is on accelerating the energy transition and restoring nature in emerging and developing economies.

Relevant research:

McWilliams, B., S. Tagliapietra and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) ‘Reconciling the European Union’s clean industrialisation goals with those of the Global South’, Policy Brief 18/2025, Bruegel
Pisani-Ferry, J., B. Weder di Mauro and J. Zettelmeyer (2025) ‘Building coalitions for climate transition and nature restoration’, Policy Brief 17/2025, Bruegel
CEPR (2025) Paris Report 3: Global Action Without Global Governance: Building coalitions for climate transition and nature restoration, Centre for Economic Policy Research, available at https://cepr.org/publications/books-and-reports/paris-report-3-global-action-without-global-governance-building

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses how common financial-services supervision could jumpstart the EU single market with Bruegel’s Nicolas Véron and Enrico Letta, former Italian prime minister and author of the EU’s flagship single-market report. They talk about ways to boost the European Securities and Markets Authority, the current regulator, and move away from national silos by putting ESMA offices in every member state. They also discuss how better capital markets would make the EU more competitive and lead to a stronger and safer European economy.

Relevant research: Letta, E. (2024) "Much more than a market - Speed, Security, Solidarity", Report * Véron, N. (2025) "Breaking the deadlock: a single supervisor to unshackle Europe's capital markets union", Blueprint*, Bruegel

Critical technologies including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum computing are gaining increasing attention due to their strategic importance and indispensable role in national security. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alicia García-Herrero and Claudio Feijóo to look into how the world’s three leading global economies, China, the US and the EU, are advancing in these cutting-edge sectors. Which economies are leading in specific subfields? How quickly are these technologies being translated into real-world applications?

Relevant publications:* García-Herrero, A., M. Krystyanczuk and R. Schindowski (2025) ‘Radical novelties in critical technologies and spillovers: how do China, the US and the EU fare?’, Working Paper 07/2025, Bruegel * García-Herrero, A., M. Krystyanczuk and R. Schindowski (2025) ‘Which companies are ahead in frontier innovation on critical technologies? Comparing China, the European Union and the United States’, Working Paper 08/2025, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie talks about the proposed digital euro with ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone and Bruegel Senior Fellow Pablo Hernández de Cos. Why does the EU need a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)? How much should citizens be able to hold? How will it affect financial stability and the banking system? They discuss the state of play and why the case for the digital euro has become stronger.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses global development with Bruegel director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Alfonso García Mora, vice president for Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group’s arm for mobilizing private finance. They discuss what tools are available, what needs can be addressed, and how that fits into today’s geopolitical environment. By helping public and private funders work together, these efforts allow recipient countries like Ukraine to get more out of international assistance.

How Europe’s defence sector can align to climate goals without compromising security needs

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, we look at the present and future efforts of the defence sector to integrate climate sustainability. Host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel's Simone Tagliapietra and Kädi Ristkok, Executive Director of Cleantech for Baltics. Together, they explore the challenges and practical steps to decarbonise defence. What are the key policy actions needed at the European level?

Relevant research: Ristkok, K. and L. Balciume (2025), 'Cleantech for Defence, Security and Resilience', White paper, Cleantech for Baltics * Tagliapietra, S. (2025), ‘Defence and climate: seven points for a common agenda', Analysis*, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we look at what came out of the May 19 EU-UK summit. Host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s Ignacio García Bercero and Heather Grabbe about the shift in post-Brexit ties between the two trading partners, what needs to be negotiated next, and how this relates to contentious transatlantic trade relations. U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of big tariffs against the EU contrasts with the cooperative approach of the London talks, which laid out a path forward in key areas like energy, fishing, youth mobility, emissions trading schemes, and animal and plant health standards.

Relevant research: Ignacio García Bercero and Heather Grabbe, ‘The EU-UK reset: a first, big step in the right direction’, First Glance, 22 May 2025, Bruegel, https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/eu-uk-reset-first-big-step-right-direction * Berg, J., R. Christie, H. Geeroms and F. Papadia (2025), ‘Make finance part of the EU-UK post-Brexit reset', Analysis*, Bruegel * García-Bercero, I. (2024) ‘A trade policy framework for the European Union-United Kingdom reset’, Policy Brief 30/2024, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Bruegel’s own Alicia García-Herrero and Plamen Tonchev, Head of Asia Unit at the Athens- based Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER), to dive into China's economic presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, a region that we have not covered much before in terms of its relations with China. The conversation delves into the geostrategic importance of the region and China’s highly tailored approach to individual countries, including Egypt, Türkiye, Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. What lessons can the EU draw from China’s engagement in this pivotal area?

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Read more about Sino-Cypriot relations in Plamen Tonchev's paper, More Than Meets The Eye: Behind the Façade of Sino-Cypriot Relations.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, we look at how Europe can attract and keep top-tier scientific researchers, especially given US political turmoil and the Trump administration’s conflicts with higher education. Host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s Reinhilde Veugelers and Mario Mariniello, joined by Daniel Gros of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University, to discuss how the academic world is changing and what European authorities can do about it. Short-term funding incentives to attract scientists will help. But success requires long-term commitment to a research-friendly environment, such as the proposed Project Einstein initiative, to encourage top talent to put down roots.

Relevant research: Mariniello, M. and Ruer, N. (2025), 'How much research talent could Europe grab from the US?', Analysis, Bruegel * Heather Grabbe and Daniel Gros, '‘Project Einstein’: research excellence for Europe and the world', First Glance,* 8 May 2025, Bruegel, https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/project-einstein-research-excellence-europe-and-world

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, we look at Germany’s budget outlook under new Chancellor Friedric Merz and whether much-needed reforms to the so-called debt brake put Berlin on a collision course with Brussels. Host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel's director, Jeromin Zettelmeyer, and Bruegel non-resident fellow, Armin Steinbach, to discuss the legal and economic implications. How can the EU encourage Germany to spend more on defence and security without unraveling the new fiscal rules? Does the EU need to redo its debt safeguards again?

Relevant research:* Germany's fiscal rules dilemma, Bruegel Analysis, Armin Steinbach and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, 24 April 2025 * Will EU fiscal rules prevent Germany from using its new national borrowing space? Bruegel newsletter, Armin Steinbach, 28 April 2025

*We released the original podcast on 23 April 2025. As the blackout in Iberian Peninsula happened soon after, we decided to record an update on what happened there.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie talks to Bruegel energy experts Conall Heussaff and Georg Zachmann about the urgent need to upgrade and connect Europe's electricity grids. They discuss their recent paper outlining the challenges, opportunities, and necessary policy responses to modernise Europe's energy infrastructure.

Relevant publications:* Heussaff, C. and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Upgrading Europe’s electricity grid is about more than just money’, Policy Brief 04/2025, Bruegel * McWilliams, B., S. Tagliapietra and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Europe’s energy information problem’, Policy Brief 07/2025, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Bruegel’s own Alicia García-Herrero and Finbarr Bermingham, EU correspondent of South China Morning Post to unpack the latest developments in the US-China trade war and what they mean for the European Union. With Trump’s volatile approach to tariffs, China’s charm offensive toward Brussels, and the EU’s own strategic uncertainty, the conversation dives deep into the geopolitical triangulation reshaping global trade order. Can the EU defend its interests and values without being drawn into binary alignments?

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this extra episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s Bertin Martens and Fiona M. Scott Morton explain the EU’s first fines under the Digital Markets Act, in conversation with Rebecca Christie. Apple and Meta were hit with the penalties on 23 April 2025 in what will be a test case for the European Commission’s new mandate to rein in digital gatekeepers. This podcast walks through why the fines were assessed, whether they will be big enough to change the companies’ behaviour, and how the EU must manage its regulatory agenda in the middle of a trade war. This podcast was recorded on 25 April 2025.

Relevant research:* Scott Morton, F. (2024) ‘It’s time for the European Union to rethink personal social networking’, Policy Brief 34/2024, Bruegel * Bertin Martens, ‘EU targeting of digital services in tariff retaliation would present challenges’, Bruegel First Glance, 11 April 2025 * Scott Morton, F. (2024) ‘Entry and competition in mobile app stores’, Working Paper 03/2024, Bruegel * ‘The state of play on global tax’, The Sound of Economics, Bruegel podcast with Rebecca Christie, Benjamin Angel and Pascal Saint-Amans, 6 December 2023

Music is excerpted from Lake Danse by Roy Hargrove, courtesy of Red Brick Songs and Universal Music

The Western Balkans are often seen as Europe’s periphery, but they are in fact embedded within the continent’s history and future ambitions. Despite close economic ties with the EU, these six countries—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia—remain outside the Union, navigating a complex path toward accession.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Simonida Kacarska, Nina Vujanović and Anna Fiore to explore the economic realities, trade dynamics, and political hurdles facing the region. How integrated are these economies already? What barriers remain, and can the new EU growth plan bring about meaningful progress?

This podcast was produced with financial support from The Open Society Foundations Western Balkans.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we mark a decade since the Greek debt crisis, reflecting past hardships and the progress made and the challenges that lie ahead. Host Rebecca Christie is joined by George Papaconstantinou, former Greek Minister of Finance, and Eleni Varvitsioti, journalist and expert on European affairs. Together, they explore Greece’s recovery journey, from the turbulence of the crisis to its recovery and economic growth. They discuss the cautious optimism in Greece today and the resilience of the Greek people, as well as continuing fiscal and political challenges.

The episode mentions the following books: * ‘Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis’ by George Papaconstantinou * ‘The Last Bluff: How Greece came face-to-face with financial catastrophe & the secret plan for its euro exit’ by Viktoria Dendrinou and Eleni Varvitsioti * Safeguarding the Euro in Times of Crisis: The Inside Story of the ESM, by the European Stability Mechanism, lead author Rebecca Christie

The Last Bluff: How Greece came face-to-face with financial catastrophe & the secret plan for its euro exit

How should Europe respond to the new US administration’s aggressive rhetoric on trade? Bruegel’s Uri Dadush, Niclas Poitiers and Ignacio Garcia Bercero join a conversation with Rebecca Christie for a special live edition of The Sound of Economics podcast.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced the EU to reassess its ties with both Moscow and Beijing. As the EU navigates its dependencies on Russian energy, Chinese markets, and US security, how is its long-term strategy evolving? Can Europe maintain a unified stance on China? And what does this mean for global power dynamics?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan is joined by Alicia García-Herrero, Elina Ribakova, and Ivana Karásková to discuss the shifting landscape of China-EU relations in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Check out Bruegel's research on China and on defence.

Ivana recently founded The Women Insight on China (WiCH), a new initiative aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of women in the field of China studies across Europe. Alicia is a Co-chair for Spain.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses Ireland's economy with Eamon Gilmore, former Foreign Minister, and Patrick Honohan, former Governor of the Irish Central Bank. They explore Ireland’s recovery from the global financial crisis and current political outlook, alongside issues such as public debt, low interest rates, and rebuilding national confidence. The conversation also covers support for Ukraine, the Irish housing crisis, Ireland’s role in Europe, and evolving relations with the UK in the aftermath of Brexit and the peace process. The episode concludes with the speakers sharing their hopes and concerns for the country’s future.

The episode mentions the book “Europe and the Transformation of the Irish Economy (Elements in Economics of European Integration)” by Patric Honohan and John FitzGerald.

Music: McFarley’s Reel, after the playing of John Doherty.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Peter Praet to discuss the economic outlook for Europe and the United States, the impact of prospective tariffs, and the role of monetary and fiscal policies. The conversation touches on the impact of geopolitical uncertainties, structural reforms, and the ongoing debate around defence spending in Europe.
*This podcast was recorded in mid February 2025.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we examine the rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape in Europe, driven by the ongoing war in Ukraine, shifting alliances, and the changing role of the United States in NATO. Host Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel experts Heather Grabbe and Guntram B. Wolff to discuss the critical questions facing European policymakers: What level of financial and military support is the EU prepared to provide to Ukraine? Can Europe step up to replace U.S. security guarantees, and what would that entail? How are NATO and EU alliances evolving in response to these pressures? What role will collective defence spending and procurement play in reshaping Europe’s military posture?
*This podcast was recorded on Friday morning CET, 28 February 2025.

Read the recent Analysis by Alexandr Burilkov and Guntram B. Wolff, Defending Europe without the US: first estimates of what is needed.

Since the bursting of China’s real-estate bubble in mid-2021, there has been a growing concern that the country’s economy could end up like that of Japan in the early 1990s. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alicia García-Herrero and Jianwei Xu to discuss China’s structural deceleration, the striking similarities and key differences with Japan’s experience, and what this could mean for Europe and the global economy, as explored in their latest policy brief.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Ahead of Germany’s federal elections on February 23 2025, Rebecca Christie invites Jens Suedekum and Niclas Poitiers to take a look at the country’s economic situation, what needs to be fixed and how. This election may decide which fundamental economic strategy Germany pursues for the next years, with implications for Europe and the world. They discuss why it has been so hard for Berlin to change and how the next crisis may require new tools.

Note: This podcast was recorded in mid January 2025.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie is joined by Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, and Bruegel fellows Jean Pisani-Ferry and Alissa M. Kleinnijenhuis to discuss the urgent financial steps needed to address climate change: Now that the US has pulled back, the EU is needed more than ever to help mobilise crucial funds and guard against the costs of inaction. They explore the economic arguments for green investments, potential sources of funding, and the role of China in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. How much money is needed and where will it come from? Why is combatting climate change an economic necessity?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we delve into the future of space in Europe, examining the challenges and opportunities ahead. Host Rebecca Christie, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, is joined by Hermann Ludwig Moeller, Director of the European Space Policy Institute, and Reinhilde Veugelers, Bruegel Senior fellow. Together, they discuss the financial landscape of space exploration, the role of private and public sectors, and the critical intersection of space with security and defense. They also explore the growing demand for space services and the funding mechanisms needed to support Europe’s ambitions in space.
Tune in for expert insights and recommendations on how Europe can move forward in this rapidly evolving field.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alicia Garcia Herrero and Ana Krstinovska to delve into China's expanding footprint in the Western Balkans and its implications for Europe's economic security and strategic autonomy. They explore the region's strategic importance and analyze how China's developments in the region impact the EU's neighborhood policy and economic security.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s first Director and co-founder, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Senior fellow and co-founder Nicolas Véron, and Board member Caroline de Gruyter on the occasion of the think tank’s 20th anniversary. Their conversation takes us on a journey that spans fateful lunches and parliamentary dramas, choosing a location and funding model, and key inspirations from across the pond. Aside from being the story of Bruegel, it doubles as a story of Europe: how have different parts of the continent worked together over the two decades? What was the gap that Bruegel filled? And finally, did you know that one works for a think-tank if one wishes to change the world?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with MEP Aura Salla and Bruegel Senior Fellow Fiona Scott Morton to discuss the EU’s evolving tech regulation landscape. The conversation spans critical issues such as the Digital Markets Act, GDPR enforcement, data sovereignty, and the EU’s quest to foster innovation while curbing the dominance of global tech giants. With insights on strategic autonomy, market harmonisation, and the balance between regulation and innovation, the speakers highlight the challenges and opportunities in making the EU a competitive global tech player.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by James Baxter, Ambassador, Australian Permanent Mission to the WTO, and Ignacio García Bercero, a Bruegel Non-resident fellow and former EU trade official, to discuss the 30-year journey of the World Trade Organization. Together, they examine the achievements and crises that have shaped the WTO, delve into the challenges posed by geopolitical tensions, and explore opportunities for reform in dispute settlement, digital trade, and sustainable development.

How will the EU springboard from the tumult of 2024 to meet the challenges ahead? In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and senior fellows Heather Grabbe and André Sapir discuss the year that was with host Rebecca Christie. Industrial policy, tensions with China and the U.S., and green transition’s immense financing needs all figure in to Europe’s quest to become more competitive. Will the EU be prepared for the next crisis?

Browse through Bruegel's highlights of 2024, a curated collection of our research in the past year.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Heather Grabbe and Thomas Viegas to explore the intersection of biodiversity and economic policy. The discussion highlights the critical importance of integrating nature conservation into financial frameworks. The guests delve into systemic risks posed by biodiversity loss, the role of public and private finance, and strategies to address harmful subsidies. They also emphasize the necessity of aligning economic systems with natural limits to ensure sustainable development and long-term resilience.

The EU’s Global Gateway Initiative aims to mobilize €300 billion for global infrastructure by 2027, but how does it compare to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? Host Yuyun Zhan discusses this with Alicia García-Herrero and Romana Vlahutin. They explore the initiative’s origins, progresses and challenges, and how Europe can sharpen its strategy to balance development goals with economic interests.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Johanna Breuer, Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol and Federico Fabbrini to delve into the intricate dynamics of European public goods and how to pay for them. Together, they explore the historical, legal, and political foundations of joint European financing—tracing its evolution from the post-WWII period to recent crises like the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Relevant publication:* Mourlon-Druol, E. (2024) ‘An uphill struggle: a long-term perspective on the European public goods debate’, Policy Brief 24/2024, Bruegel * Beetsma, R. and M. Buti (2024) ‘Designing conditionality in the supply of European public goods’, Working Paper 20/2024, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Heather Grabbe, Luca Léry Moffat and Janez Potočnik to talk about turning Europe’s economy circular by making resources go further. They discuss the environmental and economic cases for Europe to use fewer resources, and why moving to a circular economy is essential in the fight against climate change. They also discuss examples of companies that have found ways of reducing waste, and the reasons why more firms don’t make resource efficient decisions.

Relevant publication:
Grabbe, H. and L. Moffat (2024) ‘A European circular single market for economic security and competitiveness’, Policy Brief 20/2024, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alicia García-Herrero, Théo Storella and Moritz Rudolf to delve into China's evolving role in the United Nations and its broader global governance strategy. They explore the initiatives shaping China's influence in the United Nations, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, and discuss the implications of these efforts on the multilateral order. They also discuss the challenges posed by geopolitical fragmentation and the role of other global actors, including Europe and the United States, in shaping the future of international institutions.

Relevant research and event:* Garcia-Herrero, A., T. Storella and P. Weil (2024) ‘China’s influence in the United Nations: words and deeds’, Working Paper 19/2024, Bruegel * Shifts in China's foreign policy: a closer look at its role in the United Nations, Bruegel event, 12 November 2024

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

November 9, 2024, marks the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - a pivotal moment that led to German reunification. In this special episode of The Sound of Economics, we step beyond the realm of economic policy to explore the personal and historical impact of reunification. Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel fellows Marek Dabrowski, Guntram Wolff, and Georg Zachmann. Our speakers share family stories and experiences from both sides of the Iron Curtain, shedding light on the contrasts between the Eastern and Western blocs. They discuss restrictions on travel and education, economic disparities, and the challenges of daily life - from food shortages to wage gaps. Moving forward, the conversation delves into the topic of merging two distinct economies and societies.

Join us for an insightful journey through history, as we reflect on the complexities and triumphs of a reunited Germany.

Read the special historical analysis by Marek Dabrowski, Europe’s 35-year journey since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In this special live episode of The Sound of Economics podcast, Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel’s Heather Grabbe, Fiona M. Scott Morton and Guntram B. Wolff to discuss next steps after the U.S. elections on Nov. 5. How will Europe work with the new President and new Congress? What will this mean for Ukraine? What will each side prioritize to stay competitive?

Join us for a Europe-centric view from both sides of the Atlantic. You can also watch the live recording here.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel's Ben McWilliams and Rhodium's Senior Analyst Marie Tamba to talk about the solar energy transition, and how better information on investment and deployment can lead to better policy. Data trends in the EU and the U.S. offer insights into where clean energy is ramping up and what steps will help going forward. They also discuss how a proposed EU-wide energy data agency could help Europe form a clearer picture of where things stand.

Read the Analysis 'Transatlantic Clean Investment Monitor: a solar PV snapshot' that compares the state of play in solar capacity in both the US and Europe, jointly published by Bruegel and Rhodium group.
Financial support from the Children's Investment Fund Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alicia García-Herrero and Alfred Schipke to explore the stimulus package China announced in late September 2024. They discuss why the Chinese government introduced these new measures, the key components of the package, especially how it addresses the real estate crisis and local government debt issues. Garcia Herrero notes that the stimulus is increasingly resembling a rescue package, likening it to a cleanup exercise for the economy. Schipke highlights the absence of direct support for households as a gap in the current package. Finally, they discuss the need for structural reform in China’s economy.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

While the term Japanification is usually taken negatively, Japan actually managed a very challenging economic situation with an ageing population and low productivity growth. As the rest of the world grapples with the same structural decline in population, Rebecca Christie sits down with Jacob Funk Kirkegaard and Takeshi Tashiro to explore what lessons Europe and beyond can learn from Japan’s experiences, what worked and what didn’t work, including fiscal sustainability, private savings, as well as workforce participation and productivity.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Conor Brummell explores the topic of multilingualism within the European Union. He is joined by language experts Margo Sjis, Head of the Dutch Unit in DG Interpretation of the European Commission and Merje Laht, Head of the Estonian Unit in DG Interpretation of the European Commission and Aislínn McCrory, Head of the Irish Translations Unit in the European Commission.

Each of the language experts explain the historical, cultural, and political importance of their native tongues, before diving into the need for language diversity within the European institutions, which play a vital role in preserving and promoting European languages. They speak about the technical skills required for translation and interpretation and the importance of these services for inclusivity and democratic participation in the EU.

Finally, the conversation culminates with the language experts giving their insights on English becoming the lingua franca of the EU, and the cost to democracy if translation and interpretation services were removed from the European institutions.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Bruegel’s own Simone Tagliapietra and Cecilia Trasi, as well as Jacob Werksman, Principal Adviser of European Commission’s DG Clima, to examine the EU’s global green agenda and the challenges of balancing decarbonisation, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy. They discuss how the EU’s green geoeconomic approach should support global decarbonisation efforts and strengthen the EU's strategic position.
Relevant publications and events:* Sgaravatti, G., S. Tagliapietra and C. Trasi (2024) ‘Re-energising Europe’s global green reach’, Policy Brief 11/2024, Bruegel * Re-energising Europe’s global green reach, Bruegel event * Bolton, P., A.M. Kleinnijenhuis and J. Zettelmeyer (2024) ‘The economic case for climate finance at scale’, Policy Brief 09/2024, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Abigaël Vasselier to assess the new reality of EU-China relations and explain why the European Union must prepare for a much more difficult relationship with China.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel Senior fellow Zsolt Darvas and Jennifer D. Sciubba, President and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau from Washington DC. Together, they explore the findings of Darvas’ recent paper on the effects of demographic changes on public debt sustainability, which was presented at the informal Meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs Ministers on 14 September 2024. Darvas pointed out that countries will have to devote a much larger share of their budget for paying for pensions and health care and elderly care, and fiscal adjustments might not be enough to cover these. Sciubba emphasizes the urgency for policymakers to acknowledge the change in demographics and work toward actionable solutions.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Eurogroup president Paschal Donohoe and Bruegel Senior fellow Guntram Wolff to discuss the EU's dire defence and security challenges and the role of public finances. They also discuss Wolff's latest report on Europe's and Germany's slow rearmament, particularly compared to Russian arms production.

Listen to Donohoe's speech at Bruegel Annual Meetings about the Eurogroup's immediate priorities here.

The Memos to the European Union leadership have been a Bruegel tradition since 2009. Every five years – after the European elections but before a new European Commission takes office – we take stock of EU economic policies, reflect on the EU's main challenges, make recommendations on how the new leadership should address them.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites the book's editors, Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, to unpack the crown memo to the Presidents of the European Commission, Council and Parliament. Their key takeaways are: support Ukraine; work toward the 2040 climate goals; and defend competition, openness and multilateralism.

Bruegel holds its flagship event, the Bruegel Annual Meetings in Brussels on 4-5 September 2024. It serves as the moment to launch the Memos and discuss the issues with policy makers and experts. Join us for the conversation!

Maria Demertzis sits down in the studio of The Sound of Economics for one last time in her capacity as Senior fellow and Bruegel’s former Deputy director. In this episode, she reflects on the eight years of her work. What have been the major challenges for the EU and how has Bruegel responded to them? Why does she feel strongly about financial vulnerability and what she sees as the next great challenges for the EU leadership? From inflation to the Fearless girl statue, Maria shares her wide-reaching insights in an interview with Bruegel’s Head of Communications, Katja Knežević.

Research mentioned:Memos to the European Union leadership 2024-2029 and Bruegel Annual Meetings 2024
https://www.bruegel.org/anthology/memos-new-eu-leadership-2024
https://www.bruegel.org/BAM2024

Assets purchase programme
https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/effectiveness-european-central-banks-asset-purchase-programme

Productivity
https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/productivity-paradox-policy-lessons-microprod

Financial literacy
https://www.bruegel.org/opinion-piece/financial-literacy-and-fearless-woman
https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/state-financial-knowledge-european-union

Rubles payment
https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/sanctions-counter-measure-gas-payments-russia-rubles

Digital euro
https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/value-added-central-bank-digital-currencies-view-euro-area

By 2030, the European Union must reduce emissions from the heating and cooling of buildings – responsible for 13 percent of EU emissions – by the equivalent of the annual emissions of Slovakia.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Michael Pahle, Marion Santini and Giovanni Sgaravatti to discuss how greener buildings can play contribute to Europe’s decarbonisation efforts. They discuss new EU rules, expanding the emissions trading scheme, and the need to find financing for energy-friendly renovations, as well as how to shield households and small companies from the impact of higher carbon prices.

Relevant publication and event:* Keliauskaitė, U.,B. McWilliams, G. Sgaravatti and S. Tagliapietra (2024) ‘How to finance the European Union’s building decarbonisation plan’, Policy Brief 12/2024, Bruegel * How to finance building decarbonisation in the EU, Bruegel event, 2 July 2024

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Eric Olander to explore China’s economic engagements in Africa, both in the historical and the modern-day context. They also discuss the criticisms China faces from African countries and the West when it comes to foreign direct investment, trade, opacity and more. While Olander claims that China brings a forward-looking vision to Africa, Garcia Herrero argues that the reality is sometimes different from the narratives.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Relevant resource:
China economic database, Bruegel dataset compiled by Alessia Amighini, Alicia García-Herrero, Michal Krystyanczuk, Robin Schindowski and Jianwei Xu, Updated monthly

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Bruegel fellow Ben McWilliams and Johanna Schiele, a Policy Officer at the Innovation Fund in the European Commission, to discuss the benefits and challenges of hydrogen as a clean energy source.

Throughout this episode, they explore whether hydrogen could be used as alternative to the extracting and burning of fossil fuels, explaining the hurdles that need to be addressed for it to become a mainstream energy solution. With strategic support and investments, hydrogen could play a significant role in the transition to a sustainable energy future.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie discusses the current global trade landscape with Penny Naas, of the German Marshall Fund and Atlantic Council, and Niclas Poitiers from Bruegel. They explore the challenges of balancing economic resilience, protectionism, and the push for green technologies amid these transformations. Naas and Poitiers provide insights into the rationale behind the differing approaches of the US and EU towards tariffs and industrial subsidies, as well as the broader impact on global trade relations. They also touch on the role of the WTO in navigating these complex dynamics and the future of international trade policies.

Rebecca Christie sits down with Jean Pisani-Ferry and André Sapir to discuss the upcoming parliamentary elections in France, amidst growing voter dissatisfaction and legislative gridlock. They discuss the political intrigues behind the upheaval and highlight the potential consequences of a National Rally-dominated assembly, which could obstruct European Union decisions and implement protectionist and anti-EU policies, creating significant roadblocks for European integration and economic policies. On top of that, they also discuss the reactions from financial markets and potential turmoil for French budget.

In October 2023, the European Union launched an investigation into whether Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers were receiving unfair subsidies which give them an advantage in the market. In June 2024, the European Commission announced the preliminary conclusion that it would levy additional tariffs of between 17.4ؘ–38% on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs). This would be placed on top of an existing 10% import duty. These duties are set to provisionally come into effect in early July, with a proposal for permanent measures expected in November, subject to a decisive vote.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and George Magnus to discuss the EV investigation, the impact of China’s industrial policy on its mass-production growth model, why this approach is now facing resistance, and the broader implications of China’s overcapacity for the EU and the global market.

Relevant publications:
García-Herrero, A. and R. Schindowski (2024) ‘Unpacking China’s industrial policy and its implications for Europe’, Working Paper 11/2024, Bruegel
Red Flags: Why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy, book by George Magnus
The story of China’s electric vehicle industry, Bruegel podcast with Giuseppe Porcaro, Alicia García-Herrero and Zeyi Yang

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Tony Connelly, Europe editor of Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ, and David Gow, who chairs the Royal Society of Edinburgh's EU-Scotland initiative. They discuss EU-UK relations after Brexit, how Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales fit into the picture, upcoming British elections, and long-term prospects for Irish unity. This episode was recorded on 6 June 2024.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s non-resident fellow Dirk Schoenmaker presents his latest book ‘Corporate Finance for Long-Term Value’ with host Rebecca Christie and CFO at Nederlandse Gasunie, Janneke Hermes.

They talk about how corporate finance and sustainability can go together. New models can help firms quantify the cost of social and environmental factors, so they can plan better for the long term. The podcast also explores how investors can guide funding to certain companies and projects without sacrificing return and thus speed up the transition to a sustainable economy.

Bruegel and the Financial Times partnered up to host a debate featuring lead candidates from major EU political parties on EU economic issues, namely growth, the single market, economic security and the EU budget. The participants of the debate were:* Sandro Gozi, Renew Europe Now * Ursula von der Leyen, The European People's Party * Nicolas Schmit, the Party of European Socialists * Anders Vistisen, Identity and Democracy Party

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel Senior fellow Maria Demertzis, FT Brussels bureau chief Henry Foy, also moderators of the debate, to unpack the views they gathered from the event, discuss how the elections are likely to turn out and what will happen afterwards.
Relevant events and publications:* Economic choices for Europe: EU leadership debate 2024, Bruegel-Financial Times event, 21 May 2024 * Visions for Europe: Economic expert debate for the 2024 EU elections, Bruegel-Financial Times event, 15 April 2024 * Saint-Amans, P. (2024) ‘Broader border taxes: a new option for European Union budget resources’, Policy Brief 06/2024, Bruegel

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan talks to Bruegel Senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero and President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Jens Eskelund, about foreign companies doing business and investing in China. They discuss the difficulties of navigating current geopolitical tensions as well as China’s domestic environment. Jens presented the latest results from the European Business in China Business Confidence Survey 2024, which shows that despite the re-opening of China’s borders in early 2023, business confidence in the market continued on a downward trend. They discuss what measures the Chinese government has pursued to appeal to investors, debating whether they are persuasive enough.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In a world of increasing uncertainties, the European Union’s need to protect itself from new shocks is on the rise. Pandemic-related supply disruptions, the energy crisis provoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and economic coercion coming from China have all shown that the EU needs to do more to prepare itself for what may come. But how should Europe de-risk its external relationships without foregoing the benefits of trade? Rebecca Christie talks to Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and CEPR President Beatrice Weder di Mauro about their new report, “Paris Report 2: Europe’s Economic Security”.

Relevant publications:* Pisani-Ferry, J, B Weder Di Mauro and J Zettelmeyer (eds) (2024), ‘Paris Report 2: Europe's Economic Security‘, CEPR Press, Paris & London * Pisani-Ferry, J., B. Weder di Mauro and J. Zettelmeyer (2024) ‘How to de-risk: European economic security in a world of interdependence’, Policy Brief 07/2024, Bruegel

The relationship between the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is at the heart of efforts to help Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion. How do the alliances work together and how can further cooperation help?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie speaks with Oana Lungescu, who served as the longest serving NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Spokesperson and is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, and Guntram B. Wolff, Senior fellow at Bruegel, to discuss NATO and the EU. How do they each contribute to Europe’s defence strategy? Where do they overlap and not? How will they work together to find the necessary financing to help Ukraine and coordinate defence procurement in the future? They also discuss the role of NATO members who are not part of the EU such as Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States under the current political climate.

How does the EU manage its increasingly vast number of digital laws? Bertin Martens, Kai Zenner and Rebecca Christie discuss how these rules are made, how they work together and how they fit in with the EU's goal of better regulation in this episode of The Sound of Economics.

Relevant research:
A dataset on EU legislation for the digital world, Bruegel dataset by Kai Zenner, J. Scott Marcus and Kamil Sekut

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Paul Triolo to discuss China’s innovation drive and how it compares with the US on key technologies, including semiconductors, green technology and biotech. They delve into how China climbed up the technology ladder, the impact of current geopolitical tensions and the outlook of US-China tech rivalry.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Bruegel and the Financial Times partnered up to host a debate featuring representatives from EU political parties on EU economic issues, specifically competitiveness and growth, economic security and green transition.

Rebecca Christie sits down with Bruegel Senior fellow Heather Grabbe, FT Europe correspondent Andy Bounds, also moderator of the debate, to unpack the views they gathered from the debate. What economic visions did the parties present? Are they impressed or convinced by some ideas? Listen to find out.

ICYMI, watch the debate recording here!

Climate change is a rising threat to European financial stability, says European Stability Mechanism chief economist Rolf Strauch on this episode of The Sound of Economics. Together with Bruegel non-resident fellow Stavros Zenios and host Rebecca Christie, Strauch discusses how the EU can rally to protect itself from future shocks and keep its sovereign debt backstops ready to meet future needs.

Science Po professor Jérôme Sgard discusses his new book on the debt crisis of the 1980s on this episode of The Sound of Economics, with host Rebecca Christie and award-winning book author and journalist Paul Blustein. They explore the shockwaves that hit developing countries during this period, starting with the quasi-default of Mexico in 1982, as well as the Brady bond debt relief plan that followed. This podcast addresses the global impact of this this crisis and the subsequent recovery, along with what we can learn going forward.

In this episode of the sound of economics, Rebecca Christie invites Georg Zachmann and Christian Zinglersen to talk about the ambitious idea of creating a more integrated European electricity market. They discuss the drastic change in Europe’s energy outlook, as we switch from a world of fossil imports to mostly domestic electricity production. They address the benefits of a better-coordinated European energy system, as well as the need for improved communication between member states, harmonised market instruments, and joint investment in infrastructure to achieve greater efficiency and resilience. They lay out the complexity of this cross-sectoral challenge and stress that this needs strong political will and trust to move forward.

Relevant publication and event:* Zachmann, G., C. Batlle, F. Beaude, C. Maurer, M. Morawiecka and F. Roques (2024) ‘Unity in power, power in unity: why the EU needs more integrated electricity markets’, Policy Brief 2024/03, Bruegel * Why the EU needs more integrated electricity markets, Bruegel event, 28 February 2024

European Union leaders want to breathe new life into the Capital markets union, the decade-old project to reduce fragmentation and put finance to work for the single market. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Thomas Wieser, former President of the Eurogroup Working Group and chair of the EU's 2019 High Level Group on financial architecture, and Nicolas Véron, Senior fellow at Bruegel and a veteran observer of the financial markets, to discuss how Europe can attract private investment and help fund the costly green and digital transition.

Relevant publication:
European capital markets union: make it or break it, Nicolas Véron, Bruegel first glance, March 2024

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Zichen Wang to talk about China’s Two Sessions, the Chinese government's annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), held from 4–11 March 2024. They discuss the growth targets which were given during the sessions and what they might mean for the Chinese economy.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Relevant episode:
Understanding local government debt in China, Bruegel podcast episode

Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has held together rather than let the conflict divide it. Rebecca Christie discusses the EU’s shifts on trade, energy security and economic cooperation with André Sapir and Ben McWilliams. They discuss how the bloc weaned itself off Russian fossil fuels in record time, adjusted its relationship with China, and managed relations between Western Europe and countries in Central and Eastern Europe closer to the front.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Bertin Martens, Bruegel Senior fellow and Werner Stengg, expert of EVP Margrethe Vestager’s cabinet. They explore the complexities of artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, focusing on the European Union's AI Act. They discuss the goals and potential effectiveness of the new artificial intelligence rules, including in areas like data use, copyright, antitrust and global competitiveness.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and June Park to talk about South Korea’s semiconductor industry, specifically how geopolitical tensions like China’s localisation needs and US export controls could impact the sector. They also discuss South Korea’s economic relations with both of those countries and how they are affected by the semiconductor industry. They discuss if Europe can become an optimal destination for South Korean chipmakers’ diversification strategy, whether the bloc can keep up with the pace of technological innovation and if it can compete with regions like the US and Japan.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites MEP Johan Van Overtveldt and Bruegel Senior fellow Nicolas Véron to talk about the impact of the sanctions on Russian assets in the global financial system and what that means in terms of systemic risk for Belgium, for Europe and for the world. They discuss possible avenues where the EU could utilise 200 billion frozen Russian assets, in particular a recently proposed plan to use the assets as collateral and take out a loan to help fund Ukraine.

Explore more of Bruegel's research on Ukraine.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Oya Celasun, Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund’s European Department, and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Director of Bruegel, to talk about EU competitiveness. They define what the term means; discuss whether the EU has a competitiveness problem; and if so, how it can be fixed.

In the final episode of The Skills podcast series, Rebecca Christie discusses with Duygu Güner and Francesca Rosso on skills anticipation. They talk about the new skills that are emerging and the impact of skills anticipation on education and training. They also talk about providing the required skills needed for the green transition and about creating a smooth process for all workers, regardless of their skill level.

This is part of a special Skills series of The Sound of Economics, where we discuss how we can utilise upskilling and reskilling initiatives to protect vulnerable groups of the workforce, how to build a resilient workforce and create a better functioning EU labour market.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Nicolas Véron and Harald Waiglein to look at the status of Europe’s banking union. They discuss how the project started, how it is going and the political climate that has brought us to this stage of the project. They also point out the unfinished business including insurance, the crisis management framework and more.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Chiara Criscuolo and Reinhilde Veugelers. The speakers argue that the current pace of innovation is too slow to face the challenge of climate change and that a range of barriers and market failures remain at the root of the problem. To resolve these, a mission-oriented industrial strategy for the green transition is needed.

Relevant publication:* Industrial strategies for Europe’s green transition, Chapter by Chiara Criscuolo, Antoine Dechezlepretre and Guy Lalanne, Bruegel Blueprint (Sparking Europe’s new industrial revolution: A policy for net zero, growth and resilience), July 2023 * Did COVID-19 accelerate the green transition? OECD paper, June 2023 * Industrial policy and strategies, OECD project * Quantifying industrial strategies, OECD project

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan invites Alessia Amighini and Alicia García-Herrero to discuss China’s latest push to internationalise its currency, the Renminbi. They talk about China’s previous two attempts, its approach to internationalise the RMB this time around and the wider implications of a strengthened RMB. This might prompt other countries to try and strengthen their own currencies, which could lead to a more fragmented financial system. Our experts discuss how the euro, compared to the dollar, might be more affected by this.

Relevant publications: Amighini, A. and A. García-Herrero (2023) ‘Third time lucky? China’s push to internationalise the renminbi’, Policy Brief 20/2023, Bruegel * China’s second attempt to internationalise the RMB by launching its own digital currency, ZhōngHuá Mundus newsletter, April 2021*

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie sits down with Isabelle Mejean and Niclas Poitiers to discuss EU economic security. They start with the various definitions of the term, how their research fits into the current knowledge gap and they give policy recommendations on how to strengthen economic security in the bloc in areas like diversification, industrial policy, anti-coercion instruments and so on.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie invites Heather Grabbe, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Fiona M. Scott Morton and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to do a yearly round-up of significant economic policy developments from Europe and the world. They discuss the implication of wars and recent European elections, interest rate hikes, green investment, industrial policy, EU fiscal rules reform and digital regulations.

On 7 December 2023, the 24th EU-China Summit took place in Beijing, where President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council, Charles Michel, met with China’s President, Xi Jinping and Premier, Li Qiang. Although both sides had various topics they wanted to address, there appeared to be minimal results.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan and Alicia García-Herrero invite Liwei Wang to take a deep dive into the expectations and outcomes of the Summit. They talk about the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles, the EU’s trade deficit with China and China’s market access among various other topics. They also look at the road forward on EU-China dialogues and discuss the areas on which the two powers can work together more such as climate transition and artificial intelligence regulation.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Ukraine is an official EU candidate since June 2022. In mid-December 2023, the leaders of EU countries are meeting to discuss whether to start official accession talks.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, recorded on December 8 2023, Rebecca Christie invites Zsolt Darvas and Heather Grabbe to look at the timeframe for the talks, the procedures and the criteria needed for Ukraine’s accession into the EU. They also discuss the costs of enlargement and what it might mean for the EU. Finally, they acknowledge the necessity for the union to show its solidarity with Ukraine, by opening official accession talks, helping the country to improve and reconstruct itself; and welcoming it to the EU when it has met the accession requirements.

About 140 nations have come together to agree on a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate and a way to make sure tech companies and other multinational giants pay their fair share. Putting these hard-won agreements into practice brings new difficulties and delays may mean a flurry of new digital services taxes. Furthermore, developing nations have pushed to put tax talks on the United Nations' agenda.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Benjamin Angel and Pascal Saint-Amans to talk about the state of play in OECD’s global tax deal. They discuss the role that different stakeholders play in the developments, including the OECD, the EU, the US and the Global South.

Civil society plays an important role in skills development. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie and Duygu Güner are joined by two stakeholders from the civil society sector: Deputy Secretary General and Head of Policy of the European Association for the Education of Adults, Raffaela Kihrer and Sertaç Yerlikaya, the country manager of 42 İstanbul, a coding school in Türkiye, Director of Türkiye Open Source Platform and Country Coordinator for the World Economic Forum's "Closing the Skills Gap Accelerator" programme.

They discuss the need for cooperation and partnership among different stakeholders (industry, academia, government and civil society) in skills development, the role of civil society in building this partnership, and the importance of advocating for more involvement of civil society to help close the skills gap.

This is part of a special Skills series of The Sound of Economics, where we discuss how we can utilise upskilling and reskilling initiatives to protect vulnerable groups of the workforce, how to build a resilient workforce and how to create a better functioning EU labour market.

Relevant publications:
* Life skills and participation in adult learning, EAEA policy paper * Partnerships and cooperations in adult education, EAEA background paper

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Rebecca Christie is joined by Ester Barendregt, Zsolt Darvas and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to discuss how to finish the new fiscal rules for the European Union before next year's European elections. They speak about whether the emerging fiscal rules might help or hurt efforts to fund the green transition.

Also on the agenda is the latest developments towards fiscal rules reform, with the speakers giving their feedback on the current proposals. They also debate how to balance debt and environmental sustainability and whether there is enough political will to achieve fiscal rules reform.

Relevant publications: Zettelmeyer, J. (2023) ‘Assessing the Ecofin compromise on fiscal rules reform’, Bruegel First Glance, 21 December, available at https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/assessing-ecofin-compromise-fiscal-rules-reform * Darvas, Z., J. Pisani-Ferry and J. Zettelmeyer (2023) ‘Bringing the reform of European Union fiscal rules to a successful close’, Bruegel First Glance, 12 December, available at https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/bringing-reform-european-union-fiscal-rules-successful-close * Zettelmeyer, J. (2023) ‘Are the emerging EU fiscal rules green enough?’, Bruegel First Glance*, 16 November, available at https://www.bruegel.org/first-glance/are-emerging-eu-fiscal-rules-green-enough * Darvas, Z., L. Welslau and J. Zettelmeyer (2023) ‘A quantitative evaluation of the European Commission´s fiscal governance proposal’, Working Paper 16/2023, Bruegel

In this episode of ZhōngHuá Mundus, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Giuseppe Porcaro, founders of the podcast and newsletter series, to reflect on their journey exploring China's economic dynamics and its implications for Europe.

The hosts candidly discuss their motivations behind launching the podcast, explaining their original aims of providing a global audience with a nuanced understanding of China's international impact. They also discuss Europe's transformation and assertiveness in global affairs, expressing hopes for a more proactive approach, especially in areas like industrial policy and strategic foresight.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The future of work has become a prominent topic for research and policy debate. However, the debate has focused entirely on paid work, even though people in industrialised countries spend on average comparable amounts of time on unpaid work. This ranges from simple daily chores like sweeping the floor and cooking, to more complicated and controversial issues like robots looking after kids or the elderly.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Ekaterina Hertog and Fabian Stephany to investigate the road less travelled, Ekaterina’s research on the potential and the willingness of people to automatise unpaid domestic work. Around this topic, they discuss the aspect of work/life balance, the gender aspect, the question of services oriented towards the domestic work market and more.

This was produced within the project "Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe" with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Geopolitical conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the recent Israel-Hamas war have added uncertainties to the global energy and financial markets.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, our podcast host Rebecca Christie sits down with Senior fellows Simone Tagliapietra and Nicolas Veron to talk about the intersections of war and markets. Together they discuss the energy and financial implications of the Israel-Hamas war and the ongoing EU budget debate on the bloc’s financing needs such as the green transition and investments. They also explore how Europe may navigate through current geopolitical conflicts and keep its resistance moving forward.

The 15 October Polish elections showed that the opposition leader Donald Tusk, former European Council president and a former Polish prime minister, has a decent chance of forming a new coalition government to take over from the right-wing Law and Justice Party that has been in power since 2015.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, recorded 20 Oct., our podcast host Rebecca Christie sits down with Non-resident fellow Marek Dabrowski, a former deputy finance minister during Poland’s transition away from communism, and visiting fellow Paweł Karbownik, who has been an adviser to Tusk in Brussels and during the campaign.

Together they unpack how the elections turned out and what might happen next: what political and economic challenges the new government will be facing, the progress it might have in the standoff over the EU budget. They also discuss how Poland will play a more important role in policymaking as the EU looks toward new rounds of enlargement in coming years.

China's growth model, marked by excessive investment and a high savings rate, has led to the accumulation of local government debt and a skewed balance between consumption and investment.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero explore this debt burden with Michael Pettis, exposing the structural problem in China’s growth model which over-relies on investment.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

There is a huge skill mismatch and skills shortages in the EU labour market. In 2022, despite the all-time high employment rate (74.6%), we are still seeing the highest job vacancy rate of 2.9%, which more than doubled compared to 2012 (1.3%).

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro discusses the importance of skills-based hiring with Duygu Güner and Mona Mourshed. How can this practice help remove the barriers between workers and the job market and how can it further assist digital transformation in our economy? They also discuss how to motivate workers as well as employers to adopt this new system.

This is part of a special Skills series of The Sound of Economics, where we discuss how we can utilise upskilling and reskilling initiatives to protect vulnerable groups of the workforce, how to build a resilient workforce and create a better functioning EU labour market.

Relevant publications:
Launching a Tech Hiring Revolution, Report by Generation
Gotti, G., T. Schraepen and D. Güner (2023) ‘Technology Adoption dashboard’, Bruegel Datasets
The Midcareer Opportunity: Meeting the Challenges of an Ageing Workforce, Report by Generation

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

What can we learn from other forms of intelligence and personhood, and how can we change our societies to live more equitably with one another and the non-human world?

In this episode of Read with Bruegel series, Giuseppe Porcaro welcomes James Bridle to discuss his latest book ‘Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence.’

They discuss the effects of Artificial Intelligence and new technologies on our society, economics, politics and everyday life. They delve into the relationship human beings have with the other beings we share the planet with. They also discuss the contribution of art and of artistic practices and why we should build more bridges between artists, economists, and political scientists.

The EU has been using trade policy to export its standards on competition policy, environmental protection and human rights among other policy areas, which has famously become known as ‘The Brussels Effect’. But this could eventually get in the way of trade deal negotiations. For example, the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement is bogged down by Amazon deforestation concerns since 2019.

But can the EU afford to prolong the trade deal negotiations with Latin America countries, given Latin America’s increasingly important role in global economics, from the reconfiguration of the global supply chains to being a key component for critical raw materials, which is a strategic emerging consumer’s market and an indispensable natural resource for the planet?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Alan Beattie, Alicia García-Herrero and David Kleimann to discuss the state of play of EU-LATAM trade relations and how the EU should proceed to showcase its commitment to trade openness and economic engagement.

At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the European Commission suspended the fiscal rules that applied to member states to allow countries to use fiscal policy domestically to deal with health emergency. This suspension was further extended when Russia invaded Ukraine and cause a great energy crisis in the European Union.

The suspension is now meant to be lifted in 2024 when the rules will come back into full operation. In this three-year period, the European Commission has also tried to update and modernise the fiscal framework in a proposal they put forward in April 2023.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Zsolt Darvas to evaluate this proposal. As they present in a recent paper, in this framework, medium-term fiscal adjustment requirements would be determined by country-by-country debt sustainability analysis (DSA), the 3 percent deficit ceiling and simple rules requiring minimum deficit and debt adjustments (‘safeguards’). These elements are controversial, with some EU countries (and us) preferring a DSA-based approach, while others prefer to stick to simple rules.

Relevant publications* Darvas, Z., L. Welslau and J. Zettelmeyer (2023) ‘A quantitative evaluation of the European Commission´s fiscal governance proposal’, Working Paper 16/2023, Bruegel * The economic governance review and its impact on monetary-fiscal coordination, Zsolt Darvas, Jeromin Zettelmeyer, In-Depth analysis, European Parliament

On 13 September 2023, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered this year’s State of the Union address before the European Parliament. This is the last address of her current mandate. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts André Sapir, Simone Tagliapietra and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to evaluate von der Leyen’s address regarding the European Green Deal, industrial policy, economic security, Ukraine and more.

European banking supervision has developed and matured by moving from being predominantly rules-based and heavily codified, to becoming more risk-focused and adaptable to rapidly changing economic circumstances.

Backstage at the Bruegel Annual Meetings 2023, Giuseppe Porcaro and Nicolas Véron speak with Sharon Donerry, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland, to discuss the evolution of European banking supervision, the increasingly central role of risk assessment, as well as the prospects for the near future.

European banking supervision has developed and matured by moving from being predominantly rules-based and heavily codified, to becoming more risk-focused and adaptable to rapidly changing economic circumstances.

Backstage at the Bruegel Annual Meetings 2023, Giuseppe Porcaro and Nicolas Véron speak with Sharon Donerry, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland, to discuss the evolution of European banking supervision, the increasingly central role of risk assessment, as well as the prospects for the near future.

This year’s BRICS annual summit delivered the headline announcement of the group’s expansion: in January 2024, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will join the grouping.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero are joined by Jim O’Neill, who coined the acronym BRIC, to discuss how the grouping has developed since its formation in 2009, the reasons behind this new expansion and the consequences it may have on the global economic and geopolitical landscape.

China has become a world leader in making and buying Electric Vehicles (EV), somehow under the radar. In fact, China today produces 54% of total EVs globally and with an even higher share for EV batteries.

How did China get there? In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Zeyi Yang to explore China’s EV industry. Together they discuss the country’s rapid rise in the market, its advancement on battery technology, as well as geopolitical implications with a growing chorus calling for de-risking.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the international balance of power. In the field of defence, beyond weaponry, AI is instrumental for various Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tasks at the strategic, operational and tactical level, as well as automated reasoning, logistics, training, and much more.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Sarah Shoker to discuss the evolving role of AI in defence.

They highlight AI's role in foreign policy decision-making and prediction, but stress that balanced human judgment is crucial due to AI's limitations. Speakers urge caution in AI integration, complementing, not replacing, human reasoning. International cooperation for responsible AI norms and regulations is also needed.

The forced mass-scale shift to work-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed both employees’ and employers’ perspectives on work location, demonstrating that more jobs could be done remotely than we could have imagined before.

Since we emerged from the pandemic, there is an ongoing debate about a full-scale return to office, as well as hybrid and remote work.

Employee surveys across different countries consistently indicate that employees prefer to remain working remotely and do not want to return to the office full time. At the same time, many companies are trying to bring their employees back to the office.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro speaks to Tatiana Andreeva about her latest work researching employers’ experience of working fully remotely during the pandemic and their approaches to returning to the office following the pandemic.

Relevant publication:

Mulcahy, D., and T. Andreeva (2023) ‘Employer perspectives on employee work location: collaboration, culture and control’, Working Paper 05/2023, Bruegel

This was produced within the project "Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe" with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

The Sound of Economics is bringing you a summer 2023 special series, 'Read with Bruegel.' In this series, we have the pleasure of hosting renowned authors who will discuss various economic issues based on their insightful books. We hope this conversation will inspire you to explore their books and offer you some food for thought during your summer break.

In this episode of the series, Nicolas Véron welcomes Ulrich Bindseil to discuss his latest book ‘Central Banking before 1800: A Rehabilitation’.

Véron and Bindeil ponder the definition of central banking, whilst analysing pre-1800 central banking and the role of numerous other institutions across the European continent. They discuss the long and colourful history of central banking before 1800, from which important lessons for today's debates can be drawn.

The Sound of Economics is bringing you a summer 2023 special series, 'Read with Bruegel.' In this series, we have the pleasure of hosting renowned authors who will discuss various economic issues based on their insightful books. We hope this conversation will inspire you to explore their books and offer you some food for thought during your summer break.

In this episode of the series, Simone Tagliapietra welcomes Daniel Yergin to discuss his book ‘The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations’.

The global energy order is being shaken by climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rising tension between the West and China over critical raw materials. The discussants explore how these developments shape global supply chains, international co-operation and the course of technological advancement. They delve into what energy security might entail in different parts of the world and how varying national interests can influence the speed of green transition.

The Sound of Economics is bringing you a summer 2023 special series, 'Read with Bruegel.' In this series, we have the pleasure of hosting renowned authors who will discuss various economic issues based on their insightful books. We hope this conversation will inspire you to explore their books and offer you some food for thought during your summer break.

In this episode of the series, Bruegel Senior fellow Maria Demertzis welcomes Agathe Demarais, Global forecasting director, Economist Intelligence Unit, to discuss her latest book ‘Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests’.

From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Iran’s COVID response and China’s cryptocurrency ambitions, they discuss how sanctions are transforming geopolitics and the global economy—as well as diminishing U.S. influence. They also exchange views on global fragmentation and how to save multilateralism and cooperation.

The Chinese economy is at a crossroads. The investment-driven growth model, which the government had relied on for the last four decades, is running out of steam. Fiscal deficits are widening and public debt is rising. Furthermore, population aging is becoming more visible and the pandemic had some scarring effects which have taken a toll both on consumer and business confidence.

The very rapid rise in wages since the global financial crisis is pushing China to get ahead in its production capabilities so it will be productive enough to continue to raise wages and avoid the middle-income trap. Pressure on the economy is further intensified by the recent increase in geopolitical tensions and fears of decoupling between the US and China.

As the Chinese economy continues to decelerate, the central government is investing heavily in innovation, doubling down on research and development (R&D) spending and STEM-oriented human capital.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Alicia García-Herrero and Robin Schindowski to discuss the challenges China faces, including three potential bottlenecks that might be hindering the translation of China’s innovation efforts into productivity growth, with a specific focus on whether Chinese growth can defy gravity.

Relevant publication

Schindowski, R. and A. Garcia-Herrero (2023) ‘China’s quest for innovation: progress and bottlenecks', Working Paper 08/2023, Bruegel
Garcia-Herrero, A. (2023) ‘Can Chinese growth defy gravity?’ Policy Brief 14/2023, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

This is an output of China Horizons, Bruegel's contribution in the project Dealing with a resurgent China (DWARC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No. 101061700.

In June 2018, the US Trump administration introduced tariffs on European steel and aluminium exports, starting a long-time dispute between the two trade partners.

On 31 October 2021, the European Union and the United States agreed on temporary measures to settle their dispute over US Section 232 ‘national security’ tariffs on EU steel and aluminium products. In addition to opening tariff rate quotas for historical EU export volumes, the joint EU-US statement mandates negotiations on a “global steel and aluminium arrangements to restore market-oriented conditions and address carbon intensity”, with a deadline of 31 October 2023.

As this deadline approaches, negotiators from Brussels and Washington are scrambling to get a deal. At the same time the discussions have been overlapping with the broader goals of supporting the green transition and need to be considered against the backdrop of the geopolitical rivalry between the USA and China.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Kimberly Clausing and David Kleimann to disentangle the ongoing negotiations and explore the legal, diplomatic and economic consequences of these negotiations through a transatlantic perspective.

Relevant publication:

Kleimann, D. (2023) ‘Section 232 reloaded: the false promise of the transatlantic ‘climate club’ for steel and aluminium’, Working Paper 11/2023, Bruegel

This research output received funding from Pool Fund on International Energy (PIE), within the European Climate Foundation.

Today, the mitigation of climate change is one of the most important issues worldwide. However, governments also need to prioritise geopolitical resilience and economic growth when designing their industrial policies.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Philippe Aghion, Simone Tagliapietra and Reinhilde Veugelers to discuss what an innovative, European-level industrial policy would look like and how it could address all those competing objectives.

They propose that the EU should engage in ‘co-opetition’ with the United States and China, which includes co-operation and maintaining economic ties to facilitate global decarbonisation most efficiently. At the same time, they argue that investing in new technologies in the EU is key to ensure its competitiveness and economic stability.

Aghion, P., K. Ahuja, C. P. Bown, U. Cantner, C. Criscuolo, A. Dechezleprêtre, M. Dewatripont, R. Hausmann, G. Lalanne, B. McWilliams, D. Rodrik, S. Tagliapietra, A. Terzi, C. Trasi, L. Tyson, R. Veugelers, G. Zachmann and J. Zysman (2023) Sparking Europe’s new industrial revolution: a policy for net zero, growth and resilience, available a https://www.bruegel.org/book/sparking-europes-new-industrial-revolution-policy-net-zero-growth-and-resilience

The Sound of Economics is bringing you a summer 2023 special series, 'Read with Bruegel.' In this series, we have the pleasure of hosting renowned authors who will discuss various economic issues based on their insightful books. We hope this conversation will inspire you to explore their books and offer you some food for thought during your summer break.

In this episode, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Isabella Hermann and Laura Horn to discuss their latest book, ‘The Palgrave Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century’.

The book mirrors the format and style of existing handbooks, combining outlines and discussions of theories, structures, processes and core issues in international relations with an academic science fiction account of how these might play out over the course of the next century.

The Sound of Economics is bringing you a summer 2023 special series, 'Read with Bruegel.' In this series, we have the pleasure of hosting renowned authors who will discuss various economic issues based on their insightful books. We hope this conversation will inspire you to explore their books and offer you some food for thought during your summer break.

In the first episode of the series, Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer welcomes Martin Wolf, Chief economics commentator at the Financial Times to discuss his latest book ‘The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism’.

Liberal democracy is in recession and authoritarianism is on the rise. Together, Jeromin and Martin discuss why democracy and capitalism are mutually sustaining in a world like this. They define the concept of democratic capitalism, explain why it is in a crisis and outline the proposed solutions.

China's economic ties with the Gulf States have undergone significant changes in recent years. Although historically there was little interaction between China and the Middle East, the past decade has seen a transformative shift with far-reaching implications for trade, business and politics.

According to the IMF, trade between China and the Gulf countries has doubled from approximately $90 billion to $180 billion between 2010 and 2021. Additionally, the Gulf region has become a significant recipient of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) funding.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Karen E. Young and Alicia García-Herrero to discuss the growing economic relations between China and the Gulf States. They mention the changing dynamics of trade, investment, currency as well as potential political alliance shifts in the region. They also discuss the changing dynamics of foreign policy with a stronger focus on energy security, leaving an opportunity of leverage for the Gulf States.

In recent years, European Commission borrowing on behalf of the European Union has changed significantly in both scale and nature. This is mainly due to the financing of the Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) and NextGeneration EU (NGEU) instruments introduced in response to Covid-19.

For the first time, the EU is now faced with its own debt, which will have to be paid for through the EU budget. When these programmes were launched, interest rates were at historic lows. However, they have since risen rapidly, both in absolute terms and as compared to sovereign borrowers like Germany and France.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Grégory Claeys and Conor McCaffrey to discuss the causes of this rise in EU borrowing costs, as well as its wider implications on the EU budget, indicated in their latest paper.

Relevant piece: Claeys, G., C. McCaffrey and L. Welslau (2023) ‘The rising cost of European Union borrowing and what to do about it’ Policy Brief 12/2023, Bruegel

China’s astounding growth has slowed down over the last decade. Despite enormous progress and investment in research and development, China’s medium-term GDP growth is expected to fall to 2.4% by 2035. The Chinese economy will not grow much larger than the US economy in the foreseeable future, which has important geopolitical implications.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alicia García-Herrero and Max Zenglein to talk about the interconnectedness of China’s long-term growth prospect and its demographics. They discuss how economic deceleration impacts innovation, productivity and the wider society, as well as potential economic and foreign policy responses from the country’s leadership. The importance and possible effects of China’s future economic trajectory on the European Union are explored too.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Digitalisation, robotisation and automation are changing the nature of jobs at an unprecedented rate. Newly emerging technologies are not only reducing the jobs performed by humans but also transforming the way people work. EU economies are undergoing a significant transition leading to the displacement of workers across all industries and workers find themselves in need of reskilling and upskilling to switch to jobs which are high in demand.

The European Commission has named 2023 as its European Year of Skills with the stated goal to give fresh impetus to lifelong learning, empowering people and companies to contribute to the green and digital transitions, while supporting innovation and competitiveness.

In the new Skills series of The Sound of Economics, we discuss how we can utilise upskilling and reskilling initiatives to protect vulnerable groups of the workforce, how to build a resilient workforce and a create better functioning EU labour market. In the first episode of the series, Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Duygu Güner and El Iza Mohamedou to discuss the critical importance of reskilling and upskilling, examining the obstacles workers face in adapting to this new reality, all while exploring the pathways to achieving a resilient workforce.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In 2022, Europe managed to safeguard the security of energy supply during a turbulent time for the energy sector. Moreover, the EU industry has, also thanks to public support, remained resilient beyond expectations. As the peak of the crisis seems to be behind us, Europe now needs to assess its longer-term industrial repercussions.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Jeromin Zettelmeyer invites Georg Zachmann and Giovanni Sgaravatti to explore the impact of energy crises on European industry and how to address these challenges.

Relevant publication:
Sgaravatti, G., S. Tagliapietra and G. Zachmann (2023) ‘Adjusting to the energy shock: the right policies for European industry’ Policy Brief 11/2023, Bruegel

The tech sector has become key player in the internal interconnection between economics and geopolitics. It is an essential industry that plays a critical role in shaping national security, supply chains and the consumer side of the economy. However, navigating through the geopolitical and economic challenges facing the tech industry requires an understanding of the bigger picture.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Alicia García-Herrero to discuss the ongoing trend of tech bifurcation between China and the US, the growing divide of two ecosystems and its implications on the world.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

EU finance ministers met at the April 2023 informal ECOFIN meeting to discuss the reform of the fiscal governance framework as proposed by the European Commission. Bruegel researchers were asked to contribute to this discussion by providing information on the long-term fiscal needs that countries will have and how well they may be able to meet these needs.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Zsolt Darvas and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to share their insights on the implications of long-term fiscal challenges facing the European Union.

In their latest report, the authors identify that the pandemic and subsequent price shocks triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have increased longer-term fiscal pressures in the European Union through higher debt, higher expected real interest rates and higher public investment needs.

Relevant publication:Zettelmeyer, J., G. Claeys, Z. Darvas, L. Welslau and S. Zenios (2023) ‘The longer-term fiscal challenges facing the European Union’ Policy Brief 10/2023, Bruegel

This Policy Brief is a version of a paper prepared for the Working Session II of the Informal Meeting of EU Economy and Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, Stockholm, 29 April 2023.

The collapses in rapid succession of Credit Suisse in Switzerland along with the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the United States have reawakened debates on banking policy.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Silvia Merler and Nicolas Véron. Together they explore the lingering effects of the recent banking turmoil and how this controversy may nudge the EU towards better compliance with international banking capital standards. They also discuss the Commission's recently adopted bank crisis management and deposit insurance (CMDI) framework, as well as the prospects of completing a European banking union.

Relevant publication:
The US and Swiss messes may nudge the EU towards better international bank capital standards compliance, First glance, Nicolas Véron

Cryptocurrencies have become more popular and established in recent years. Simultaneously, crypto financial services, like lending, have also emerged.

Given the increasing importance of digitalisation, it is fair to ask whether these digital decentralised services will become established and normalised.

In this episode of The sound of economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Demertzis and Catarina Martins to discuss the current and future role of decentralised finance in the financial system.

Together they examine whether and how the crypto world contributes to the main objectives of the financial system: reducing search costs and financing growth.
Relevant publication:
Demertzis, M. and C. Martins (2023) ‘Decentralised finance: good technology, bad finance’ Policy Brief 09/2023, Bruegel

Since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1947, Africa has been crucial to China’s foreign policy. First, China supported several African liberation movements during the Cold War. Second, in November 2003, the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was created to improve cooperation between China and African states and third, Xi Jinping announced China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, which aimed to reinvigorate the old silk trading route along the East African coast. Furthermore, a relatively unknown fact is that China has made significant investments in Africa's digital space.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alicia García-Herrero and Iginio Gagliardone to talk about China’s image and digital influence in Africa. They discuss specific examples of successful and unsuccessful media narratives built by China and assess the role that Europe plays in relation to China and Africa's digital influence.

Relevant publication:* The Belt and Road Initiative transformation makes it a more – not less- useful tool for China * Imperial Remains and Imperial Invitations: Centering Race within the Contemporary Large-Scale Infrastructures of East Africa * Comparing North-South technology transfer and South-South technology transfer: The technology transfer impact of Ethiopian Wind Farms

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

This is an output of China Horizons, Bruegel's contribution in the project Dealing with a resurgent China (DWARC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No. 101061700.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of people have begun to work from home. However, the seeming flexibility of remote positions is not without its limitations, since the spatial distribution of such roles is vastly uneven.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Fabian Stephany and Monica Stephens to explore how remote work contributes to continued urbanisation. They give special focus to the importance of digital infrastructure and the proximity of service providers, as well as the gendered dimensions of working from home and how this can affect people’s ability to work remotely.

Relevant publication:
The ‘anywhere’ jobs are not everywhere – they’re in cities, blog post by Fabian Stephany

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In March 2023, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched its quantitative tightening (QT) policy, to unwind its portfolio of assets that resulted from its quantitative easing (QE) policy of the last decade.

Despite the scarce evidence on the effects of QT, it was never attempted in the Euro area. Most lessons can only be drawn from the 2017-19 experience in the United States.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Grégory Claeys and Megan Greene to discuss why the ECB has decided to go down the route of quantitative tightening and what it could mean for the future of the euro area.

The Critical Raw Materials Act, proposed by the European Commission on the 16 March 2023, sets clear benchmarks for domestic capacities along the strategic raw material supply chain and to diversify EU supply.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Bruegel researchers Marie Le Mouel and Niclas Poitiers to discuss critical raw materials and the role they play in the EU’s industrial policy, examining whether the proposed Act would help the bloc advance in its green and digital transformation.

When the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first announced in 2013, its official objective was to improve connectivity. However, many things have happened since then, from the US-China trade war to US containment of China’s technological rise, as well as China’s much more belligerent approach to the West. How is the BRI changing in this new reality?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alessia Amighini and Alicia García-Herrero. They share the latest findings from their research, showing that the BRI has transformed itself from an economic to a much broader strategy with a political security-oriented focus. It serves as one of several devices uniting the Global South in a new and comprehensive narrative, one with a clear anti-Western tone. Beyond the BRI, this new narrative also features cooperation in the fields of digital governance, as well as academic and cultural exchanges.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

This is an output of China Horizons, Bruegel's contribution in the project Dealing with a resurgent China (DWARC). This project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No. 101061700.

What is happening with the Silicon Valley Bank? In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Rebecca Christie and Nicolas Véron to unpack the ongoing SVB crisis and what it entails for the banking sector.

On International Women’s Day 2023, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Nancy Folbre, one of the pioneering economists in the area of feminist economics.

Together they discuss the findings published in Folbre’s latest book The rise and decline of patriarchal systems, where she examined the contradictory effects of capitalist development. She explains why the work of caring for others is under-valued and under-rewarded in today's global economy, calling attention to the organisation of childrearing, the care of other dependants and the inheritance of assets.

Europe has survived the energy crisis in the past year; however, it is time to look forward and prepare for winter 2023-24. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Jeromin Zettelmeyer invites Simone Tagliapietra and Ben McWilliams to present their latest paper, where they explore in detail the future of LNG imports, how much natural gas demand must be reduced to avoid crisis. They discuss the sectors which could take cuts in their energy consumption to aid in this preservation.

McWilliams and Tagliapietra paint a sober picture of Europe’s gas supply-demand balance, stating that it will remain on a tightrope walk for the next two years. They also describe the strong and decisive actions that policymakers must continue to take to avoid emergency.

Relevant publication:
McWilliams, B., S. Tagliapietra, G. Zachmann and T. Deschuyteneer (2023) ‘Preparing for the next winter: Europe’s gas outlook for 2023’, Policy Contribution 01/2023, Bruegel

When the sanctions against Russia were first implemented, Giuseppe Porcaro invited Nicolas Véron and Elina Ribakova on The Sound of Economics to discuss the possible implications of those sanctions.

On 24 February, it will be one year since the invasion of Ukraine. As this anniversary approaches, they revisit this topic to reflect on how effective the sanctions have been, its implication on the international financial and banking system and how Russia has responded to the sanctions.

Check our special podcast series, War in Ukraine, which reflect on the implications of Russia's war in Ukraine in EU energy storage, macroeconomic implications, international finance system and more.

As China moves closer to fully re-emerging from three years of government imposed Covid isolation and as they begin to reintegrate with the rest of the world, economic expectations are high. Beijing’s recent pivot from its stringent zero-Covid strategy — which had long choked businesses — is expected to inject vitality into the world’s second-largest economy next year.

But what will this reopening mean for the Chinese economy? How will it affect Chinese society and China’s relations with the rest of the world in areas such as energy consumption and price pressures?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel’s Alicia García-Herrero and Steven Ying, the founding Managing Partner of High Impact Capital Advisor, to discuss the global implications of China’s reopening after their Covid isolation, China’s economic outlook in 2023 and the consequences this may have for Europe and the rest of the world.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 is a milestone in US climate policy. Unfortunately, it also contains protectionist elements, such as linking green subsidies to local content requirements (LCRs). This is prohibited under WTO rules. Legislating such LCRs is a first for the United States, and a blow to the multilateral trading system.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel director Jeromin Zettelmeyer invites Kimberly Clausing and Sébastien Jean to discuss the policies laid out in the IRA and the impact it will have on the United States and other countries. They also discuss the global responses to the act and how EU policy makers in particular should react.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Uri Dadush to discuss whether deglobalisation is happening worldwide. They discuss the impacts of this on the global economy and what it may mean for internal relations. In his recent research, Uri detailed how, despite the current bleak rhetoric surrounding deglobalisation, most countries have seen increased international integration across nearly all goods, services and factor markets. He acknowledges, however, that geopolitics could prevail over economics in the future of globalisation.

Relevant publication:
Dadush, U. (2022) ‘Deglobalisation and protectionism’ Working Paper 18/2022, Bruegel

It has been 60 years since the foundation of the Élysée Treaty, which was signed on the 22 January 1963. The treaty aimed to create close bilateral collaboration between France and Germany, to help reconcile past conflicts between the two countries and to allow them to emerge as one of the ‘engines’ of European integration.

This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Bruegel’s concept as a Think Tank. The concept was developed jointly by Nicolas Véron and Jean Pisani-Ferry in 2003. The idea was later endorsed by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who jointly declared that to help “contribute to international debates on economic, financial and trade policy, France and Germany have decided to launch a European initiative for the creation of a centre for the international economy devoted to those subjects.

In this episode of The Sound of the Economics, Nicolas Véron and Jean Pisani-Ferry, two Frenchmen and founders of Bruegel, invite their German colleague, Cornelia Woll, President of the Hertie School, to revisit Franco-German relations from the signing of the Élysée Treaty, discussing the importance of those relations in European integration and how to redefine them in a modern context.

While China’s property market has been a key driver of its economy, concerns around the sustainability of the sector have circulated for many years. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia Garcia-Herrero invite Yunpeng Zhang, Lecturer and Assistant Professor from University College Dublin, to discuss the country’s urban development, the misalignments of interests between local and central government and its impact on China’s economy as well as the society.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

For the first time in over ten years, the euro area has a new member. Croatia is the latest country to join the monetary union, starting 1 January 2023. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Jeromin Zettelmeyer sits down with Boris Vujčić, Governor of the Croatian National Bank, to discuss the implications of Croatia’s accession, the challenges they faced during the process, and the advantages they gain by now being a part of the monetary union. As the person shepherding Croatia’s accession into the euro area, Boris Vujčić will discuss the impact euro membership will have on Croatia and give his thoughts on the past, present and future of the euro.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the course of the year 2022. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Jeromin Zettelmeyer to unfold the impact of the war, energy crisis and inflation, European responses to these incidents, continued confrontations on the global stage and their implications on the world.

Following Bruegel’s end-of-year tradition, the guests also each introduce a book, movie or TV series that resonated with them in 2022.

Publications mentioned in the podcast: * National policies to shield consumers from rising energy prices, Dataset by Giovanni Sgaravatti, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann * The European Commission's fiscal rules proposal: a bold plan with flaws that can be fixed, Blog by Olivier Blanchard, André Sapir and Jeromin Zettelmeyer * Is the EU fiscal rules reform going in the right direction? Podcast with Grégory Claeys, Zsolt Darvas, Maria Demertzis and Jeromin Zettelmeyer * Rewriting the rulebook of the EU fiscal framework, Event with Carlos Cuerpo, Karolina Ekholm, Vitor Gaspar, Alenka Jerkič, Maarten Verwey and Jeromin Zettelmeyer

Santa’s book/movie/series list* Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, book by Simon Kuper * How to Be Animal, A new history of what it means to be human, book by Melanie Challenger * Nights of Plague, book by Orhan Pamuk * The Brexit effect: how leaving the EU hit the UK, FT Film * The Swimmers, film directed by Sally El Hosaini * This England, TV series directed by Michael Winterbottom, Julian Jarrold, Anthony Wilcox and Mat Whitecross

Enjoy a selection of highlighted podcasts and publications to keep you informed over the winter break. We wish you a lovely holiday season and look forward to bringing you more economic analysis in the upcoming year.

ChatGPT is the latest example of technology that appears to be able to execute tasks that would have required the services of high level academics not too long ago. Similar AI initiatives are taking place across the world, which begs the question: is automation coming for knowledge work next?
In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Savona, Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Economics at LUISS University, Rome and Professor of Economics of innovation at SPRU, Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, UK, and David Autor, Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, to discuss different perspectives and lessons from the US and Europe on the design of digital automation technologies and their implications for the future of work.
This podcast was produced within the project "Transatlantic expert group on the future of work", with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Bruegel, AISBL and The German Marshall Fund of the United States and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

India has recently surpassed the United Kingdom to become the fifth largest economy in the world, standing directly behind the US, China, Japan and Germany. As its GDP growth is estimated to be between 8% to 10.5%, India is certainly rising into the ranks of stable economic growth like China succeeded to do in the 1990s.

But what do these two countries have in common, and what do their bilateral relations mean for the rest of the world?

In this podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Alicia García-Herrero, Senior fellow at Bruegel and Jagannath Panda, Head of the Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, to discuss the growing importance of China-India relations, and why they matter for Europe and the rest of the world.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

95 percent of the world economy (measured by GDP) is exploring the idea of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and many countries including Nigeria and China are entering into the close-to-launch or fully launched phase. But what is the hype about?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis invites Grégory Claeys and Josh Lipsky to discuss the purpose of having a CBDC from both a retail and a wholesale perspective. Particularly, they raise the geopolitical importance of CBDCs, with the example of the G7’s financial sanctions against Russia that ruled out several Russian banks from the SWIFT system and froze Russian Foreign Exchange Reserves.

However, if CBDCs are largely implemented, whilst they could help the EU achieve more autonomy in international finance, they could also be used by countries to bypass western sanctions and challenge the dollar hegemony in the current international financial system.

Authoritarianism is becoming increasingly normalised in the 21st century. As anti-democratic movements take root globally in a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic groups, democracy is constantly under threat. In many countries, democratically elected autocratic movements threaten to erode the foundations of the systems they work within, aiming to sow division while offering no real change. Will this be the final retreat of global democracy?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Pranab Bardhan who is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and Heather Grabbe who is a senior adviser to the Open Society Foundations, to discuss democratic backsliding in the world, its economic underpinnings and what can be done to combat these challenges.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro invites John Murton, Johanna Nyman and Simone Tagliapietra look at what was said and decided at this year's COP27 in Egypt. What are the preliminary impressions? Are we delivering on the Paris Agreement and how efficient is COP in getting there? They discuss these and more questions while unpacking the meeting.

On 9 November, the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposal for a reformed EU economic governance framework. The proposal intends to focus on medium-term risks to debt sustainability and to allow flexibility to boost growth and investments and move away from yearly micro-management of unobservable public finance variables. Maria Demertzis invites Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Grégory Claeys and Zsolt Darvas to share their views on the reform proposal.

From cars and phones to satellite technology, semiconductors play a key role in many of our modern utilities and consumer goods. As such, semiconductors are China’s main import item and an essential component of a lot of its exports. Since the US push to restrict this trade, China has been investing heavily on its semiconductor industry, to reduce their dependence on the rest of the world. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel’s Alicia García-Herrero and Jason Hsu, a Senior Research Fellow at The Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss China’s semiconductor policies, as well as its implications and lessons for Taiwan and the rest of the world.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Social protection is the mechanism that addresses amongst other issues, poverty reduction, education, health, social inclusion, and empowerment. In the United States and in Europe social protections were initially designed between 1880 and 1945 with the full-time, dependent employee in mind.

In this episode of The sound of economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Anke Hassel and Kathleen Romig to discuss the challenge that confronts the United States and Europe, in the context of a changing labour market and the increase in nonstandard work.

This podcast was produced within the project "Transatlantic expert group on the future of work", with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Bruegel AISBL and The German Marshall Fund of the United States and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Social protection is the mechanism that addresses amongst other issues, poverty reduction, education, health, social inclusion, and empowerment. In the United States and in Europe social protections were initially designed between 1880 and 1945 with the full-time, dependent employee in mind.

In this episode of The sound of economics, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Anke Hassel and Kathleen Romig to discuss the challenge that confronts the United States and Europe, in the context of a changing labour market and the increase in nonstandard work.

This podcast was produced within the project "Transatlantic expert group on the future of work", with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Bruegel AISBL and The German Marshall Fund of the United States and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

The Internet was supposed to liberate us from powerful institutions. But the reality might be he who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Fabian Stephany invite Vili Lehdonvirta to present his latest book, Cloud Empires, where he explains how Silicon Valley technologists end up recreating digital forms of the very institutions that they were trying to render obsolete. They also discuss the labour market.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

The Internet was supposed to liberate us from powerful institutions. But the reality might be he who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Fabian Stephany invite Vili Lehdonvirta to present his latest book, Cloud Empires, where he explains how Silicon Valley technologists end up recreating digital forms of the very institutions that they were trying to render obsolete. They also discuss the labour market.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis and Grégory Claeys are joined by Ayhan Kose, Chief Economist of Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions (EFI) and Director of the Prospects Group at the World Bank, and co-author of the report ‘Is a Global Recession Imminent?’. Together they look at the global trends of rising inflation and slowing growth, discuss whether the world is heading into a recession; or, if a recession is inevitable, whether a soft-landing would be possible and how it could be achieved. (This podcast was recorded on 6th October 2022)

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Maria Demertzis and Grégory Claeys are joined by Ayhan Kose, Chief Economist of Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions (EFI) and Director of the Prospects Group at the World Bank, and co-author of the report ‘Is a Global Recession Imminent?’. Together they look at the global trends of rising inflation and slowing growth, discuss whether the world is heading into a recession; or, if a recession is inevitable, whether a soft-landing would be possible and how it could be achieved. (This podcast was recorded on 6th October 2022)

The 20th National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party commenced on 16 October and will run for seven days. The Congress takes place every five years and is the most important political event in the People’s Republic of China. Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia Garcia-Herrero invite Chenggang Xu, Senior research fellow at Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions to navigate the decisions that are to be taken in this gathering and whether they meet the predictions.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The 20th National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party commenced on 16 October and will run for seven days. The Congress takes place every five years and is the most important political event in the People’s Republic of China. Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia Garcia-Herrero invite Chenggang Xu, Senior research fellow at Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions to navigate the decisions that are to be taken in this gathering and whether they meet the predictions.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The rise in Chinese influence in the Western Balkans over the last decade is among the most significant geopolitical developments in Europe. As an element of Beijing’s wide internationalisation efforts to expand its global footprint, the country has been working to improve its position in several key sectors, from energy and infrastructure to culture, education and media. A lot of these investments are linked to the Belt and Road initiative. Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero invite Mira Milosevich-Juaristi to help navigate the Chinese investments in the Balkans and their strategic importance and what this means for Europe.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The COVID-19 pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, energy crisis and the resulting high inflation have created new worries about inequality on both sides of the atlantic. Labour markets and occupations have gone through profound changes as a result of technological progress, globalisation and changes to labour market institutions, among many other factors. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Indivar Dutta-Gupta, President & Executive Director, CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy, and István György Tóth, Director of Tarki Social Research Institute, for a conversation about the evolving nature of inequality on both sides of the Atlantic, what are the drivers of this wedge and what policy tools are needed to address it?

This episode if produced with the Transatlantic Expert Group on the Future of Work which is an interdisciplinary group of some thirty knowledgeable and highly qualified experts.

The European Political Community is a new political grouping proposed by the French president Emmanuel Macron that would include the EU countries, the Balkans, and other nearby states including the United Kingdom. On 6 October 2022, the first meeting of this new configuration will take place. In this live podcast co-organised with Open society foundations and German Council on Foreign Relations, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Jean Pisani-Ferry, Daniela Schwarzer, Shahin Vallée, as well as Milica Delević and Hlib Vyshlinsky, to envision what this grouping should look like and its functions.

Relevant publication:

Mayer, F., J. Pisani-Ferry, D. Schwarzer and S. Vallée (2022) ‘Enlarging and deepening: giving substance to the European Political Community', Policy Contribution 15/2022, Bruegel

In July 2022, by the time the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted its deposit rate from negative to zero, headline inflation in the euro area had reached 8.9%. Irrespective of the drivers of inflation – a temporary supply shock or lasting demand shock – it is shocking that a central bank with a price stability mandate keeps its main interest rate negative while inflation accelerates that much.

Something clearly went wrong. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say that the ECB made mistakes. But should the ECB have acted differently, given the information available at the time of its monetary policy meetings?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Senior fellow Zsolt Darvas sit down to discuss the ECB’s six lapses in tackling inflation, uncertainties surrounding the euro area's economy and what could have been done differently.

In July 2022, by the time the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted its deposit rate from negative to zero, headline inflation in the euro area had reached 8.9%. Irrespective of the drivers of inflation – a temporary supply shock or lasting demand shock – it is shocking that a central bank with a price stability mandate keeps its main interest rate negative while inflation accelerates that much.

Something clearly went wrong. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say that the ECB made mistakes. But should the ECB have acted differently, given the information available at the time of its monetary policy meetings?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel Director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Senior fellow Zsolt Darvas sit down to discuss the ECB’s six lapses in tackling inflation, uncertainties surrounding the euro area's economy and what could have been done differently.

Ukraine, a country of over 40 million people, has seen about 15% of its population flee the country. Will many that have fled Ukraine return, or will families eventually be reunited abroad, possibly implying an even greater inflow of Ukrainians into Europe and elsewhere when the war is over? Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Pauline Weil to discuss the implications of Ukrainian refugees’ situation for Ukraine and its future reconstruction efforts, for receiving countries and for the EU Common European Asylum System, as analysed in her upcoming paper co-authored with Uri Dadush.

Check our special podcast series, War in Ukraine, which reflect on the implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine in EU energy storage, macroeconomic implications, international finance system and more.

On 14 September 2022 Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered the State of the Union address before the European Parliament. In this episode of The Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Maria Demertzis, André Sapir, Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Georg Zachmann to evaluate the State of the Union address, from the support to Ukraine, energy crisis, recovery plans, as well as the EU’s external policies.

China’s GDP growth plummeted to only 0.4% YoY in Q2 2022, the worse performance after Q1 2020 when the first wave of COVID-19 hit Wuhan. Apart from the economic turbulence, a major political event to look out for is the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, to be held on 16 October 2022. What should we expect from this gathering and what economic impact will it have? Giuseppe Porcaro discusses with Alicia García-Herrero and XU Sitao.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Europe’s energy system faces unprecedented physical and institutional stress. Jeromin Zettelmeyer sits down with Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann to discuss the causes of the problem, and what solutions could be offered. Simone and Georg present their recent paper ‘A grand bargain to steer through the European Union’s energy crisis’, where they argue an integrated European approach and a coordinated plan is essential to address the crisis.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer starts his mandate as Bruegel Director on 1 September 2022. What made him move to Brussels? What does he have to say about the current climate of European economics and the challenges that lie ahead? He sits down with Maria Demertzis to discuss the energy crisis, macroeconomic situation, as well as his vision of Europe.

Independent work, self-employment and the gig economy have been evolving in the past decade, changing our understanding of traditional employment. However, with the rise in self-employment comes the need to adapt our laws and legislation to accommodate pension schemes and benefits that many self-employed do not have, compared with their traditional counterparts.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Diane Mulcahy and Milena Nikolova of Bruegel, to discuss the future of self-employment, what it means for traditional workers, and what it entails for policymakers.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Relevant Publications:

Nikolova, Milena (2022) ‘Can working solo be good for entrepreneurs?’, Bruegel Blog, 13 July
Gruber-Risak, M., Hatzopoulos, V. and D.Mulcahy (2022) ‘Policies to support the self-employed in the labour markets of the future’, Policy Contribution 08/2022, Bruegel
Christie, R., M. Grzegorczyk and D. Mulcahy (2022) ‘Better pensions for the European Union’s self-employed', Policy Contribution 05/2022, Bruegel

Narratives of the future play an important role in shaping our reality. Depending on the point of view from which they are crafted, they can describe hopes and fears of citizens, the political project of the ruling classes, or can offer alternatives to the status quo. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero are joined by LYU Guangzhao, who helped navigate some of China’s science fictions works and these visions of the future.

Relevant artwork and science fictions:

• China 2098 artwork by FAN Wennan

• Waste Tide by CHEN Qiufan

• AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and CHEN Qiufan

• My Country Does Not Dream by HAN Song

• Ether by ZHANG Ran

• Silent City by MA Boyong

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Artificial intelligence and automation are increasing in role, and no industry is immune. From doctors to gig workers, advances in AI are becoming a key determinant of job quality. This week on The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Laura Nurski and Mia Hoffmann, to discuss how technology affects work, whether good or bad, and what should we take into consideration for the future?

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Relevant Publications:

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/german-facebook-probe-links-data-protection-and-competition-policy | German Facebook probe links data protection and competition policy

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/uber-and-economic-impact-sharing-economy-platforms | Uber and the economic impact of sharing economy platforms

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/economic-value-personal-data-online-platforms-firms-and-consumers | The economic value of personal data for online platforms, firms and consumers

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/rise-sharing-economy-indonesia | The rise of the sharing economy in Indonesia

https://www.bruegel.org/comment/european-union-course-become-big-loser-global-tech-race | Is the European Union on course to become the big loser in the global tech race?

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/practical-arrangement-cooperation-between-digital-economy-regulators | A practical arrangement for cooperation between digital economy regulators

https://www.bruegel.org/working-paper/market-power-and-artificial-intelligence-work-online-labour-markets | Market power and artificial intelligence work on online labour markets

https://www.bruegel.org/podcast/technology-product-unequal-power | Technology: a product of unequal power?

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/opening-digital-platforms-and-reducing-anticompetitive-risks | Opening up digital platforms and reducing anticompetitive risks

https://www.bruegel.org/working-paper/platform-mergers-and-antitrust-0 | Platform mergers and antitrust

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/self-employment-covid-19-and-future-work-knowledge-workers | Self-employment, COVID-19, and the future of work for knowledge workers

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/regulating-big-tech-digital-markets-act | Regulating big tech: the Digital Markets Act

https://www.bruegel.org/working-paper/platform-mergers-and-antitrust | Platform mergers and antitrust

https://www.bruegel.org/working-paper/digital-platforms-and-antitrust | Digital platforms and antitrust

https://www.bruegel.org/report/effect-digitalization-energy-consumption-passenger-transport-analysis-future-scenarios | The effect of digitalization in the energy consumption of passenger transport: An analysis of future scenarios for Europe

https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/bridging-divide-new-evidence-about-firms-and-digitalisation | Bridging the divide: new evidence about firms and digitalisation

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/work-protection-digital-age-towards-new-social-contract | Work Protection in the Digital Age: Towards a new social contract

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/era-digitalisation-single-market-needs-software-update | In an era of digitalisation, the Single Market needs a software update

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/breaking-big-companies-and-market-power-concentration | Breaking up big companies and market power concentration

https://www.bruegel.org/report/vertical-restraints-and-e-commerce | Vertical restraints and e-commerce

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/how-e-commerce-reshapes-markets-and-firms-strategies | How e-commerce reshapes markets and firms’ strategies

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/big-data-and-first-degree-price-discrimination | Big data and first-degree price discrimination

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/industrial-internet-will-transform-policymaking | The industrial internet will transform policymaking

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/apple-discord | The Apple of Discord

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/new-eu-net-neutrality-guidelines-are-pragmatic-next-step | New EU net neutrality guidelines are a pragmatic next step

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/european-e-commerce-needs-better-visibility-cross-border-delivery-prices | European e-commerce needs better visibility into cross-border delivery prices

https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/e-commerce-europe-parcel-delivery-prices-digital-single-market | E-commerce in Europe: parcel delivery prices in a digital single market

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/e-commerce-opportunity-growth-europe-people-and-business | E-commerce: an opportunity for growth in Europe, for people and business

https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/better-pensions-european-unions-self-employed | Better pensions for the European Union’s self-employed

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/inclusive-european-union-must-boost-gig-workers-rights | An inclusive European Union must boost gig workers’ rights

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/making-antitrust-work-not-against-gig-workers-and-self-employed | Making antitrust work for, not against, gig workers and the self-employed

https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/which-platforms-will-be-caught-digital-markets-act-gatekeeper-dilemma | Which platforms will be caught by the Digital Markets Act? The ‘gatekeeper’ dilemma

https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/policies-support-self-employed-labour-markets-future | Policies to support the self-employed in the labour markets of the future

Drawing lessons from the ongoing shortages in chip supply, the United States, China and the European Union are adopting industrial policies to secure semiconductor supply chains as well as economic and technological competitiveness. The EU Chips Act, announced in February 2022, represents a real break in Europe's industrial policy. Are semiconductors the new oil? The answer might be more complicated than just yes or no. Giuseppe Porcaro, Niclas Poitiers and Pauline Weil unpack the economics and geopolitics behind the Chips Act.

Relevant publications:

Briefings de l'Ifri, Fishing for Chips: Assessing the EU Chips Act

Poitiers, N. and P. Weil (2022) ‘Is the EU Chips Act the right approach?’, Bruegel Blog, 2 June

Poitiers, N. and P. Weil (2022) ‘Opaque and ill-defined: the problems with Europe’s IPCEI subsidy framework’, Bruegel Blog, 26 January

Poitiers, N. and P. Weil (2021) 'A new direction for the European Union’s half-hearted semiconductor strategy', Policy Contribution 17/2021, Bruegel

With the winter on the horizon, it is more important than ever for Europe to be independent in energy. Russian gas cuts, sanctions and embargoes have put the EU in a tough spot, where a trade-off had to be made between energy needs and actions against Russia. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s interim Director Maria Demertzis is joined by Bruegel's Ben McWilliams, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann to discuss the future of European energy independence, what needs to be done and its implications for sustainable goals.

Since its announcement in 2013, BRI has only grown in economic and political relevance. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, the mega project is at a standstill. Is the scope and ambition of BRI permanently shaped?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alicia García-Herrero and Xue Gong, to discuss the context, present, and future of BRI in relation to the pandemic and foreign relations.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

As his time as Bruegel Director comes to an end, Guntram Wolff sits down with Giuseppe Porcaro to discuss the highs, lows and shifts of economic policy in Europe over the past decade and Bruegel's contribution in an effort to improve it, from the euro area sovereign debt crisis, migration to Brexit, geoeconomics, the climate urgency and COVID-19.

Relevant publications and events: * Policy contribution, What kind of European banking union? * Blueprint, EU-IMF assistance to euro area countries: an early assessment * Event, Resolving the European debt crisis * External publication, Europe after Brexit: A proposal for a continental partnership * Policy contribution, Redefining Europe’s economic sovereignty * Policy brief, The threats to the European Union’s economic sovereignty * Policy contribution, The geopolitics of the European Green Deal * Policy contribution, An effective economic response to the Coronavirus in Europe * External publication, A Global Deal for Our Pandemic Age

Sri Lanka is experiencing an episode of political and economic instability the country has not seen since the civil war. The growing anti-government sentiment, the power struggle between the Parliament and the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, mixed with the economic situation has reached a boiling point, and an outbreak of riots and protests in the streets. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel Senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero, and Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, international security and geopolitics analyst and strategic advisor from Sri Lanka, to discuss the crisis in Sri Lanka, its relation to China's BRI, and to understand its consequences for Europe, China, as well as the world.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Guntram Wolff invites Bruegel veteran Alessio Terzi to talk about his recently published book ‘Growth for good’, which lays out an agenda to enroll capitalism in the fight against climate catastrophe. With Diane Coyle, they take a deep dive into the book and share their view on the growth or degrowth debate.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts Ľubica Karvašová (Prime Minister’s office Slovakia), Alexander Duleba (Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association), and André Sapir to debate a proposal by the Slovak government to aid Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Check our special podcast series, War in Ukraine, which reflect on the implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine in EU energy storage, macroeconomic implications, international finance system and more.

Alexander Gabuev joins Bruegel’s Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero to discuss China’s ambiguous stance towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, how this impact China’s relationship with other countries and if Russia is becoming more dependent on China.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

European leaders have finally agreed on a Russian oil embargo. What are the implications? How long will it take to enforce and what should be the next steps? Bruegel’s Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by MEP Luis Garicano, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann to talk sanctioning Russia.

The latest economic forecasts published by the European Commission as well as IMF show low growth and high inflation. Maria Demertzis is joined by Grégory Claeys and Megan Greene to discuss the economic outlook on both sides of the Atlantic. They discuss the possibility of stagflation, inflation duration and its implications, interest rates increasing and the risks that it entails, as well as other ways of containing inflation.

People spend a significant portion of their lives at work; job thus has a huge impact on a person’s well-being. This week on The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Laura Nurski and Janine Berg to discuss how to enhance job quality, how technology will impact its dimensions and how to involve workers in the design of technology.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe*“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

On 7 June we hold the Annual Conference of the Future of Work and Inclusive Growth project*. Half-way through this three-year project, we invite you to join us in discussing how inclusive the digital future of work will be, as we focus on job quality, digital skills and productivity.

Relevant publication: Nurski, L. and M. Hoffmann (2022) ‘Beating burnout: identifying bad jobs and improving job quality’, Policy Contribution 07/2022, Bruegel

The Chinese government is determined to continue its Zero-COVID policies, but at what cost? Dialling in from Beijing, Jörg Wuttke, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, joins Bruegel’s Alicia García-Herrero and Giuseppe Porcaro to discuss the impact of lockdowns on the country’s economy and its growth targets, as well as European companies’ re-evaluation of their China strategy.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Bruegel’s Giuseppe Porcaro and André Sapir sit down with Tim Yeend, Associate Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. They discuss current global trade environment, Australia’s perspective on the WTO, supply chains, economic coercion as well as EU-Australia bilateral trade relationship.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosted Beata Javorcik, Chief Economist of the EBRD, to discuss how the ongoing war in Ukraine is affecting Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the EBRD’s recent activity in Ukraine and it’s neighbourhood, Ms Javorcik reflected on the impact of the conflict not just on Ukraine, but also on the EU countries geographically closest to the conflict.

Check our special podcast series, War in Ukraine, which reflect on the implications of Russia's war in Ukraine in EU energy storage, macroeconomic implications, international finance system and more.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Nicolas Véron and Elina Ribakova to take look at the list of sanctions imposed on Russia so far and the implications on the global financial system and central banks.

Check our special podcast series, War in Ukraine, which reflect on the implications of Russia's war in Ukraine in EU energy storage, macroeconomic implications, international finance system and more.

For people who want to go back to the old way of work, the train has left the station. COVID-19 has given a huge impetus to working from home for those jobs that can, where more individuals are able to choose when and where they are most productive, and companies can choose what they want remote work to look like.

Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by J.Scott Marcus and Lisette Sutherland to explore remote work on both sides of the Atlantic. Together they discuss work-life balance, gender gaps, skill acquisition, modernisation of workflows, technology adoption, managerial culture and flexibility enhancement.

Relevant publication:

COVID-19 and the accelerated shift to technology-enabled Work from Home (WFH), J. Scott Marcus, Georgios Petropoulos and Antonio Aloisi

This podcast was produced within the project “Transatlantic expert group on the future of work “, with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Bruegel AISBL and The German Marshall Fund of the United States and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

On 5 April 2022, the EU announced that it will ban coal imports from Russia. The move — aimed squarely at energy imports for the first time — comes as a direct response to reports that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine. In this live podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro discusses with Simone Tagliapietra unpack how the coal ban will presumably be implemented, and what it means in terms of direct and indirect consequences.

China is investing heavily in science and technology: from 2011 to 2021, internal R&D spending jumped from 869 billion to 2.79 trillion Yuan. What has been the effect of this increase, and is it commensurate with the amount of spending? Giuseppe Porcaro sits down with Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Reinhilde Veuglers and Naubahar Sharif, to discuss the innovation system in China, the strengths and weaknesses of its state-led R&D strategy, and what lies ahead for the international situation where geopolitics seems to overshadow cooperation.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The EU has proposed a plan to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels before 2030, as well as responding to rising energy prices. In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live Bruegel's own Guntram Wolff and Georg Zachmann welcome Diedrik Samsom to present REPowerEU and to discuss how feasible it is.

The internet is changing the way we work. In this episode, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Laura Nurski and Fabian Stephany to discuss the utilisation of online work across countries and occupations, what it means for the society, and how policymakers should better regulate it.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live Maria Demertzis and Guntram Wolff host Russian economist Sergei Guriev, to discuss how the war in Ukraine will affect the Russian economy.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live Guntram Wolff hosts Oleg Ustenko, Economic Advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. They discuss the economic situation in Ukraine as well as humanitarian needs and Ukraine’s request to ban Russian exports of fossil fuels.

While most of the world condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China abstained, but did not go as far as vetoing the UN resolution. How do Sino-Russian relations affect China’s stance and how are these relations likely to be impacted by recent developments?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro, Alicia García-Herrero and Elina Ribakova continue our look at the war in Ukraine by examining the state of relations between these two major powers.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU adopted a number of sanctions in an attempt to immobilize the war effort. These sanctions will have an impact on the EU’s own economies. How will they affect inflation? What fiscal and monetary policies will the EU have to consider to get Europe through this new crisis?

Guntram B. Wolff invites Luis Garicano and Jean Pisani-Ferry to unpack these and other questions in this exceptional episode of the Sound of Economics Live.

The G7 and EU sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are having major impact on the Russian economy and also have broader implications for the global financial system. In this episode of the Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro, Silvia Merler and Nicolas Véron take stock on lessons so far and prospects.

The European Union and other major economies have imposed swift, broad and devastating sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But given Europe’s energy dependence on Russian natural gas, there is a growing fear across the continent that Russia could hit back. Bruegel’s Guntram Wolff and Simone Tagliapietra discuss how Europe can withstand Russia’s counter sanctions and keep in unity.

Relevant publications: Poitiers, N., G., Tagliapietra, S., Wolff, G. and G. Zachmann (2022) 'The Kremlin’s gas wars', Bruegel External publication, 28 February McWilliams, B., Sgaravatti, G., Tagliapietra, S. and G. Zachmann (2022) ‘Can Europe survive painlessly without Russian gas?’, Bruegel Blog, 27 January

Bruegel’s Director Guntram Wolff is joined by MEP Johan Van Overtveldt, Chair of Committee on Budgets in the European Parliament to discuss the current committee discussions including NGEU borrowing. They also spoke about his new book: The Mystic Hand, How Central Banks Shaped the 21st Century Global Economy, which traces the way in which central bankers learned, unlearned, relearned and still have to learn the tricks of their trade.

This is the latest in our series of conversation with prominent Members of the European Parliament. Previous conversations on topics ranging from trade to EU economic governance and the rule of law can be found below: * The European economy in 2022, with Irene Tinagli * The state of trade: the EU’s trade policy, with Bernd Lange * Keeping momentum on good governance, with Katalin Cseh * A European common tax space, with Sven Giegold * The big brother is back? with Esther de Lange * Without good governance EU recovery could fail, with Luis Garicano

Since late 2021, European households’ gas and electricity bills have climbed to unprecedented levels. However, given the uncertainty of future Russian gas supplies and several other factors, the situation ahead does not look much rosier. How did we get here? And what should Europe do to get out of this crisis, in the short and long-term? Bruegel’s own Giuseppe Porcaro, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann discuss with Agata Łoskot-Strachota, Senior Fellow of Energy Policy at the Centre for Eastern Studies, Poland.

Read more: * McWilliams, B., Sgaravatti, G., Tagliapietra, S. and G. Zachmann (2022) ‘Can Europe survive painlessly without Russian gas?’, Bruegel Blog, 27 January * McWilliams, B., G. Sgaravatti, G. Zachmann (2021) ‘European natural gas imports’, Bruegel Datasets, first published 29 October, updated regularly * Sgaravatti, G., S. Tagliapietra, G. Zachmann (2021) ‘National policies to shield consumers from rising energy prices’, Bruegel Datasets, first published 4 November, updated regularly

China is a highly unequal country. There are many reasons for this, ranging from a lack of social services to a lack of social mobility. Today Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel Senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero, and Scott Rozelle, Co-director at Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions, to talk about the impact of industrialisation and automation are having on rural and low-income workers in China.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

On 7 February 1992, twelve states signed the Maastricht Treaty, the foundation treaty of the European Union. As the treaty enters its 30s, what has it achieved? And where do we go from here? Bruegel’s Maria Demertzis talks to Amy Verdun, Professor at the University of Victoria and visiting Professor at Leiden University, and Mathieu Segers, Professor in Contemporary European History at Maastricht University and Europe Chair at Studio Europa Maastricht, starting with their own personal recollection of 1992.

This episode is recorded in collaboration with Studio Europa Maastricht. Studio Europa Maastricht is a centre of expertise for Europe-related debate and research founded in 2018 and supported by the partners of the Maastricht, Working on Europe programme: Maastricht University, the Province of Limburg and the City of Maastricht. Together we aim to position Maastricht, the capital of Limburg, as a meeting place for citizen dialogue and debate and establish a centre of excellence for research on Europe and European integration.

Conversation on 30 years EMU will continue on 26 & 27 September – more information can be found here: https://studioeuropamaastricht.nl/debate-dialogue/regeneration-maastricht/

Turkey’s annual inflation rate hit 36.1% in 2021, the highest in President Erdogan’s 19 years in power. In the meantime, the Lira has lost more than 40% of its value. Maria Demertzis sits down with Elina Ribakova, Deputy Chief Economist of the Institute of International Finance, and Refet Gurkaynak, Professor of Economics at Bilkent University, to discuss the circumstances that have contributed to these developments and the outlook for Turkish economy.

AI is fundamentally changing the economy, it has the power to improve workers’ experience if AI uptake is done well, or it can create new inequalities depending on workers’ educational level.

Giuseppe Porcaro and Mario Mariniello are joined by Teemu Roos, AI expert and founder of the online course Elements of Artificial intelligence. They talk about how AI education can improve work in Europe, Teemu’s AI course, and how educational systems can foster a more equal society.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. As the world’s third largest economy, Japan cannot neglect the importance of economic and trade relations with China, despite tensions between two countries. How does Japan manage its economic proximity with China under the circumstances? Can Europe learn from Japan when it comes to juggling close economic relations with China when relations are bad?

Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero are joined by Yoshikazu Kato, Director of Trans-Pacific Group Institute and Research Fellow at Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute, to talk about how Europe is seen by Japan and China, what Europe can learn from Japan’s economic relations with China and to explore the possibility of a common approach to China.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Happy New Year and welcome back to The Sound of Economics! In this first episode of 2022, Guntram Wolff is joined by Irene Tinagli MEP, Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament to discuss what dominated European economic policy making in 2021 and what to expect from the coming year, in terms of both economic outlook and key challenges.

Following Bruegel’s end-of-year tradition, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Guntram Wolff to review 2021 in economic policy and beyond, especially in pandemic preparedness, inflation as well as geopolitics. The guests also each introduce a book that has marked them this year and finally, their hopes and wishes for the upcoming 2022.

Book list: * Graeber, D. and David W. (2021) The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. * Henrich, J. (2021) The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. Penguin. * Perlroth, N. (2021) This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race. Bloomsbury Publishing. * Ridley, M. (2020) How Innovation Works. HarperCollins.

Economic orthodoxy argues that the more connected two countries are, the less likely it is for conflict to arise. However, economic theory is starting to change regarding this premise.

Guntram Wolff is joined by Mark Leonard, director of the European Council of Foreign Relations, to discuss his new book: The Age of Unpeace: how connectivity causes conflict. In his new book, Leonard argues a rather new and unique point: living in a globalised world creates new vulnerabilities due to this interconnection, and thus gives rise to unpeace. Guntram and Leonard explore how connectivity has caused fragmentation, the concept of unpeace, how we've gotten here, and what the EU should do moving forward.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

2021 has been an eventful year for China and the world, to say the least. Bruegel has been following China's economic developments with our monthly China Newsletter ZhōngHuá Mundus, and in this last episode of the year, we feel the need to provide a bigger picture of its macroeconomic outlook.

Sitting in Shanghai, J.P. Morgan’s Chief China Economist Haibin Zhu joins Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero for a summary of China’s economic activities in the past year and what to expect in the future, namely the impacts of ‘common prosperity’ narrative, market regulations, pandemic restrictions and decarbonisation.

The Washington Consensus, first devised in 1989, is an economic paradigm that was reflected in the prevailing economic thinking as well as policy recommendations. However, as the world faces more fragilities and shocks than it used to, one might start wondering whether we should go further to address the acute and chronic issues that threaten the resilience of our societies. Economic orthodoxy might be shifting.

In this episode, Thomas Wieser joins Maria Demertzis and André Sapir to talk about his recent report for the G7 'Global Economic Resilience: Building Forward Better' in which the authors present a new economic agenda, the Cornwall Consensus, to address the risk to economic resilience: environmental and health, and geo-political and socio-economic.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics Live, Bruegel’s own Simone Tagliapietra is joined by Li Shuo, Diederik Samsom and Laurence Tubiana to contribute to the global stocktake of the climate summit, to foster a clearer understanding of the game changers and the missed opportunities of the summit. Furthermore, they foster a fresh debate on what should be the next steps for global climate action after Glasgow.

Is technology change neutral? This question is essential in the discussion under the scope of the future of work. In this episode, Bruegel’s own Giuseppe Porcaro and Mario Mariniello speak to David Spencer about the nature of technology, its impact on the quantity and quality of work, the cost of the technological transition and how to make sure it benefits everyone.

This podcast was produced within the project “Future of Work and Inclusive Growth in Europe“, with the financial support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, political theorist and historian Luuk van Middelaar joins us to talk about his latest book 'Pandemonium'. He argues that the COVID-19 pandemic is a test of the European Union's resilience, and its response demonstrates the union’s enduring strength and how it has learnt to deal with real-world events.

Bruegel's Maria Demertzis and Guntram Wolff sit down with the author to discuss how and why the EU has stepped up in the wake of the pandemic and the journey it has taken from regulatory body to geopolitical actor.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

A wave of government regulations is being imposed on China’s digital sector, from gaming platforms to GDPR-like privacy regulations, to a draft regulation cracking down on recommendation algorithms. In the meantime, we have also seen a wave of crackdowns on big tech, from Jack Ma of Alibaba, to the case of Didi. What is going on in China's digital space? What is the general direction going forward? In this episode Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel senior fellows Alicia García-Herrero and Mario Mariniello and by guest speaker Rui Ma, creator of Tech Buzz China which educates investors, funds and entrepreneurs on Chinese tech companies.

Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff and Senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero welcome Bernd Lange MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's committee on International Trade to talk big issues in EU trade policy: EU-US trade relation, how to deal with China, strategy on the WTO as well as what trade can achieve in the area of climate change and human rights.

With COP26 around the corner, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts Italy's Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani. In this live episode they discuss what the Italy G20 Presidency would like to see from Glasgow: the need for adaptation and mitigation, adequate financing of the transition for the most vulnerable and the need to focus on measuring data and metrics.

The pandemic and subsequent downturn have seen EU countries deploy unprecedented fiscal support, while the EU as a whole complemented this with an architectural innovation in the form of the Next Generation EU fund. As European economies begin to recover, is it time to return to pre-pandemic fiscal rules or is it time to reform them? If yes, then what should be changed and how?

Bruegel’s Deputy director Maria Demertzis takes a deep dive with Senior fellow Zsolt Darvas and Rolf Strauch, Chief economist of European Stability Mechanism.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

The concept of “common prosperity” has deep roots in the Chinese Communist Party. It was already used in the 1950s and the late 1970s under different leaderships. On August 17 2021, President Xi Jinping highlighted this concept again, calling for China to achieve "common prosperity", seeking to narrow a yawning wealth gap that threatens the country's economic ascent and the legitimacy of Communist Party rule. Since then, there have been simultaneous crackdowns on business sectors and individuals, many of which fall under the umbrella of ‘common prosperity’.

Why is this term being brought up again? Why now? What policies have followed? What does the regime want to achieve? Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel Senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero and Minxin Pei, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States to discuss.

Today, work is often segregated by gender -- with great ramifications for women across the world. Will increased use of technology decrease or increase current discrepancies? What can we do today in our schools and workplaces to help women in the future?

Bruegel's own Giuseppe Porcaro spoke to Bruegel Research Fellow Laura Nurski and the Technical University of Vienna's Professor Sabine Theresia Köszegi about the future of work and gender. Together, they explore the contemporary challenges women face in the workplace, and the potential for solutions in the future.

Want to learn more about gender and the future of work? In this podcast, Sabine recommends the UNESCO report "I'd blush if I could" closing gender divides in digital skills through education."

You can also learn more about our Future of Work project at our website, https://www.bruegel.org/the-future-of-work-and-inclusive-growth-project/

Past crises and consolidation episodes have resulted in major public investment cuts. However, in order to meet the European Union’s climate goals, the additional public investment needed is between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of GDP annually during this decade. How does the EU grapple with just how far-reaching the economic implications of the green transition will be?

In a paper presented at the recent ECOFIN in September, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff and Senior fellow Zsolt Darvas advocate for a ‘green golden rule’, that exempts net green public investment from the debt and deficit rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. They explain more in detail with Yuyun Zhan in today’s episode.

Read more: Darvas, Z. and G. Wolff (2021) ‘A green fiscal pact: climate investment in times of budget consolidation’, Policy Contribution 18/2021, Bruegel

Wholesale gas prices have reached record highs in the past months, leaving EU governments scrambling for emergency aid to help households cope with their rising bills. However, this is not only about energy: though its origins might be environmental, there are diplomatic, social and economic consequences for governments and citizens. And less than two months after the EU’s bold ‘Fit-for-55’ climate initiative, a gas crisis is threatening the EU’s green agenda.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Bruegel scholars Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann on the back of their recent blog post on the price of electricity.

Recommended readings:

Rethinking the security of the European Union’s gas supply (2016)

Is Europe’s gas and electricity price surge a one-off? (2021)

On 15 September Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered the State of the Union address before the European Parliament. She took stock of efforts of the past year to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and presented priorities for the year ahead, addressed the most pressing challenges and propose ideas for shaping the future of the EU, from NextGenerationEU to the European Green Deal and Europe’s Digital Decade.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics Live, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Grégory Claeys, Maria Demertzis and Alicia García-Herrero to evaluate the State of the Union address.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

As the largest global emitter of greenhouse gases, China is key to the success of the upcoming COP26 and the global effort for climate neutrality by the mid-century. Yet two months ahead of the Glasgow convention, China has yet to present a concrete policy path to become net-zero by 2060. Why is China taking so long to announce its carbon reduction plan? Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Bruegel China expert Alicia García-Herrero, climate economist Simone Tagliapietra and Dr. Michal Meidan, Director of the China Energy Research Program from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, to discuss climate, Chinese affairs and energy economics.

The recovery plan gives Europe a chance to emerge stronger from the pandemic, transform the economy and create opportunities and jobs. It is important that those plans are implemented in a manner that is efficient, fair and sustainable.

Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts a conversation between Nadia Calviño, First Vice-President and Minister for Economy and Digitalization of Spain and Karolina Ekholm, Professor in Stockholm University and member of the Bruegel board on the state of play and outlook of the EU recovery fund. Listen in to learn more details on the Spanish programme and the risks and success factors of the recovery programme for the EU as a whole!

Sustainable investing is gaining in popularity as socially conscious clients consider environmental, societal and governance (ESG) criteria when deciding on potential investment. As a result, the financial world is offering more ESG compatible products on the market.

While well intentioned, the ability and capacity of ESG criteria in corporate disclosure to achieve climate and social goals is questionable. Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff hosts a debate between Tariq Fancy, the BlackRock executive turned ESG whistleblower, and Non-resident fellow Rebecca Christie, on whether sustainable investing will make the world a better place, and how it differs between North America and Europe.

For more Bruegel research on sustainable finance, visit: https://www.bruegel.org/tag/sustainable-finance.

For Tariq Fancy’s essay, The Secret Diary of a ‘Sustainable Investor’, visit: https://medium.com/@sosofancy/the-secret-diary-of-a-sustainable-investor-part-1-70b6987fa139

In the future, what forces will cause the economy to grow and stagnate? What impact will AI and automation have on the economy? Is capitalism a sustainable economic model?

Today on The Sound of Economics, we're asking the big questions. In order to find answers, our own Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Aaron Benanav, recent author of Automation and the Future of Work. Benanav argues that the "rise of the robots" may not really explain future employment crises, or our failure to move into a post-scarcity era.

Meanwhile, Bruegel Research Fellow Laura Nurski adds insight from her own research at Bruegel's Future of work and inclusive growth project, and Alexis Moraitis at Lancaster University considers how advances in technology could impact the international political economy.

If you want to learn more about the possible robot uprising, check out our work on artificial intelligence in the workplace, or listen to our past podcast, The Skills of the Future.

On 14 July, the European Commission finally announced a large package of measures that will make the EU the first mover in the race limit global warming, with measures targeting all sectors in a deepening and broadening of the European decarbonisation process.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s Director Guntram Wolff and Bruegel Senior fellow Andre Sapir and Simone Tagliapietra walk you through the 13 proposals and hundreds of pages designed to ensure the continent meets the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 55 percent in 2030 and net zero by 2050, compared with 1990 levels. How ambitious are the goals? How should they be distributed among the citizens, businesses and countries of the EU? How stringent should a new carbon border adjustment be?

Recommend readings:

How to make the European Green Deal work (2019), GRÉGORY CLAEYS, SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA AND GEORG ZACHMANN

https://www.bruegel.org/2019/11/how-to-make-the-european-green-deal-work/

Fit for 55 marks Europe’s climate moment of truth (2021), SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA

https://www.bruegel.org/2021/07/fit-for-55-marks-europes-climate-moment-of-truth/

The geopolitics of the European Green Deal (2021), MARK LEONARD, JEREMY SHAPIRO, JEAN PISANI-FERRY, SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA AND GUNTRAM B. WOLFF

https://www.bruegel.org/2021/02/the-geopolitics-of-the-european-green-deal/

How to extend carbon pricing beyond the comfort zone, GEORG ZACHMANN

https://www.bruegel.org/2021/04/how-to-extend-carbon-pricing-beyond-the-comfort-zone/

Here's what's clear: public spending is on the rise. Public expenditure ratios have quadrupled since 1870, and increased even more in the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Is that good or bad? What does responsible public spending look like? How should governments institute reforms in order to improve their public spending agendas?

These questions are less clear. Bruegel's Director, Guntram Wolff, sits down with Former Deputy Secretary-General of OECD, Ludger Schuknecht to discuss the issues surrounding public spending in post-pandemic economies.

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

On July 1st, 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary. Today, Bruegel's Giuseppe Porcaro speaks with Bruegel Senior Fellow Alicia García-Herrero and Professor Steve Tsang, Director of SOAS China Institute at University of London about the past, present, and future of the Party. What are the Party's successes and failures? What is the "China model"? Will it ever be exported to other nations? Can the country's economic success continue?

When COVID-19 struck last spring, European governments rapidly implemented measures to keep businesses afloat. Did those policies support productive firms that bolster the economy? Or, did the policies merely enable the survival of "zombie" firms that ought to have gone bankrupt?

One year into the pandemic, Bruegel Deputy Director Maria Demertzis speaks with professors Steffen Müller, Filippo di Mauro, and Carlo Altomonte about whether or not fiscal policy has been successful throughout the pandemic, and how governments can deftly adapt their measures to revitalize their economies as more people across Europe receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Relevant event:

The impact of COVID-19 on productivity: preliminary firm evidence with Carlo Altomonte, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Maria Demertzis, Filippo di Mauro and Steffen Müller.

‘Technological change is revolutionising the workplace’, ‘the future is automated’ and ‘a robot will be doing my work before long’ are phrases we hear a lot when it comes to discussing the impact of technological advancement on the labour market and skills. But what is the real impact of robots or AI on the workforce? And, how can we steer technological change in a direction that is labour-complementing and welfare enhancing? How can governments and businesses help workers to adapt to technological change, through reskilling and transitioning initiatives?

As part of Bruegel’s Future of work and inclusive growth project, Bruegel fellow Laura Nurski and Dimitrios Pikios, ESCO Project coordinator at DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at European Commission joined Giuseppe Porcaro to talk about the risks of automation, deskilling but also the opportunities for new learning that come with technology and what policymakers can do to facilitate this.

As the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations, the World Trade Organisation should be the place where governments sort out the trade problems they face with each other. However, in recent years, WTO members have not managed to conclude new agreements to liberalise trade in goods and services. The organisation has not played a significant role in defusing and addressing the trade conflict between the US and China. It was also largely ‘missing in action’ during the first stages of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

All these lead to the conclusion that reform is necessary – whether the political will exists to re engage multilaterally and pursue it is another question. In this live podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro and Niclas Poitiers are joined by Bernard Hoekman, Professor and Director of Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute in Florence; Petros C. Mavroidis, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Law at Columbia Law School in New York and Anna Dias, Lawyer and partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel in Paris. Together they discuss what areas of reform the WTO should prioritise, and what challenges it would face.

Revelant Publications:

China and the WTO: Why Multilateralism Still Matters, Book by Petros C. Mavroidis and André Sapir.

Avoiding a Requiem for the WTO, Article by Petros C. Mavroidis and Bernard Hoekman.

This article is part of the Revue européenne du droit (RED) issue on global governance, which you can read here.*

This podcast is organised together with the editorial team of RED which we thank for the support.

President Biden is visiting Brussels for the first time since his inauguration on 14 June, with great expectations by European commentators to forge a closer transatlantic cooperation.

Prior to his visit, Giuseppe Porcaro and Simone Tagliapietra are joined by Ana Palacio, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain to discuss why the two sides of the Atlantic should form a climate alliance, which are the challenges the EU and the US will have to overcome; and most importantly, if this joint cooperation would be enough to leverage the rest of the world.

Relevant publications:

A transatlantic climate alliance, Opinion by Ana Palacio and Simone Tagliapietra

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

Since 2010, the landscape of China’s largest companies has shifted away from the dominance of state-owned enterprises towards a more diverse and complex landscape with an increasing number of mixed-ownership enterprises and non-public enterprises.

This evolution, however, has been far from linear with Chinese private companies facing several challenges. In this episode, SHAN Weijian, Chairman and CEO of PAG, joins Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero from Hong Kong, to share his insights on how the private sector has progressed and the road ahead.

The recent forced landing of an internal EU flight to arrest opposition activist Roman Protasevich is the latest escalation by a President who is consolidating power in the wake of unrest following the disputed results of the 2020 presidential election. The EU and international community reacted with further retaliatory sanctions and a flight ban over and by Belarussian airlines. Where does EU external action go from here?

This week, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff is joined by Sławomir Dębski, Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), to discuss Belarus’ fractious relationship with its neighbours and put the events of the last year into the wider historical and European context.

The idea of a global corporate tax has been floating around for decades, but a US proposal for a 15% of a global minimum tax rate means the proposal is now a serious possibility. This would affect both direct and indirect taxation, broader tax policy issues, and tax administration.

In this live episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel scholars Rebecca Christie and Niclas Poitiers, to discuss the outlook of global corporate tax and its possible outcomes.

Relevant publication: Christie, R. (2021) ‘International tax debate moves from digital focus to global minimum,’ Bruegel Blog, 27 May

European strategic autonomy is probably the single most used watchword in European circles, if only because of lack of consensus about what it entails. US bashing for some, a more confident and independent EU for others, the concept has well and truly moved out of the security and defence area into every area of EU policy. This is most apparent in the debate around the international role of the euro, where institutional thinking has shifted fast in the past couple of years. Is it inevitable?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff is joined by Franziska Brantner, Member of the Bundestag and Europe spokesperson for Alliance 90/The Greens’ parliamentary group, to talk about sovereignty, the international role of the euro and the geopolitical repercussions of the EU’s green deal.

Relevant publications: Claeys, G. and G. Wolff (2020) ‘For the euro, there is no shortcut to becoming a dominant currency’, Bruegel Blog, 13 October Claeys, G. and G.B. Wolff (2020) ‘Is the COVID-19 crisis an opportunity to boost the euro as a global currency?’ Policy Contribution 11/2020, Bruegel Or maybe you’d like to watch our event with President of the European Council ‘From playing field to player: Europe’s strategic autonomy as our generation’s goal’ on the importance of Europe’s strategic autonomy

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

China’s growing economic power is causing great anxiety in the West: European regulators are tightening the rules on takeovers by Chinese state-owned giants, while the United States is imposing aggressive sanctions on leading Chinese technology firms such as Huawei, ByteDance (TikTok) and Tencent (WeChat).

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s Alicia García-Herrero, Mario Mariniello and Giuseppe Porcaro make the virtual trip to the enclave of Hong Kong, where they are joined by Angela Huyue Zhang, an expert on Chinese law and the author of “Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation”. She draws on her experience of examining how Chinese exceptionalism, as manifested in the way China regulates and is regulated, is reshaping global antitrust regulation to impose extraterritoriality and counter western sanctions and influence.

IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath joins Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff for this Live recorded session. They were able to discuss the uneven recovery from the pandemic. In the latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF warns that even though the global economy is on firmer ground, recoveries are diverging dangerously across and within countries, as economies with slower vaccine rollout, more limited policy support, and more reliance on tourism do less well.

Global prospects remain highly uncertain one year into the pandemic. The outlook depends not just on the outcome of the battle between the virus and vaccines—it also hinges on how effectively economic policies deployed under high uncertainty can limit lasting damage from this unprecedented crisis.

Bruegel would like to thank the International Monetary Fund for co-hosting this recording.

This podcast was recorded with a live audience on clubhouse. Follow The Sound of Economics club on Clubhouse for the latest and regular rooms and high level policy conversations on everything from geoeconomics to energy and climate change.

What is a central bank digital currency (CBDC)? How is it different from the money in a private bank account, or from cryptocurrencies? What do consumers stand to gain from CBDCs? Have cryptocurrencies enabled the creation of the technology needed to guarantee anonymity, privacy and security?

To debunk the myths and get to the bottom of the hows and the whys of CBDCs, this week Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel Deputy Director Maria Demertzis and Senior Fellow Gregory Claeys who will tell us just how likely digital currency is to replace the money under our mattress.

Relevant publications and event: Demertzis, M. (2021) ‘Central bank currencies going digital’ Claeys, G. and M. Demertzis (2019) ‘The next generation of digital currencies: in search of stability’, Policy Contribution, European Parliament

Disruption or transformation: the impact of a digital euro on the financial system with Guntram Wolff and Fabio Panetta See more relevant Bruegel research on Digital Currencies.

Before the pandemic, Africa was experiencing unprecedented economic growth and poverty reduction. While many economies have faced disruption around the globe, emerging economies face an even tougher challenge because they lack the tools at the disposal of developed countries, whether that be vaccines, macroeconomic liquidity or the ability of the labour market to work from home.

The global nature of the pandemic requires a global response. This January, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff and Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa were appointed by the Italian G20 Presidency to the High Level Independent Panel on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, tasked with identifying gaps in the financing system for the global commons for pandemic prevention, surveillance, preparedness and response; and proposing actionable solutions to meet these gaps on a systematic and sustainable basis.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Vera shares her insight on how Africa has been handling the spread of COVID-19 and its economic implications. Together they discuss how to ensure necessary financing available to all, that can ensure that the world is better prepared for the next pandemic.

In a recent set of two Bruegel publications Giuseppe Porcaro, Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, Enrico Bergamini and Francesco Papadia set out to understand exactly how europeanised public debate in national conversations actually is. With no quantitative indicators, they used a whole set of 'imperfect proxies' such as analysis of national newspapers to give them additional elements alongside the voters turnout, and existing eurobarometers surveys to understand just how strong citizens’ attachment to the European Union is.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics LIVE, Giuseppe and Emmanuel are joined by two guests who with hands on experience in finding this 'European public sphere': Jaume Duch Guillot, the Spokesperson and Director General for Communication at the European Parliament, and Mick ter Reehorst, founder of 'Are We Europe', a pan-European publication that focuses on 'border-breaking' stories.

Relevant publications: Bergamini, E. and E. Mourlon-Druol (2021) ‘Talking about Europe: exploring 70 years of news archives’, Working Paper 04/2021, Bruegel Papadia, F., E. Bergamini, E. Mourlon-Druol and G. Porcaro (2021) ‘Interest in European matters: a glass three-quarters full?’ Working Paper 05/2021, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox!

A digital currency has been a heated discussion among central banks around the globe, and China is no exception. Where does Renminbi stand in the debate, what's next and what would be the implications of a digital yuan? Professor ZHU Min, Chair of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University and former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, shares his insight with Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff and Senior Fellow Alicia García-Herrero.

Relevant event:

Disruption or transformation: the impact of a digital euro on the financial system with Guntram Wolff and Fabio Panetta

Recent sanctions and counter-sanctions between the EU and China have put the future of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) in doubt. Where do the parties go from here? In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff is joined by Mikko Huotari, Executive Director of MERICS - Mercator Institute for China Studies, to talk about the future of the agreement, the geopolitics at play and the role of the United States.

This is a very special moment for space exploration. The beginning of April will see the maiden flight of the first helicopter to another planet. The Artemis accords will mean that man will be back on the moon before long. The European Space Agency is building Daedalus, the first robot that will crawl inside lunar caves. The United Arab Emirates and India have successfully entered Mars’ orbit on their first try. Elon Musk has just stated that he will land his starship there before 2030.

We are in the midst of a new space race, this time not as a proxy of the Cold War of the 60s, but as a multiplication of the actors, both private as well as state actors across the globe enter the realm of space.

This week, Giuseppe Porcaro host of The Sound of Economics (and self acclaimed 'space geek') and Reinhilde Veugelers, senior fellow at Bruegel, have the pleasure of hosting Michel Praet, Head of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Brussels Office, Jérôme Béquignon and Eleni Paliouras, also from ESA’s EU Relations Office for this episode. They discuss the position of the European Space sector in this brave new world, what the consequences are for industrial and innovation policy, and also take a closer look at the institutional set up which should foster this innovation.

A transcription is available for this episode.

Disclaimer:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all our podcasts are recorded remotely. We apologise in advance for the sound quality and thank you for your understanding.

Women are less financially literate than men. But does this gap reflect a lack of knowledge or a lack of confidence? To find out Maria Demertzis, deputy director of Bruegel is joined by Annamaria Lusardi, Professor of Economics and Accountancy at the George Washington University and non-resident fellow at Bruegel and Maarten van Rooij, senior economist at the Dutch Central Bank in The Sound of Economics.

Annamaria and Maarten explain their findings in a recently published paper that about one-third of the financial literacy gender gap can be explained by women’s lower confidence levels.

Relevant publication:

Bucher-Koenen F., R. Alessie, A. Lusardi and M. Rooij (2021) ‘Fearless woman: financial literacy and stock market participation’.

Pandemic aside, the past year has seen renewed discussions in Europe on transparency and good governance as the EU takes an unprecedented role in health policy and procurement and in the creation of common debt.

As part of an ongoing effort to capture a wide range of views from the European Parliament, this week in The Sound of Economics Guntram Wolff talks to Vice President of Renew Europe and MEP for Hungary, Katalin Cseh to discuss all things governance, human rights, and transparency of vaccine purchasing.

Maria Demertzis and Nicola Vegi join Giuseppe Porcaro to talk about their recent research on low interest rates, declining productivity growth and how to tackle this.

In both Europe and the United States, interest rates have been declining for more than fifteen years. For much of this period, real interest rates have been negative and they are expected to remain negative for at least another decade. The literature associates this decline in interest rates with a similarly protracted decline in productivity. But the decline in productivity appears paradoxical given major technological advances.

The structural factors behind the downward pressure on interest rates imply that macroeconomic policy will have a reduced role in managing aggregate demand. Monetary policy in the euro area will be more about preventing financial fragmentation and less about stimulating demand. Equally, fiscal policy will have more of a supporting rather than stimulating role.

Tackling the structural decline in market dynamism and therefore in real rates will require structural policies to reduce market power globally and ensure the creation of capital markets in the EU.

This podcast episode is part of Bruegel’s macroeconomic outlook series of The Sound of Economics, in which we bring you regular analysis of all things macro and fiscal policy.

This February, the European Commission published the Winter 2021 Economic Forecast with the estimation of a 3.7% increase in GDP in the EU in 2021. While this means a recovery from the pandemic, economic uncertainty still remains significant.

On the other side of the globe, the Biden administration has announced a $1.9 trillion fiscal package. Would this result in inflation risks? How will this affect European economies? And, what fiscal intervention is needed in the euro area?

Maria Demertzis, Deputy director of Bruegel, is joined by Elina Ribakova, Deputy Chief Economist at the Institute of International Finance, Christian Odendahl, Chief economist at the Centre for European Reform and Grégory Claeys, senior fellow at Bruegel to discuss the Commission forecast, recent US fiscal package and their insights of the macroeconomics outlook in the EU and globally.

Relevant publications:

Demertzis, M. (2021) ‘A K-shaped recovery and the role of fiscal policy’

Claeys, G. and M. Demertzis (2021) ‘The productivity paradox: policy lessons from MICROPROD’, Policy Contribution 01/2021, Bruegel

Demertzis, M., M. Domínguez-Jiménez and A. Lusardi (2020) ‘The financial fragility of European households in the time of COVID-19’, Policy Contribution 2020/15, Bruegel

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics.

ZhōngHuá Mundus is a new newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now to receive it in your mailbox! The middle-income trap describes a situation in which a country, having attained a certain income level, gets stuck there (due to given advantages). The high-income trap is of a similar nature, because although the positioning of these economies might be more advantageous to begin with, they find it difficult to promote innovation in manufacturing or upgrade to higher value-added services to remain competitive and provide benefits to a wider spectrum of society.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and Alicia García-Herrero are joined by Syaru Shirley Lin, Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. They discuss the middle/high-income trap in East Asia, and especially in China. Is the high-income trap different between East Asia and Western Europe, especially in terms of their economic relationship with China? How has COVID-19 changed the economic landscape?

Central bankers now seem keen to take on responsibility for policy objectives they have previously shied away from – in particular, tackling climate change. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde acknowledged in January that central bankers will have to look beyond their traditional duties to address the challenge. ECB Executive Board Member Isabel Schnabel said in September 2020 that central banks should be an active part of the collective effort to reduce carbon emissions. Executive Board Member Fabio Panetta said ECB analysis can help make climate-risk valuations more accurate.

Should central banks continue accommodating corporate bonds and bank loans of high carbon companies as collateral, or should they reduce them?

Giuseppe Porcaro, is joined by Rebecca Christie, Jean Pisani-Ferry and Dirk Schoenmaker to discuss the hot topic of the role of central banks in greening finance and possibly contribute to decarbonisation.

The three guests of this episode recently published a series of blog posts which tackle the issue from complementary perspective:

Christie, R. (2021) ‘US separates climate concerns from financial oversight in contrast to EU activism’, Bruegel Blog, 18 February

Pisani-Ferry, J. (2021) ‘Central banking’s brave new world’, 24 February

Schoenmaker, D. (2021) ‘A brown or a green European Central Bank?’ Bruegel Blog, 24 February

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to business. Since the first lockdowns, governments have used credit support programmes as the main instrument to mitigate the liquidity shock businesses have been facing. Have the programmes worked?

Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff is joined by Bruegel's very own Julia Anderson, Francesco Papadia and Nicolas Véron to talk about their research into credit support programmes in Europe’s five largest economies. They share their findings with us as well as possible policy implications. Related research: Anderson, J., F. Papadia and N. Véron (2021) ‘COVID-19 credit-support programmes in Europe’s five largest economies, Working Paper 03/2021, Bruegel

Dataset, Loan guarantees and other national credit-support programmes in the wake of COVID-19

Anderson J., Papadia F. and Véron N. (2020) ‘Government-guaranteed bank lending six months on’, Bruegel Blog, 29 September

Across the Atlantic, EU member states have been discussing a recovery plan since last spring, striking an agreement over the summer to create a €750 billion pandemic recovery fund. Hard-pressed EU capitals must now submit detailed plans to Brussels to unlock their share of the cash and begin rebooting their economies. One such country is Italy, where an ambitious once in a generation plan is being drawn up to spend €200 billion to relaunch an anemic economy. The hope is that by pushing through unpalatable reforms together with funds underwritten by 27 member states, that an economy that has not grown in real terms for over two decades can be jump started. Bruegel has been tracking the national recovery plans that states have been submitting to Brussels to unlock funds, and plans to release an overview soon.

Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel scholars Carlo Altomonte, Maria Demertzis and Zsolt Darvas to discuss economic stimulus and its implications.

For more details, please check our dataset on national fiscal response to the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

Bruegel will soon publish a new dataset on national recovery plans. Stay tuned!

The European Green Deal is a plan to decarbonise the EU economy by 2050, revolutionise the EU’s energy system, profoundly transform the economy and inspire efforts to combat climate change. But the plan will also have profound geopolitical repercussions and is likely to impact partner countries adversely. In the latest paper co-written by Bruegel and the European Council on Foreign Relations, the authors map out the geopolitical implications and lay out a foreign policy agenda to manage the geopolitical aspects of the European Green Deal and lead climate change efforts globally. In this episode of The Sound of Economics, co-authors Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as Jean Pisani Ferry, Simone Tagliapietra and Guntram Wolff of Bruegel introduce their paper and give their insight on this issue.

Related content:

Leonard, M., J.Pisani-Ferry, J. Shapiro, S. Tagliapietra and G. Wolff (2021) ‘The geopolitics of the European Green Deal’, Policy Contribution 04/2021, Bruegel

Event, The geopolitics of the Green Deal

On 30 November 2020 after over 7 years of talks, the European Union and China concluded negotiations for a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI for short).

The agreement is intended to increase investment between the EU and China by establishing a legal framework and common rules on issues ranging from state-owned enterprises to subsidy transparency and rules against the forced transfer of technologies. The deal replaces more than two dozen bilateral investment treaties between the EU’s 27 member states and China, improving market access for European companies operating — or intending to operate — in China and ensuring a level playing field and reciprocity when they do.

Does the agreement actually live up to the above claims and seven years of expectation? To help us find out, in this episode of the Sound of Economics Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bert Hofman, the director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore and Bruegel’s China expert Alicia García-Herrero, for a in depth commentary and glance at what the detail of the deal means for Europe.

Relevant publications: Demertzis, M. (2021) ‘An EU – China investment deal: a second look’ 19 January García-Herrero, A. (2021) 'Europe’s disappointing investment deal with China' 4 January

One year since the pandemic began, widespread vaccination has finally started. It would be a mistake however to say the end is in sight. Senior fellows Uri Dadush and J. Scott Marcus join Bruegel director Guntram Wolff to talk COVID-19 vaccine strategy, from testing and production to procurement and inoculation.

Relevant publications: Dadush, U. (2021) ‘A matter of life and death: governments must speed up vaccination’ Bruegel Blog, 13 January Marcus, J.S. (2021) ‘Has the European Union squandered its coronavirus vaccination opportunity?’ Bruegel Blog, 6 January Demertzis, M. (2020) ‘Are we out of the woods yet?’ 14 December

Poland is sometimes characterised as the black sheep of EU climate policy: in 2019, more than 70 percent of the country’s electricity was generated by coal. In the meantime, it is closing down coal mines and discussing building a nuclear power plant in order to diversify its energy supplies. What is Poland’s climate policy and how is it evolving? Is the idea of Poland’s characterisation as a scapegoat of the failure of international climate ambitions misleading?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel's Guntram Wolff and Georg Zachmann are joined by Michał Kurtyka, the Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland and former President of the COP24 in Katowice, considered by many as a climate champion in the country. They discuss current climate policy in Poland, the social impact of decarbonisation, how the EU’s recovery package can help smooth the climate transition, and the future of international climate diplomacy.

Research mentioned: Bergamini, E. and G. Zachmann (2020) ‘Understanding the European Union’s regional potential in low-carbon technologies’, Working Paper 07/2020, Bruegel Wolff, G. (2020) ‘Europe should promote a Climate Club after the US elections’

As the year draws to a close, Giuseppe Porcaro invites Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Guntram Wolff to review this eventful year in economic policy and beyond. The guests also talk about a book that has marked them this year and finally, their hopes and wishes for the decade ahead.

Events mentioned:

Monetary policy after the pandemic, with Janet Yellen

Together for Europe’s recovery and for a better, more sovereign Europe, with Olaf Scholz

The green deal: Europe’s growth strategy, with Frans Timmermans

Books mentioned: Zuboff, S. (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, PublicAffairs, New York.

Carreyrou, J. (2018) Bad blood: Secrets and Liies in a Silicon Valley Startup, Knopf, New York.

Aral, S. (2020) The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our economy, And Our Health–And How We Must Adapt ,New York Currency, New York.

Bratton, B. H. (2016) The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty ,MIT Press, Massachusetts.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Maria Demertzis, J. Scott Marcus, Georgios Petroupolos, and Mario Mariniello, Bruegel experts on digital policy to delve into the latest EU digital regulations: the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. What is the Commission proposing? What connections do these two bills have, and what policy and market implication do they have?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Paola Subacchi, Professor of international economics and chair of the advisory board of the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary University of London, and Bruegel senior scholars Alicia García-Herrero and Michael Leigh join Giuseppe Porcaro for an age old discussion but with a twist.

They try to understand the geopolitical role of money, in other words, currencies and capital flows. While unconstrained capital flows cause afflictions of the global economy, the current debate on currencies is in fact driven by politics rather than economics, as Alicia argued in an opinion piece recently: Politics, not economics, demands a strengthened international role for the euro. What would the next US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen do on the dollar?

Climate transition is hotly debated in EU circles as it impacts all areas of policy: from the ambitious climate targets set by the President of the European Commission with the European Green Deal, to the discussions of the next budget of the Union and the recovery plan from the current pandemic.

The topic is especially important for 2021 with a new US administration more likely to engage on climate change, a commitment for carbon neutrality in 40 years by China and the delayed COP26 under the leadership (or not) of the United Kingdom. Any European debate is certain to have an important impact on a regional and national level, but will also influence the global trajectory of climate policy.

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, Piotr Arak, Director of the Polish Economic Institute from Warsaw and Simone Tagliapietra, research fellow at Bruegel (joining from Italy) for a conversation on the political economy of the climate transition as covering the European Green deal, the concept of “green industrial policy”, and distributional challenges of decarbonisation.

The economy of the euro area is forecast to contract by 8.7% in 2020 but grow by 6.1% in 2021. The drop in GDP in 2009, the worst year of the financial crisis, was just over 5%. There is no doubt that the drop we face today is much more significant, although it is expected to be short-lived with a sharp bounce back. However, all EU countries are currently going through a second COVID-19 wave exponentially worse than the first in terms of number of infections, albeit with fewer deaths (so far). Who knows what the real hit to the economy will be, and indeed how long it will be before we can resume normality?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis, and Nicola Viegi, Professor of Monetary Economics at the University of Pretoria, who is based in South Africa. They will explore the theme of uncertainty, highlighted by the pandemic, and how to plan policy interventions, especially monetary policy, in this climate of uncertainty.

Maria Demertzis and Marta Domínguez-Jiménez, Bruegel research analyst have recently published a paper for the European Parliament on the topic, looking at the challenges faced by the European Central Bank: ‘Monetary policy in the time of COVID-19, or how uncertainty is here to stay’: https://www.bruegel.org/2020/11/monetary-policy-in-the-time-of-covid-19-or-how-uncertainty-is-here-to-stay/

On November 15 2020, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), creating the world’s largest free-trade bloc in terms of gross domestic product.

Bruegel fellows from around the world - Uri Dadush, based in Washington DC; Alicia Garcia-Herrero based in Hong Kong and Suman Bery based in India, bring their knowledge and geopolitical expertise to a heated discussion on this deal, hosted by director Guntram Wolff. What is the RCEP really about? Who will benefit? Why did India withdraw from negotiations on the deal? What implications will it have for Europe and the United States? And more importantly, what should they do?

Following Biden's victory in the US presidential election, what will the transatlantic relationship look like? Would it be a big relief, or nothing much will change? And will we see a shift from ‘America first’ to ‘buy American’?

This week Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined by Esther de Lange MEP, Vice Chair of the European People's Party Group, to talk us through what this all means for Europe, and more importantly for its place in the world. What next for European strategic autonomy? How will this affect climate policies? How can EU level the playing field while not getting squeezed by the US and China?

With Mrs de Lange’s experience within the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China, we also discuss that, as the US is trying to decouple economically with China, what would be the right strategy for Europe?

Taxation is one of the few areas of financial policy which the general public has great interest in, as it affects their everyday life directly. But when we talk about it on a European level, it has much to do with tax distortion and competition in the single market.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined by Sven Giegold MEP from the European Green Party. Giegold envisions a European common tax space, where minimum tax rates will be applied on a European level. They also discuss tax reporting regulations for large corporations, VAT reform, and how the Commission, European Financial Intelligence Unit and potentially a European financial police force can target money laundering and financial crime.

Born and bred in the United States, Bruegel scholars Rebecca Christie and J. Scott Marcus are joined by director Guntram Wolff, on a special edition of The Sound of Economics, to talk about the upcoming US election, the implications it will have for American and European Economic policies, as well as the impact on future transatlantic relations.

Rebecca and Scott will walk us through the most crucial domestic topics, from voter suppression to shrinking republican demographic, from the covid-19 pandemic to US healthcare system. On international issues, they look at the approaches the two administrations will likely take on climate, trade, data privacy, as well as financial regulations. While a Biden presidency might be the hope to reinitiate sensible discussions and restore alliance and partnerships, a Trump administration will very much likely continue its path on isolationism.

Find out more from Bruegel scholars for the upcoming US election: The future of EU-US trade relations after the US election What should Europe expect from American trade policy after the election?

Trump’s International Economic Legacy

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we invite Charles Goodhart and Manoj Pradhan to talk about their most recent book: 'The Great Demographic Reversal’. They argue that trends in demography and globalisation, especially the stunning rise of China combining both, have greatly weakened labour bargaining power and led to subsequent disinflation, inequality and falling interest rates. But just as these demographic and globalisation trends are now reversing, labour bargaining power will rise again, bringing with it more inflation, less inequality and rising interest rates. The coronavirus pandemic will only accelerate this reversal.

Bruegel scholars Maria Demertzis and Guntram Wolff join the authors for a conversation on ageing societies, waning inequality, as well as an inflation revival.

On 15-16 October the European Council will take stock of the implementation of the withdrawal agreement and review the state of the negotiations on the future EU-UK partnership. Leaders will discuss preparatory work for all scenarios after 1 January 2021. The timetable is very tight, with October seen as the last deadline for reaching an agreement that could then be ratified in time for entry into force by the end of the current transition period.

In this live recording session of The Sound of Economics, Bruegel’s scholars took a step back and provided the background, as well as outline the key issues at stake necessary to follow the discussions at the Council and understand the ongoing negotiations. We also engaged in an informed debate with the audience on the post-Brexit scenarios.

The podcast host, Giuseppe Porcaro, was joined by Maria Demertzis, André Sapir, and Guntram Wolff.

To read more about Bruegel's research on Brexit, please check: https://www.bruegel.org/tag/brexit/.

The European Union recovery fund could greatly increase the stability of the bloc and its monetary union. But the fund needs clearer objectives, sustainable growth criteria and close monitoring so that spending achieves its goals and is free of corruption. In finalising the fund, the EU should take the time to design a strong governance mechanism.

In this episode, Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel, is joined by MEP Luis Garicano, vice president of Renew Europe, who is also an economist and was heavily involved in the discussion on Next Generation EU, the new recovery instrument that the EU proposed for the Recovery and Resilience Facility. On this topic, they discuss the key concerns on how to ensure EU-borrowed money will be well-spent by the member states. MEP Garicano shares his insights from the Parliament of where this debate currently stands.

Read the Opinion of Guntram wolff on the topic: https://www.bruegel.org/2020/09/without-good-governance-the-eu-borrowing-mechanism-to-boost-the-recovery-could-fail/

In this episode, we propose a full lecture about the future of globalisation by Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, of Harvard University.

Rodrik argues that the model of hyper globalization we have been pursuing is unsustainable and that we have an opportunity to embark on a sounder, healthier globalisation. And he outlines his views on what such a globalisation might look like.

The Lecture took place during the Bruegel Annual Meetings and it was followed by a lively discussion between Dani Rodrik and André Sapir, who is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, which we have recorded and included in this podcast.

As we move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy solutions, the complexity of the global energy system has increased. With his new book published by Cambridge University Press, Global Energy Fundamentals, Simone Tagliapietra cuts through this complexity with a multidisciplinary perspective of the system, which encompasses economics, geopolitics, and basic technology.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel, discusses with the author the current status and future prospects of the global energy system.

On 16 September 2020 Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, delivered her first State of the Union address before the European Parliament. In addition to looking back at the past year, she presented the priorities for the year ahead, focusing on initiatives such as the European Green Deal and the Digital Strategy.

A conversation between:

Giuseppe Porcaro, Head of Outreach and Governance, Bruegel

Alicia García-Herrero, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

André Sapir, Senior Fellow

Guntram B. Wolff, Director

This is part of a special feature of the Sound of Economics reporting highlights from Bruegel Annual Meetings, which happened between 1 and 3 September 2020.

Usually physically gathering hundreds of people in Brussels every year, the Annual Meetings are the flagship event of Bruegel. This year, due to the pandemic, we held the event entirely online.

For this episode of the Sound of Economics we report the full speech delivered on 3 September by the Minister of Finance of Germany, Olaf Scholz, touching upon the key issues Europe is facing for its economic recovery and its own sovereignty in a complex global setting.

After the speech you will be able to follow as well a lively conversation Between the Minister, Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel, and Maria Demertzis.

more information about Bruegel Annual Meetings on www.bam.bruegel.org

This is the last episode of the summer feature of the Sound of Economics recorded as part of the Reopening Europe project. Between the 12th and the 27th of June, we traveled over 2700 kilometres through the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Slovenia and Italy to collect voices from the ground during the weeks when the borders were reopening after the COVID-19 spring lockdown. Since the start of summer, the pandemic has continued to ravage the globe, and in Europe we are currently seeing a resurgence of infections. The next few months continue to be uncertain in terms of medical and economic consequences. Given this context, the Reopening Europe project assumes additional layers: documenting the seemingly ephemeral moment of the summer reopenings, and reflecting about the hopes and wishes of Europeans at a unique moment. That is why, in this concluding episode of this feature, we reflect about the future. Not as an escapist wishful thinking, but as an attempt to start re-imagining a society, an economy and politics cohabiting with the virus and eventually overcoming it. For this reflection Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Bruegel’s senior scholar Alicia Garcia Herrero and Rutger Sjögrim, the architect that built the space ship featured in the movie Aniara (2018), and member of the Secretary studio in Stockholm.

On the fourth episode of this summer series of The Sound of Economics, recorded on the road as part of the Reopening Europe project, we talk with Antje von Dewitz, CEO of the outdoor equipment company- Vaude. We met her on June 17th in Tettnang, near Lake Konstanz, on the German/Swiss border, where her family company is located.

The Reopening Europe team was the first external visitor’s group to be admitted at the company headquarters after lockdown. Antje told Giuseppe about the effect of COVID-19 on her company, on retailers and consumer behaviour, and she told us of her vision for a post-pandemic economy which should work for the common good.

The OECD has estimated that COVID-19 will cause a 60% decline in international tourism in 2020. This could rise to 80% if recovery is delayed until December.

During their trip, the Reopening Europe team noticed the direct impact of the lockdown on cities such as Strasbourg or Salzburg, which were practically devoid of the usual tourist crowds.

In this latest installment of our summer series on Reopening Europe's trip across Europe at a unique moment, Giuseppe is in conversation with Ivo Tarantino, Head of Public Affairs & Media Relations at Altroconsumo, the largest independent and non-party political consumers’ organisation in Italy.

They hear contributions from-

Leone, a Gondolier in Venice;

Nives Monda, restaurant owner in the historic centre of Naples;

Emilio Casalini, journalist and writer;

Elvio De Monte, architect in Venice;

Jeannette Neumann, Bloomberg correspondent in Madrid.

In June 2020, as Europe reopened after lockdown, we crossed ten national borders. We listened to diverse citizens, from passers-by to politicians, business people to artists, recording, documenting, and publishing stories. In this second episode of Reopening Europe, we unpack some reflections about borders and the pandemic which we have collected along our journey. Giuseppe Porcaro is joined in by Martina Tazzioli, Lecturer in Politics and Technology at Goldsmith University, London. Her work is characterised by an interdisciplinary approach to political theory, migration and border studies and political geography. Recently, she has investigated the technologisation of the borders and how technologies constitute a battlefield for migrants, states and non-state actors.

They hear contributions from-

Felies Zomerplaag, a high school student in Meerssen, a few kilometres from the Belgian/Dutch Border;
Djuna Bernard, Member of the Luxembourgish Parliament;
Stephan Halbach, the CEO and owner of Klenke, a printing workshop in Dortmund, Germany;
Klemen Miklavič, mayor of Nova Gorica, on the Slovene/Italian border;
Jean Baptiste Couzin, the head of cross-border cooperation, in the Grand-est Region;
Michael Leigh, senior fellow Bruegel;
Ugo Rossi, Associate professorof Economic and Political Geography, Gran Sasso Science Institute;
Jeannette Neumann, Bloomberg correspondent, Madrid

This is a summer feature of the Sound of Economics in cooperation with the Reopening Europe project.

In June 2020, as Europe exited the COVID-19 Lockdown, we traveled more than 2700 kilometres through the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Slovenia and Italy to collect voices from the ground as the borders were reopening.

In this introductory episode, Giuseppe Porcaro chats with Michael Leigh. Their conversation was recorded in Florence on the 23rd of June. Michael is a Bruegel Senior Fellow and also Academic Director of the Masters in European Public Policy at the John Hopkins University in Bologna.

Michael told him about his experience locally in Bologna and they discussed the impact of the pandemic on various levels of government and the future of Europe.

Giuseppe gave Michael some insight about the journey and reveals which border was the only one on the trip where the crew were asked to produce papers.

As the Brexit negotiations are entering their final straight line, the question of trade agreements is heating up. Economists talk about the “cost of non Europe”. How much each country has gained from belonging to the EU’s single market? How much would it have missed out on if it didn’t belong to the single market?

In this week’s episode, we will look at the economic impact of the EU's last enlargement and ask who benefited the most: the old 15 or the new 13 members?

In their toolkit against a pandemic that knows no borders, several EU countries have bet on new technology from our era of globalisation: digital contact tracing COVID-19 apps.

But the way they've been rolled out illustrate troublesome limits to the EU digital single market.

In this episode we discuss financial fragility in European households in the time of COVID-19. Before the pandemic hit, a substantial share of households reported that they would be unable to handle a financial emergency. In some EU countries, many had savings equivalent to just a few weeks of basic consumption. Giuseppe is joined by Maria Demertzis, deputy director at Bruegel, and Anna Maria Lusardi, Academic Director of the George Washington University Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center who have authored a paper published by Bruegel on the topic

What did they find out, about how households finances have been impacted by the pandemic so far?

Episode's guests:

Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director, Bruegel

Anna Maria Lusardi, Academic Director of the George Washington University Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center

Hosted by:

Giuseppe Porcaro, head of outreach and governance at Bruegel

In a special live edition podcast of an event we organised recently with EU3D, we discuss how the current situation brought upon by the pandemic could shift the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ debate, whether EU treaty changes are back on on the agenda and what this would imply for the relation of the EU with its closely affiliated non-members.

Guntram Wolff is joined by Gabriele Bischoff, Member of the European Parliament, John Erik Fossum, Professor at the ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo and EU3D coordinator Kalypso Nicolaïdis.

The response to COVID crisis necessitates a lot of cash. So will the upcoming green transition.

But with Brexit, Europe lost its easy and practical access to the world’s largest financial market. So is today the right time to create a European capital markets union, with only one rule to ring them all; one rule to bind all 27 capital markets in the EU?

Since the end of May and throughout the month of June, many European Countries have lifted or loosened the lockdown measures set in place to fight the spread of the virus. One of the last measures still in place is the closure of international borders, which to some extent brought back to the memory a closed Europe, and border checkpoints, which many of our listeners that born after 1989 probably bene experienced, at least on the scale we have had. As this is somewhat an atypical and historical moment, we are going to embark in a peculiar journey, starting on Friday 12 June. Bruegel is supporting a project driving across 7 Countries and more that 2.500 kilometres to collect facts about how the border closure affected the economy and society, take a “temperature reading” of the perceptions of people, and make an analysis out of it. It is an exciting endeavour that sees Bruegel on the road, after these months of lockdown and countless zoom livestreams. It will provide a snapshot of the impact on the ground also of the European policies which we are more of a commonplace in our studies and in this podcast. You will be able to follow us on the road on the Bruegel channels, as well as the project website www.reopeningeurope.com This episode provides a background overview of the impact of the reopening on European value chains, future of work, and innovation. Guests Scott Marcus, senior fellow, Bruegel Niclas Poiters, research fellow, Bruegel Reinhilde Veugelers, senior scholar, Bruegel Host Giuseppe Porcaro, head of outreach and governance, Bruegel

The euro is, by definition an international currency. However, since being established in the late 90s the single currency has always been somewhat less than the sum of it's parts and has yet to challenge the US dollar for global dominance. Its international status declined with the euro crisis of 2008.

Could the reform of the institutional setup of the monetary union that many are arguing for in the wake of the covid-19 crisis boost the euro's status as a global currency?

Episode guests:Guntram Wolff, Bruegel Director

Alicia Garcia Herrero, senior fellow at Bruegel

Grégory Claeys, senior fellow at Bruegel

Hosted by:

Giuseppe Porcaro, head of outreach and governance at Bruegel

The pandemic is hurting emerging economies in at least three ways: by locking down their populations, damaging their export earnings and deterring foreign capital. Even if the pandemic will fade in the second half of the year, gdp in developing countries, measured at purchasing-power parity, will be 6.6% smaller in 2020 than the IMF had forecast in October.

In this episode we dig into the topic and sketch the possible tools that emerging economies can use to face the liquidity crisis. The conversation presents the analysis of the authors of a Bruegel Policy Contribution the topic.

Episode's guests:

Alicia Garcia Herrero, senior fellow at Bruegel

Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist of the Institute for International Finance

Hosted by:

Giuseppe Porcaro, head of outreach and governance at Bruegel

China’s financial sector has grown massively in size and has become systemically important. In addition, it has also become much more complex with increasing systemic risk.

The cyclical -beyond the structural – deceleration that the Chinese economy is undergoing is one of the key risks that the Chinese financial system is facing. At the same time, China has decided to open up its financial sector to foreign competition. What can foreign banks expect to find? Should they grab this opportunity? Giuseppe Pocarro is joined by independent economist Gary Liu and Bruegel Senior Fellow, Alicia García-Herrero.

Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak, governments have needed to act swiftly to combat the virus. Many countries currently have lockdown or measures alike in place. Yet, different countries approach the crisis in a noticeably different way.

Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore, join this live podcast recording and explain Singapore’s approach and the various measures taken in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has triggered a severe recession and policymakers in European Union countries are providing generous, largely indiscriminate, support to companies. As the recession gets deeper, a more comprehensive strategy is needed. This should be based on four principles: viability of supported entities, fairness, achieving societal goals, and giving society a share in future profits. The effort should be structured around equity and recovery funds with borrowing at EU level.

*In this episode we discuss the proposal for a recovery plan outlined in a recent paper by Julia Anderson, Simone Tagliapietra and Guntram Wolff which can be read here https://www.bruegel.org/2020/05/rebooting-europe-a-framework-for-a-post-covid-19-economic-recovery/

Participating to this episode:

Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director, Bruegel

Giuseppe Porcaro, Head of Outreach and Governance, Bruegel

Simone Tagliapietra, Research Fellow, Bruegel

Guntram Wolff, Director, Bruegel*

The first country to be hit by the current pandemic, China has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. What have been its impacts on the Chinese economy? What does it represent, more broadly, to the global economy? Are global supply chains really starting to be put into question? Today, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Alicia García-Herrero and Yiping Huang, Professor of Economics and Finance at the Peking University.

This podcast is a member of the Europod network.

The German Constitutional called today on the ECB to justify its bond-buying program. What does today's ruling of the German Constitutional Court mean for the ECB's QE program? Could such a decision open a precedent when it comes to contesting EU law? Today, Giuseppe Porcaro and Guntram Wolff are joined by Franz Mayer, chair of Public Law at the University of Belefield, to analyse the German Constitutional Court's ruling.

This podcast is a member of the Europod network.

Without a robust healthcare system and lack of medical equipment, emerging market economies are vulnerable to the current COVID-19 pandemic. How can developed countries help tackle the issue? Is international cooperation more needed than ever? This week, Giuseppe Porcaro and Guntram Wolff are joined by Barry Eichengreen to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on emerging markets.

On April 23, EU leaders met virtually to try to come to an agreement for a common European response to the COVID-19 pandemic. What were the measures taken? Will they be sufficient? Did Europe come together for a coordinated response to the crisis? Or did the meeting further highlight the cracks between member states? This week, Guntram Wolff and Giuseppe Porcaro are joined by Maria Demertzis and André Sapir to comment on the EU Council meeting.

This podcast is a member of the Europod network.

In this episode of The Sound of Economics Live, we discuss European coordination, national responses, and local effects in moving on the next phase of containment of the COVID-19 pandemic

Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director

Thomas Hale, Associate Professor in Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government; Fellow of St Antony's College, University of Oxford

Jean Pisani-Ferry, Senior Fellow

Giuseppe Porcaro, Head of Outreach and Governance Additional speakers to be confirmed

After its longest meeting ever, the Eurogroup reached an agreement yesterday evening. What does the agreement say? What does it mean in terms of the emergency reaction to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic? What does it mean, more broadly, for the future of Europe? This week, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Maria Demertzis, André Sapir and Guntram Wolff to discuss whether the Eurogroup can save the day.

This podcast is a member of the Europod network.The podcast started by the participants giving their view on the deal that was closed last night by the Eurogroup. Guntram Wolff noted that is was good to have a deal, even if it is small in his view. André Sapir also expressed reserved satisfaction for the deal. He was however not surprised, as more could only come from the heads of state and that it is part of the Eurogroup’s habits to increase firepower over time. Maria Demertzis found it is surprising that the longest ever Eurogroup meeting led to such a small result and though this was a bad signal. She did agree with her co-panellists that some agreement was better than no agreement in this case. Jumping into the debate, the panellists were asked to reflect on what the measures meant in more detail. André Sapir started by mentioning that of the €540 billion announced, about half (€240 billion) would be provided by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), each Member State would have access to a credit line equivalent to 2% of their GDP. He added that it was clear however that not all Member States would use the ESM credit line making the €240 billion a maximum rather than the actual amount deployed. Guntram Wolff agreed with this and noted that the ESM was after all a stopgap in case borrowing from the markets became less accessible for a certain country. He added that the ESM package also reflected a movement towards a larger role for fiscal policy in the Euro Zone which was positive. In addition, he noted that it was still the ECB, which through its interventions, is keeping the yields of countries like Italy down and allows them to implement ambitious economic support packages. On the same line, Maria Demertzis agreed and stated that while countries like the Netherlands and Germany do not need ESM credit lines, even countries such as Italy or Span might not use them, as they do not which to be subjected to the conditionality that is attached to it. Afterwards, the panel went on to discuss the other measures that were part of the package agreed upon by the Eurogroup. Maria Demertzis expressed her satisfaction about the common unemployment insurance, temporary Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE), which putting aside its relatively small size, is a step in the right direction. Indeed, it provides an automatic stabilizer and could set a good precedent. André Sapir expressed more reservation about whether SURE would one day become a permanent tool, given that its temporary nature is clear in the text. Guntram Wolff agreed that SURE was a good tool as it operates through credit guarantees and through the Commission’s budget. This means that money could be better directed at countries that need it the most. The panellists followingly discussed issues related to the Italian economy and whether this would lead to debt sustainability issues. Guntram Wolff mentioned that the economic downturn in Italy is likely to be huge, not so much because it was badly affected by the pandemic, but because tourism represents a large share of its economy. He did not think, however, that Italian debt would become unsustainable, at least not as long as yields remained low thanks to the ECB. He therefore argued that Italy should have a large economic support programme. Maria Demertzis was less convinced that Italy did not run any debt sustainability risks due to the current crisis. She noted that while yields mattered, the stock of debt and economic growth were also key determinants of debt sustainability. While the ECB would have to roll over Italian debt indefinitely and probably further expand its Italian debt holdings, low growth could still lead to a bad equilibrium. She called for a deeper reflection into options to monetize debt in order to keep it sustainable. Guntram Wolff agreed and added that the real limits were political and legal in this discussion. The panellists were asked to conclude with some final thoughts. André Sapir noted that it was important to keep in mind the needs of non-Euro Zone EU Member States, even if they appeared less affect by the pandemic for the moment. Maria focused on a quote from the final text of the agreement that she was positive about: “a response commensurate with the size of crisis”. She explained that it was reflective of the new awareness of the Eurogroup about the urgency of the situation. Guntram Wolff concluded with two final remarks. First, that one should not only look at the size of the Eurogroup’s package but rather at the size of fiscal support at a national level. Second, although the idea of a federal Europe seems desirable it remains distant, but it is in the interest of all Eurozone countries to help struggling neighbours and this should be reflected by the politics as well.

Economics seems to be full of myths that are hard to debunk. Will robots take our jobs? Are trade deficits bad? Is China such a big economy simply because of the size of its population? This week, Nicholas Barrett, Maria Demertzis, Marta Domínguez-Jímenez and Niclas Poitiers put on the detective cap and become Bruegel's own economic mythbusters.

Disclaimer: this podcast was recorded on the 3rd of March 2020, before the COVID-19 lockdown was put in place in Europe and the US. Hence, some parts of it are no longer applicable.

This podcast is a member of the Europod network.

From the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to "coronabonds", the EU seems to be struggling to find an appropriate mechanism to tackle the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. What is really the best option? And how do we ensure that, once the pandemic is over, we return to sustainable debt levels and competitive economies? This week, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined by Lucrezia Reichlin, professor of Economics at the London Business School, Grégory Claeys and Guntram Wolff to discuss the macroeconomic policy response to the COVID-19 crisis.

This podcast is a member of the EuroPod network.

The current pandemic is shaking the financial system. How can banks react ? Is a consolidation of the financial system in Europe needed in order to respond to this crisis ? Will our economies suffer from this pandemic as much as they did in 2008 ? This week, Giuseppe Porcaro is joined live by Guntram Wolff and Nicolas Véron to discuss banks and loan losses in the pandemic turmoil.

This podcast is a member of the EuroPod network.

From flights cancelled and restaurants closed to companies either slowing or stopping their production, COVID-19 is shutting our economies down. How can the EU reboot them? What should be our fiscal and monetary response to the pandemic? Will our economic system ever be the same once everything is over? This week, Guntram Wolff is joined by Jean Pisani-Ferry and Maria Demertzis to discuss the EU's response to the coronavirus.

This podcast is a member of the EuroPod network.

Disclaimer: due to the current circumstances, this episode was recorded remotely. Therefore, the sound quality isn't the same as in our previous episodes.

The field of economics, like many others, seems to be biased towards men. How are women disadvantaged? Makfire Alija and Katja Knezevic join Nicholas Barrett and Niclas Poitiers to discuss the systematic hurdles.

The coronavirus is going to hit the global economy hard, but how hard? What can policymakers plan for the months ahead? Nicholas Barrett asks Guntram Wolff and Maria Demertzis about economic symptoms and treatments

When it comes to global carbon emission is a tax the best form of defence? To make the European Green Deal work, the EU is considering a levy on carbon-intensive goods manufactured beyond its borders. But will a carbon border tax spawn a massive bureaucracy and lead to accusations of protectionism? To find out, Nicholas Barrett talked to Georg Zachmann and Ben McWilliams from Bruegel and Gabriel Felbermayr, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy

As China and the US battle for global supremacy, the EU seems to remain in the shadows. But what if the EU had been shaping the world economy all along without anybody noticing? Could its soft power be strong enough to shape regulations all over the world? What impact does such influence have over its own economy? This week, Giuseppe Porcaro and Guntram Wolff are joined live by Ashoka Mody, Professor in International Economic Policy at the Princeton University, and Anu Bradford, author of the book "The Brussels Effect: How the European Union rules the world".

As the Coronavirus continues to spread, schools have closed, flights have been canceled and entire towns have been quarantined. Most of those who contract the virus will undoubtedly survive, but can the same be said for globalisation? Is it time for economists to question the virtue of international supply chains? Should policymakers in the west be thinking twice about our material dependency on Chinese manufacturing? And is an economic contagion as dangerous as its medical equivalent? To discuss this, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Nicolas Veron and Niclas Poitiers, and down the line from Spain, by Alicia Garcia Herrero.

The European Green Deal is one of the landmarks of Ursula von der Leyen's Commission. But, without an ambitious investment behind it, what could be its potential implications for the EU? Could it go as far as to threaten the EU's single market? This week, Renew Europe's vice-president, MEP Luis Garicano, joins Guntram Wolff and Maria Demertzis to discuss not only the European Green Deal but also the EU Budget and the Banking Union.

Disclaimer: this episode was recorded on the 20th of February, before Bruegel hosted the event "The Ressurection of the European Banking Union".

Despite the political antagonism, the EU and Russia are not only geographically, but also economically, reliant on each other: European houses are heated using Russian natural gas and Russia is highly dependent on European investment. Should the EU develop closer political ties with Russia? How much leverage does the EU have when dealing with the Kremlin? This week, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Niclas Poitiers and Marta Domínguez-Jímenez to discuss European foreign direct investment in Russia.

From cashless payments to digital banking, finance has become intangible and global. But, while speed and convenience have made our international transactions easier, have we become more vulnerable? How can the EU respond to the increased risk of hybrid threats? This week, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Jukka Savolainen, Director of Community of Interest “Vulnerabilities and Resilience” at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, and Maria Demertzis, to discuss the risks that hybrid threats pose to the financial system.

While the US and China have been setting the pace when it comes to Artificial Intelligence, the European Union seems to be lagging behind. What are the Commission's plans to finally catch up? Will AI increase the gap between big and small companies? Nicholas Barrett asked Julia Anderson and Guntram Wolff

AI promises a new industrial revolution but history warns us that industrial revolutions aren't always that fun for people in the eye of the storm. This week, Nicholas Barrett and Maria Demertzis spoke with Dr. Carl Frey, author of the book "The technology trap: capital, labor, and power in the age of automation", and Robert D. Atkinson, President of Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), about how artificial intelligence will affect the job market.

On Saturday morning, the United Kingdom will wake up outside the European Union. After 37 years of collaboration, how will Brexit affect research and innovation in Europe and in the UK? What should be the next steps undertaken by both in order to maintain the same level of cooperation? This week, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Maria Demertzis, Guntram Wolff and Michael Leigh, Senior Adjunct Professor of European Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, to discuss a post-Brexit agreement for research and innovation.

It seems almost inevitable that Google will be big part of Europe's future. And Europe will be a huge part of Google's too. This week, Alphabet, Google's parent company, hit $1 trillion market cap for the first time. Can Google's AI be socially beneficial? Are big tech companies intrinsically bad? This week, Guntram Wolff talked to Google and Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai.

Will Brexit damage Britain's financial services industry? Or is talk of its diminished status just a storm in a teacup? The City of London could move closer to Wall Street or it might become "Singapore-on-Thames". Nicholas Barrett talks to Rebecca Christie about banking after Brexit.

The European Commission has presented its Just Transition Fund to help regions still dependent on fossil fuel as they move towards green energy. But where does the money come from and is it enough to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050? Should the EU re-write its fiscal rules to encourage sustainable investment? And should environmentalists be optimistic? Nicholas Barrett asked Simone Tagliapietra and Grégory Claeys.

Last Friday, Qassem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ QUDS force, was killed by an American airstrike outside Baghdad airport. Tehran has promised to retaliate. At the time of recording, the world is still waiting to see how Iran will respond. Some have speculated that they could disrupt the world’s oil markets by closing the Strait of Hormuz, which acts as a vital artery for around a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and almost a quarter of the world’s oil. Today, oil prices surpassed $70 a barrel and if tensions continue to escalate the price is bound to grow. How dependent is the global economy on affordable Middle Eastern fossil fuel? This week, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Maria Demertzis and Niclas Poitiers to discuss how the US-Iran hostilities are affecting the global economy.

2019 is coming to an end and so is the decade. How did economics change the world over the last ten years? And how did the world change economics? Which economics books defined the last ten years? And what should we anticipate in the decade to come? Today, Nicholas Barrett discusses the past and the future with Niclas Poitiers and Maria Demertzis.

Will AI exacerbate the gap between big companies and small ones? Do ordinary Europeans gain anything from having European tech giants? This week, Nicholas Barrett and Guntram Wolff went to the Berlaymont to interview Margrethe Vestager, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age.

How do states exercise power through global economic networks? The multilateral world order is supposed to be harmonious, but by seizing the nodes of production, powerful forces can control access to the global economic system and threaten to lock their rival out. This week, Nicholas Barrett and Guntram Wolff are joined by Henry Farrell, Professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University, and Abraham L. Newman, Professor of Government at the Georgetown University, to discuss their theory of weaponised interdependency

This week, the WTO's Appellate Body, the dispute settlement body, became inoperational: it no longer has the necessary number of judges to render verdicts. What does this mean for international trade and multilateralism? Are we now living in a world without dispute settlement? This week, Guntram Wolff is joined by Alan Beattie, the author of the FT's new Trade Secrets newsletter, and Alicia García-Herrero to discuss the crisis of the Appellate Body.

President Ursula Von der Leyen has presented her European Green Deal before the European Parliament. How will it work? What are its implications? And will it make Europe carbon neutral by 2050? Nicholas Barrett asks Simone Tagliapietra what's inside the Green Deal.

The UK goes to the polls on Thursday to decide who (and if) they want to "get Brexit done". But, as soon as Britain leaves, it will have 11 months to agree a trade deal with the EU. Is it possible? Nicholas Barrett is joined by Maria Demertzis and Niclas Poitiers to discuss post-Brexit trade deals with the EU and the USA.

Is the Belt and Road initiative a global development plan or is it just a trade project? How concerned should the international community be with what is called the "project of the century"? This week, Guntram Wolff discusses the Belt and Road Initiative with Prof. He Fang, from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dr. Jing Gu, director of the Centre for Rising Powers and Global Development, and Suman Bery, from Bruegel.

This podcast was recorded in Berlin at the Asia Europe Economic Forum (AEEF): https://bruegel.org/events/eu-asia-trade-and-investment-connectivity/

Russia wants to export more gas to China, should the EU be concerned? This week, Nicholas Barrett is joined by Georg Zachmann to discuss the EU-Russia-China energy triangle.

Will EU tech regulations undermine its ability to innovate? From facial recognition to the production of “deep fakes”, artificial intelligence poses many ethical questions. In a world where China and the US are investing massively in AI, how can the EU protect its values while harnessing technology? These are some of the questions we discuss with Brent Mittlestadt, from the University of Oxford, and Andre Loesekrug-Pietri, from the Joint European Disruptive Initiative, in our new Sound of Economics podcast. The podcast is hosted by Guntram Wolff and Nicholas Barrett.

Guntram Wolff is joined by Alan Beattie, the author of the FT's new Trade Secrets newsletter, and by Andre Sapir, Bruegel's very own trade expert to discuss President Trump's tariffs and whether or not they're working

Don't worry if you missed part one because all of Bruegel's pillars for a European Green Deal are created equal. This time, Nicholas Barrett and Guntram Wolff discuss industrial policy and the social consequences of the green deal with Grégory Claeys and Simone Tagliapietra. To read the paper in full, visit Bruegel.org

The European Green Deal will be a defining feature of Ursula Von der Leyen's incoming Commission. But will carbon border taxes and single carbon prices be enough to make Europe carbon-neutral by 2050? This week, Nicholas Barrett and Guntram Wolff discuss Bruegel's new paper 'How to make the European Green Deal Work' with Grégory Claeys and Simone Tagliapietra.

Digital banking has made our lives easier, but why are people use mobile banking more likely to be overdrawn? This week Maria Demertzis and Nicholas Barrett are joined by Annamaria Lusardi, Denit Trust Endowed Chair of Economics and Accountancy from George Washington University School of Business to discuss financial literacy

With interest rates so low for so long, central bankers are running out of levers to pull. But perhaps better fiscal policy can help economies grow as well as cutting carbon emissions. Politicians, journalists and economist have spent years bickering about the quantity of public spending in Europe, but the quality of public spending could be just as important. This week's podcast features Maria Demertzis, Boris Cournede, Francesco Papadia and Nicholas Barrett.

The British government has reached a deal with the EU27. The agreement is still subject to approval by the British and European parliaments, as well as the European Council. But is it good news for Brussels? How will Britain strike favourable trade deals when all this is over? And, with a new relationship between Brussels, London and the world yet be realised, is this the beginning of the end or just the end of the beginning?

Nicholas Barrett and Guntram Wolff talk to Kalypso Nicolaïdis, author of Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit. Together they discuss the mythology that binds Britain to continental Europe

The European Union and Mercosur – a customs union covering Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – have spent two decades negotiating a trade agreement. The gains are modest the ratification process will be anything but easy. Nevertheless, the deal is worth fighting for according to Uri Dadush. This week he joins Nicholas Barrett on our Deep Focus podcast to discuss the perils and process of an agreement that could be as significant to the globe's climate as it is for the global economy.

Read the latest policy contribution by Michael Baltensperger and Uri Dadush on the same topic.

Increasing cyber and hybrid risks will test the European Union’s system of fragmentation on issues of security but centralisation on financial and other economic issues. This asymmetry was not an obstacle in a world in which security threats were more contained or of a different nature. But the world is changing. But what is a hybrid attack and whose responsibility is it to deal with? Last week Bruegel's Director, Guntram Wolff and our Deputy Director Maria Demertzis presented a paper on the subject to ECOFIN, an informal meeting of European finance ministers in Helsinki. In this episode of Bruegel's "Sound of Economics" podcast, Nicholas Barrett sits down with Guntram Wolff to find out.

The layout of the commission has largely changed this year. A key part being that there are now three executive Vice Presidents, driving three main economic issues. Frans Timmermans, responsible for the implementation of the Green Deal; Margrethe Vestager, responsible for the digital age and competition policy and Valdis Dombrovskis, responsible for economy and financial services. The major change being that, in this commission, the Vice Presidents also have their own portfolio and Directorate-Generals to oversee, suggesting these three will be instrumental in driving the political priorities of commission.

In this episode of 'The Sound of Economics' Bruegel director Guntram Wolff discusses with Simone Tagliapietra the new commission setup and Ursula von der Leyen's European Green Deal.

In his previous blog post on the Green Deal, Simone argues not only does it aim to reduce the continent's emissions, but it also has the potential to grow the EU's economy and transform the bloc's politics. He also states the green deal has the motivation to achieve very high climate targets in quicker time than foreseen.

For further reading on this topic, we recommend another recent blog post by Simone Tagliapietra on the global summits between now and November 2020 that are crucial to the future of climate change.

Should competition policy adjust to current concerns and support industrial policy? How can we contextualise long-run consumer welfare? How can we maintain independence and objectivity in enforcement? In this podcast, Rebecca Christie discusses competition policy, with Mathew Heim.

Is current financial architecture working as intended? If not, can it be fixed at the margin, or does it require holistic overhaul? Can such reforms be envisaged in a way that gives satisfaction to most or all member states? In this podcast, Rebecca Christie discusses financial sector architecture with Nicolas Véron.

What can the EU’s incoming leadership do to protect Europe’s economic autonomy in light of America and China’s economic, geopolitical struggle for supremacy? In this podcast, Nicholas Barrett discusses enhancing Europe’s economic sovereignty, with Jean Pisani-Ferry.

How complete is Europe’s monetary union? Is the euro area ready for a next recession or an economic crisis? What should be the reform priorities? In this podcast, Nicholas Barrett discusses the priorities for Europe’s monetary union, with Zsolt Darvas.

Will increasing use of AI, machine learning, robots and big data lead to massive unemployment? How are non-traditional workers and the self-employed to obtain health insurance and pensions? What role should public policy play going forward? In this podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro discusses the future of AI, robots and platform workers, with J. Scott Marcus.

When the last Commission took office in 2014, Europe was consumed by the eurozone crisis. Today, the incoming leadership must decide how to deal with a variety of issues. In this podcast, Rebecca Christie discusses the priorities for the new EU leadership, with Guntram Wolff.

What corporate strategies and public policy support are needed to turn the potential of digital technologies into opportunities for sustainable growth of EU firms, and for addressing EU societal challenges? In this podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro discusses how Europe’s economy can thrive in the digital age, with Reinhilde Veugelers.

How should and will the EU position itself vis-à-vis the US and China, both bilaterally and multilaterally in the context of the WTO system? In this podcast, Giuseppe Porcaro discusses Europe’s trade policy, with André Sapir.

When the dust settles after the recent European elections, and as the new Commission takes office, the problem of climate change - and its accompanying policy challenges - will remain one of the EU's chief agenda items.

One significant facet is the transition of Europe's energy generation to more renewable sources. The EU has to find a way to decarbonise particular sectors much more quickly than has been managed so far, while allowing for and managing the distributional consequences of such policies for the continent's population.

Simone Tagliapietra has co-written a research paper on energy transition with his Bruegel colleague Georg Zachmann, as well as Jean-Michel Glachant, director of the Florence School of Regulation; Pedro Linares, professor at Universidad Pontificia Comillas; Andreas Loeschel, professor at the University of Muenster; and Ottmar Edenhofer, director and chief economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

If you would like to read more on this topic, we suggest Simone Tagliapietra's article the geopolitical implications of the global energy transition. Equally, we recommend an episode of our Backstage podcast series, where the same scholar hosts a discussion on the next decade of energy transition in Europe with Sir Philip Lowe, former director general at the European Commission, DG ENER, and Alberto Pototschnig, director at the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).

A difficult proposition faces the new ECB president – monetary union remains incomplete, the bank lacks room to manoeuvre in applying new tools, and it is not yet clear what constitutes the new economic ‘normal’.

In this episode of 'The Sound of Economics' Bruegel director Guntram Wolff addresses deputy director Maria Demertzis and research fellow Grégory Claeys, who together with senior fellow Francesco Papadia have written a memo to the incoming ECB president.

In their note, the authors state that the ECB needs to begin this eight-year term by reviewing monetary policy framework to account for the increasingly uncertain environment in which it will have to operate. In that vein, the incoming president will have to be prepared to emulate previous actions, providing certainty when it cannot be found elsewhere.

In addition, the authors propose methods by which the ECB can bolster the euro-area architecture while continuing to fulfil its role in promoting financial stability.

For further reading on this topic, we recommend a recent blog post by Grégory Claeys and Tanja Linta on the evolution of the ECB governing council's monetary-policy decision-making process.

The next president of the ECB, much like his predecessors, will have the difficult task of dealing with the balance between speaking with one voice and making timely, optimal decisions for the euro area as a whole.

In this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis speaks with Bruegel research fellow Grégory Claeys about the evolution of decision-making of the previous three governors and the differences in the effects of interest rates.

Grégory Claeys and Tanja Linta have published a blog post creating a database to look back and examine precisely how decisions have been taken since the ECB was created.

Cohesion policy remains a contentious topic in the EU, central as it is to the matter of convergence between regions. The need to share economic growth throughout the bloc is particularly acute in the wake of notable electoral advances from several more populist political parties in Europe in recent years.

Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas explains how his recent study, co-written with Jan Mazza and Catarina Midões, adopts a new methodology with the aim of avoiding the complicating factors that have underpinned the greatly varied results of many previous assessments of cohesion-policy effectiveness. He explains further how the EU might refine its implementation of cohesion policy, and looks ahead to what might be the biggest obstacles to improvement.

For further reading, we recommend the Bruegel Policy Contribution at the centre of this Deep Focus episode, ‘How to improve European Union cohesion policy for the next decade’.

The next presidents of the European Commission, Council and Parliament will inherit a relatively healthy European economy, but will face three formidable challenges in the next five years. First, the incoming presidents must define Europe’s place in an increasingly bipolar world driven by a geostrategic rivalry between the United States and China. Second, global warming is a reality and temperatures appear to be rising faster than forecast. Third, the three presidents need to manage the economy and EU cohesion. In this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff speaks with Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis about the specific measures that the new incumbents should take to tackle these challenges. Together with senior fellow André Sapir, the two discussants have co-written Bruegel’s memo to the three new presidents, elaborating on the policy priorities for the next institutional cycle.

In this episode of 'The Sound of Economics', Bruegel senior fellow Georg Zachmann continues the Backstage series with an interview with Massimo Tavoni, professor at the Politecnico di Milano and director of EIEE.

The discussion point is climate modelling - specifically its use and the necessity of complexity in some of its formulations.

Some climate models are very straightforward, and this allows for the building of a solid base. But interaction between complex systems requires consideration of a multitude of factors, not all of which are easily measurable.

Modelling can be productive as a means of plotting a route to a policy goal such as the Paris Agreement. And the outcomes are best viewed as producing only one of many possible routes that could be taken.

These models are increasingly relevant for numerous sectors, all beginning to factor in not only climate change but climate-change policy.

If you are interested in more on this topic, we recommend the Bruegel Blueprint co-written by Georg Zachmann with Grégory Caleys and Gustav Fredriksson on the distributional effects of climate policies.

The European Union's next framework programme for innovation and research - 'FP9', better known as Horizon Europe - will run from 2021 to 2027. With the rise of China as an increasingly direct competitor with the EU and the US, this will be a vital period. Bruegel senior fellow Reinhilde Veugelers, together with Michael Baltensperger, has produced an analysis for the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The research paper, on which Reinhilde elaborates in this episode of the Deep Focus podcast, looks at what needs to be prioritised in the next framework programme in order to maintain and improve Europe's position as a leader in this increasingly competitive field. For further reading we recommend the paper in question, 'Europe – the global centre for excellent research', as well as Reinhilde Veugeler's previous Bruegel Policy Contribution, 'Are European firms falling behind in the global corporate research race?'

The keyword in Ukraine right now is ‘uncertainty’, as the country prepares to elect a new parliament in July only a few months after electing a new president.

Not only will the new government have a role in stabilising and growing the economy following the 2014-15 economic crisis, but they will face the challenge of a large debt repayment during their term while dealing with an aggressive Russia.

In a political climate that is known for being corrupt and not respecting the rule of law, there are opportunities to change the country beyond economic policy.

In this episode of the Backstage podcast series, Giuseppe Porcaro, head of communications and events at Bruegel, hosts non-resident fellow Marek Dabrowski and Hlib Vyshlinsky, executive director at the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES) to discuss the opportunities for the new government and the best recipe of reforms. For further reading, we recommend this blog post written by Marek Dabrowski about Ukraine’s struggle for reform, as well as this policy contribution on Ukraine’s unfinished reform agenda.

An analysis of the results of the most recent European elections reveals what Bruegel director Guntram Wolff classifies as a generally positive trend in electoral participation across the EU, with an overall increase of 7% in voter turnout since the last elections in 2014. Additionally, populist parties in the European Parliament seem to have been prevented from gaining ground.

However, election results in some EU member states were not as pro-EU at the national level. In this podcast, Guntram Wolff welcomes Ferdinando Giugliano from Bloomberg and Krzysztof Blusz from WiseEuropa to discuss the results in each guest's home countries - Italy and Poland, respectively - and how the nationalist trends in each state might play a role in politics in the new European Parliament and European Commission.

If you are interested in Bruegel's work concerning the European elections, we recommend our blog post: ‘Spitzenkandidaten visions for the future of Europe’s economy’, which features the candidates for the next president of the European Commission. You can also visit the main page for our Spitzenkandidaten series, to review the content in full.

Giuseppe Porcaro hosts Bruegel director Guntram Wolff and visiting fellow Rebecca Christie to reflect on the key policy positions taken by the candidates for the European Commission presidency, ahead of May's elections.

European elections are fast approaching. With them comes not just a visit to the polls, but the beginning of a sequence involving the European Parliament and the Council that will eventually decide who becomes the next president of the Commission. The Spitzenkandidaten process sees each of the parties put forward their nominated candidate - or candidates - one of whom should eventually assume the presidency, if the various criteria can be met.

Looking back upon Bruegel's recent six-part series of events, held in partnership with the Financial Times, the discussants assess the candidates' views on Europe's future industrial policy path, the EU's stance on the growing trade dispute between the US and China, as well as the most vital and realistic euro-area reforms for the next five years. The debate also considers how each of the candidates might be positioning themselves and their parties in the complex process of selecting a new president.

Giuseppe Porcaro leads the review with Bruegel visiting fellow Rebecca Christie and director Guntram Wolff, in this special edition of the Backstage series.

If you would like to review the series in more depth, we recommend our blog post: ‘Spitzenkandidaten visions for the future of Europe’s economy’, which contains extracts and video clips from the events. You can also visit the main page for our Spitzenkandidaten series, to review the content in full.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff and Bruegel fellow Uri Dadush welcome William Alan Reinsch, senior adviser and Scholl chair in international business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a discussion of how China-US relations are developing in the context of unfolding trade war.

With President Trump increasing tariffs on the US' imports from China and China retaliating in kind, the trade dispute between the two countries is escalating quickly.

Here the discussants elaborate on the disruption caused by trade tariffs, the likelihood of China acquiescing to US demands with regard to economic reform, and where the EU might figure in the stand-off.

Guntram Wolff introduces this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics', welcoming Bruegel fellow Uri Dadush as well as William Alan Reinsch, senior adviser and Scholl chair in international business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If you are interested in more of Bruegel's work on this topic, we suggest Uri Dadush's blog post on the full implications of the escalating trade dispute between the US and China. We also recommend Alicia García-Herrero's working paper on the EU's options amid the China-US trade turmoil.

'The Sound of Economics' podcast continues with an instalment of the Deep Focus series, with Bruegel fellow Marek Dabrowski talking to Sean Gibson about the findings of his research paper on Russia's growth problems (co-written with Antoine Mathieu Collin).

The Russian economy has weathered several crises in recent decades, most recently between 2014-16. Though this latest dip was relatively not so deep, growth has returned much more slowly this time around than in previous years.

Some problems are age-old, while others are a product of recent political movements and developments. In this episode the conversation specifies some of Russia's institutional shortcomings and structural economic weaknesses, accounting for the country's efforts at macroeconomic management and the evolving demographic difficulties particularly concerning Russia's working-age population.

The discussion also reflects on the particular economic impacts of Russia's involvement in Ukraine, and looks ahead to the most vital and realistic possible remedial measures that could yet be taken.

If you are interested in more of Bruegel's work on this topic, we recommend Marek Dabrowski's blog post on how Russia's foreign policy obstructs its attempts at economic modernisation. Also consider the same author's recent publication, 'Can emerging markets be a source of global troubles again?'

Bruegel fellows Rebecca Christie and Nicolas Véron discuss how the map of the EU's financial services industry has begun to change, and how it might eventually settle.

The Brexit process has begun to unravel the supremacy of London as the financial centre of Europe, yet it remains unclear how the map of the EU's financial system will eventually be refigured.

Several cities have emerged to compete not only for the business that is leaving the UK's capital but for new investment as well. This raises broader questions about whether it is more beneficial to have a single hub or to spread financial services across numerous locations. It also poses difficulties for firms that relocate, some of whose general staff may prefer a different destination to that desired by the lawyers and compliance officers.

Brexit has set in motion events that will not be undone even if the UK were to throw the process in full reverse, and remain in the EU, and the idea has been mooted that Brexit merely accelerated a desertion of London that may have happened in any case. Still, the future landscape of the EU's financial services industry will still largely depend on the final shape of the UK's future relationship with the EU. Broadly, observers would expect a harder Brexit to yield a swifter and more seismic movement away from London.

In this episode of the Bruegel Backstage podcast series, Bruegel visiting fellow Rebecca Christie and senior fellow Nicolas Véron discuss the early developments in this direction, and the likeliest areas of future progression.

Each of the discussants made presentations at the Bruegel event 'The emerging new geography of financial centers in Europe', which was conducted under the Chatham House rule.

For further reading, we recommend this article written by Nicolas Véron about the relocation of banking business from London to elsewhere in Europe in the wake of the Brexit referendum vote.

Maria Demertzis sits down with Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir to break down the news, discussing the events leading up to the renewed EU-US trade talks, and the likely future course.

On 15 April 2019, the European Council approved mandates for the Commission to resume trade negotiations with the United States, which are to be centered around eliminating industrial tariffs. Although already a breakthrough, the talks are set to encounter many difficulties given their highly political nature.

Bruegel's deputy director Maria Demertzis sits down with senior fellow André Sapir to assess the news, discussing the events leading up to the renewed talks and the likely future outcomes.

A consistent theme in the making of any EU trade deal is the repeated declaration that it would only engage with countries that are signatories to the Paris Agreement. In 2017, the Trump administration announced the US' intention to withdraw from that agreement, which should in theory exclude the possibility of a trade deal. Maria and Andre discuss just how likely it is for the deal to come to fruition against this backdrop.

Lastly, the discussants touch upon how the fractured EU-US trade relationship affects the multilateral trading system and, by extension, global economic growth.

For further reading, we recommend the Policy Contribution of Uri Dadush and Guntram Wolff, which analyses how Europe can act in the interest both of itself and the multilateral system amid the ongoing global trade crisis. Similarly, consider Alicia García-Herrero's recent Working Paper on the the options available to the EU in the face of the US-China trade stand-off.

In this episode of the Director's cut, Guntram Wolff discusses with Alicia Garcia Herrero about the results of the 21st EU-China Summit.

The EU and China committed to further strengthen the EU-China strategic partnership at the 21st EU-China summit. Both sides agreed on a joint statement setting out the direction for EU-China relations in the years to come. Leaders expressed their joint support for multilateralism and rules-based trade. They reaffirmed their joint engagement to reform the World Trade Organisation. The EU and China agreed to work together to address industrial subsidies. They also discussed foreign and security issues in their respective neighbourhoods.

Bruegel's director and Alicia Garcia Herrero comment on the joint declaration and the challenges for the next steps in this cooperation.

Further reading on Eu-China on Bruegel website

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff talks to Padmashree Gehl Sampath, a Berkman Klein fellow at Harvard University, on the consequences of ‘new manufacturing’ for European industrial policymaking.

In this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel’s Guntram Wolff discusses Industry 4.0 with Harvard University Berkman Klein fellow Padmashree Gehl Sampath.

Europe is yet to truly explore what interventions can and should be made with regard to the digitisation of industrial policy. But the ongoing development of technologies obliges the EU to examine how best to create a level playing-field for companies, and how to ensure that newly compiled sets of data can contribute positively to the welfare of its citizens.

The deployment of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation brought into focus the potential negative consequences of people’s data being amassed. Yet, as the discussants consider here, there are many potential works to which these data can be put that would serve a greater public good. But this will only follow once policymakers formulate fresh approaches tailored to the challenge, and propose how they will follow through on their aforementioned obligations.

If you would like to read more on this topic, we recommend our blog post by Silvia Merler on machine learning and economics.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff and senior fellow André Sapir discuss how potential WTO reform might position the organisation differently towards China.

In this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics', Guntram Wolff talks to Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir about his upcoming paper on the WTO reform, specifically what is necessary in order for the Chinese economic system to be compatible with the global multilateral trading system.

China has recently been atop the European policy agenda, especially with President Xi's recent visits to Rome and Paris ahead of the EU-China Summit in April. The discussants here walk us through the main challenges in the EU's quest to position itself vis-à-vis China, including the issues of forced technology transfers and the behaviour of Chinese state-owned enterprises.

For further reading, we recommend the Bruegel Policy Contribution by Uri Dadush and Guntram Wolff on how Europe should approach the unfolding crisis in global trade.

This episode of 'The Sound of Economics' features Bruegel senior fellow J. Scott Marcus in conversation with Lise Fuhr, director general, European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO).

The next wave of mobile network innovation is provoking great excitement in the industry. And indeed, there is substantial potential for improvement. However, the exact form of the technology and the appropriate policy support are still far from clear.

The next generation of mobile technology, 5G, is being developed along markedly different lines from previous generations. In the past, mobile generations were generally characterised by a core technology (or sometimes by two or more core technologies), and were designed to fulfil the requirements of a fairly small number of mobile voice and data applications. By contrast, 5G is being developed to fulfil the needs of multiple use cases.

In this episode Scott Marcus and Lise Fuhr outline the challenges of 5G deployment in Europe, their policy implications, and the impact for the citizens.

For further reading we recommend the blog post by Scott Marcus High expectations for 5G confront practical realities.

This podcast was recorded during the event Rethinking Industrial Policy in the Digital Age, an all-day conference held on 21 March 2019, about how the European policy-making will have to adapt to the digital transformation.

Bruegel's Maria Demertzis welcomes Yale Law School professor Yair Listokin to this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics', to discuss how law might be deployed as a macroeconomic tool to counter financial crisis.

In this episode of Director's Cut, Bruegel's deputy director Maria Demertzis talks to Yair Listokin, a professor at Yale Law School, about the effect law could have on achieving macroeconomic objectives.

In his new book titled 'Law and Macroeconomics', Yair Listokin puts forward the idea that law has the ability to function as an instrument of macroeconomic policy. He argues that the time it took for private spending to recover after the 2008 financial crisis could have been cut, had legislation played a more vital role in the process.

Here the two elaborate on these ideas, focusing particularly on the perceived trade-off between law's role in maintaining stability, and its potential to be used as a real-time response to economic shocks. They also discuss the applicability of this policy approach in the European reality of multiple legal frameworks and central banks struggling to stimulate aggregate demand at the zero lower interest rate bound.

You can find more on macroeconomic policy in previous editions of the Director's Cut. First, we recommend Bruegel director Guntram Wolff's conversation about the growth and stability challenges facing the global financial system, with Tharman Shanmugaratnam, deputy prime minister of Singapore and chair of the G20 Eminent Persons Group, and Jean Pisani-Ferry, mercator senior fellow at Bruegel. Second, consider Maria Demertzis' discussion with Martin Sandbu of the Financial Times, on the topic of what the field of economics has learned in the decade since the financial crisis.

This episode of 'The Sound of Economics' features Bruegel visiting fellow Elina Ribakova in conversation with Marc-Olivier Padis and Jean-Paul Tran Thiet about the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).

Asylum is a fundamental human right and an international obligation, first recognised in the 1951 Geneva Convention on the protection of refugees. Between 2013 and 2017, 4 million asylum applications were filed in the EU. This high number resulted in growing tensions between Member States, with some of them displaying non-cooperative behaviour.

The migration crisis of 2015 revealed the inadequacies of European legal tools and, by extension, management of migration flows. In this context, Institut Montaigne jointly with Terra Nova have written a report which calls for a reform of the European asylum policy and for a rapid, unified response to the humanitarian emergency in the Mediterranean.

In the context of recent rise of populism and nationalist tendencies in Europe, creating a binding mechanism for solidarity is a daunting task. Currently, the EU is in the process of reshaping the Common European Asylum System, but the negotiations have shown close to no progress.

In this episode of Backstage, Elina Ribakova, a visiting fellow at Bruegel welcomes Marc-Olivier Padis, head of studies department at Terra Nova, and Jean-Paul Tran Thiet, senior fellow at Institut Montaigne, to make a case for this reform. Together, they discuss the key elements of the revised system, which include improved monitoring of the asylum process, as well as efforts for equitable burden sharing.

For further reading, we recommend our blueprint “People on the move: migration and mobility in the European Union“, written by Uuriintuya Batsaikhan, Zsolt Darvas and Inês Gonçalves Raposo.

Zolt Darvas also contributed to the debate on migration and refugees in Europe with two blogs on similar topics: “Beyond border control, migrant integration policies must be revived“ and “The challenge of fostering financial inclusion of refugees“.

This podcast episode was recorded during an event Saving the right to asylum on March 5th, 2019.

This episode of 'The Sound of Economics' features Bruegel research fellow Simone Tagliapietra in conversation with Sir Philip Lowe and Alberto Pototschnig about the progress of the European energy transition as we prepare to enter the third decade of the 21st century.

In this episode of Backstage, Bruegel's Simone Tagliapietra welcomes Sir Philip Lowe, former director general at the European Commission, DG ENER, and Alberto Pototschnig, director at the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).

Together, they elaborate on the main trends driving the European energy transition towards greater sustainability, energy security and economic competitiveness. They also assess whether the EU has the necessary institutions to ensure a smooth process for a rapidly growing and more integrated energy market. Among the key challenges is the effective management of an increasingly democratised energy sector, which requires – among many things – innovative solutions in energy storage and use of renewables.

The discussants also touch upon the subject of distributional effect of climate policies, as the recent unrest in France shows that this issue will sit high on the agenda as new strategies are implemented over the coming years.

For further reading, we recommend a Policy Contribution co-authored by Simone Tagliapietra on European automotive industry's place in the global electric vehicle revolution, as well as a Blueprint by Grégory Claeys, Gustav Fredriksson and Georg Zachmann on distributional effects of climate policies.

This podcast episode was recorded during an event The European Energy Transition: A year ahead of the Twenties on February 19th, 2019.

Bruegel fellow Dirk Schoenmaker walks Sean Gibson and 'The Sound of Economics' listeners through his latest working paper, focusing on how to make monetary policy in Europe more climate-friendly

In this episode of the Deep Focus podcast series, Bruegel's Dirk Schoenmaker explains his proposed greener alternative to the ECB's current 'market-neutral' approach to monetary policy.

Elaborating on research contained within a recent Bruegel working paper, the author shows that significant strides can be made while remaining within existing constraints and with due considerations for the primary vital purpose of monetary policy.

If you would like to learn more on this topic, we recommend Dirk Schoenmaker's blog post on greening monetary policy, published in conjunction with the aforementioned working paper.

In this episode of Director's Cut, Stephanie Segal of CSIS joins Bruegel's Guntram Wolff and Maria Demertzis for a conversation about the tension between free trade and national security issues, and the emerging threats to multilateralism.

In a changing geopolitical order, with China on the rise, the linkage of economic and national security is more evident than ever. The boom of disruptive new technologies is accompanied by increasingly country-centric political tendencies, and the more and more antagonistic stance of the US towards the EU and China. Taken together, a unique setting emerges for dealing with pressing issues in economic security.

Stephanie Segal, deputy director and senior fellow of the CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy, joins Bruegel director Guntram Wolff and deputy director Maria Demertzis to discuss the looming challenges.

They sketch out the approach taken by key global players to balance the continuous benefits of free trade against the need to safeguard national security interests. The new trade-restrictive measures – such as increased scrutiny over foreign direct investment – have obvious consequences for global economic growth and the rules-based multilateral trading system. The discussants elaborate on the importance of preserving multilateralism, and the role of international organisations in the process.

For further reading, we recommend an opinion piece by Jean Pisani-Ferry where he portrays the current international economic and geopolitical order as increasingly reminiscent of chess, as well as an economic blogs review by Bowen Call on the impact of recent US mid-term elections on the world economy.

Bruegel senior fellow J. Scott Marcus joins Sean Gibson for this episode of Deep Focus on the 'The Sound of Economics', elaborating on a Bruegel study for the European Parliament into the progress made with the Commission's Digital Single Market Strategy since 2015.

In a study for the European Parliament, Bruegel senior fellow J. Scott Marcus (together with co-authors Georgios Petropoulos and Timothy Yeung) has reviewed the gains delivered so far by these new measures, insofar as they can yet be determined. The authors also look at what the next legislative term might deliver, what realistic progress can be expected and what business remains unfinished regarding measures implemented by the current Commission.

Speaking to Bruegel press officer Sean Gibson in this episode of the Deep Focus podcast series, Scott Marcus specifies some of the real achievements that the DSM can - and, indeed, has begun to - deliver for both consumers and producers. More broadly, the DSM is put in the context of efforts to digitise European society, specifically how well policies towards the former are keeping pace with the latter.

We invite you to review the research paper in question in this episode, but also recommend consulting Scott Marcus' testimony before the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).

Bruegel fellows Alicia García-Herrero and Uri Dadush join Guntram Wolff for this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics', focusing on the progress made by China's Belt and Road Initiative, how it will continue to develop, and the reactions it has stirred across the world.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a trade and development strategy proposed by Xi Jinping in 2013. It aims to enhance development prospects via infrastructure, trade, and investment on a trans-continental scale, and is hence often referred to as 'the 21st century's Silk Road'.

Five years after its launch, how well has the BRI been received and how much potential does it still hold? Two Bruegel scholars, Alicia García-Herrero and Uri Dadush sit down with Bruegel's director Guntram Wolff to discuss their analyses of the initiative.

In a recent Policy Contribution, Uri Dadush and Michael Baltensperger reflect on the background and context of the BRI, and critically assess the project's potential for future performance. In this podcast episode, Uri points to the worrisome aspects of the initiative, particularly the lack of transparency and due diligence concerning the issue of debt trap, as well as China's poor regard for the possible environmental impact.

In a newly released Working Paper, Alicia García-Herrero and Jianwei Xu analyse large amounts of data to identify the trends in the global perception of the BRI. In this episode Alicia lets us in on their findings. For example, she explains why – despite the generally positive image of the initiative – it is the Central European countries, which benefited from substantial assistance from China, that have a relatively negative perception of the initiative.

For further reading, you may consider Simone Tagliapietra and Shivali Pandya's blog post on Chinese investment in European maritime ports, as well as a piece by Alicia García-Herrero and Jianwei Xu discussing what the Belt and Road Initiative means for EU trade.

This episode of The Sound of Economics features Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas in conversation with Maurizio Bussolo and Bernadette Ségol about income inequality in Europe and Central Asia, and the policy principles underpinning a possible new social contract.

Although income distribution in Europe and Central Asia reaches a fairly egalitarian standard relative to the rest of the world, the current levels of inequality among individuals and households are a major cause of dissatisfaction. In the time of globalisation and rapid technological change, when income inequalities heavily affect people's security and well-being, the demand for a new social contract (and hence welfare state) is apparent. But what would a renewed social contract look like?

In this episode of Bruegel Backstage, senior fellow Zsolt Darvas talks to Maurizio Bussolo, the lead economist for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank, and Bernadette Ségol, the former secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation.

The document that brings them together is the recently published World Bank report, “Towards a New Social Contract: Taking on Distributional Tensions in Europe and Central Asia”, co-written by Maurizio Bussolo. It highlights the shortcomings of the current systems both for taxes and transfers and for labour-market regulation. The report sketches out the policy principles to guide a potential new social contract, principles that assume universal social assistance and insurance, labour protection, and more progressive taxation. If implemented, the report suggests, these measures would improve mobility and flexibility, helping to overcome the inequality traps and provide a broader, more just access to opportunities.

For further reading, you may consider Zsolt Darvas' blog post on the EU income inequality decline, as well as a publication on the hardships of achieving the EU's poverty target by the same author.

This podcast was recorded following a Bruegel event, "Towards a new social contract" on January 24th 2019.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined by senior fellow Zsolt Darvas to rake through the possibilities and probabilities inherent in a no-deal Brexit scenario, covering trade, the Irish border, citizens' rights and the EU budget.

Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas joins Guntram Wolff for this Director's Cut, to discuss the economic fall-out of a no-deal Brexit.

While the UK remains without an agreement on the nature of its relationship with the EU beyond March 29th 2019, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit - and its bundle of complex permutations for each sector - is still on the table.

What would a WTO-based trade relationship between the EU and the UK look like in reality? Beneath surface-level tariffs, the value chains that would be broken by a hard border in the English Channel could have far-reaching consequences. And in Ireland, the more innovative border solutions remain mostly unsubstantiated, and at the very least would require a long implementation period - the time for which has long since passed.

A no-deal Brexit also has implications for the EU budget. Our calculations specify the gap to be filled if the UK were to stop contributing immediately, as well as the spread of the additional burden across the EU's member countries.

For further reading on this subject, consider Guntram Wolff's Policy Contribution on how well prepared the EU might be for a no-deal Brexit scenario, as well as Zsolt Darvas' full breakdown of the implications for the EU budget of the UK 'crashing out' of the union.

Bruegel fellows Reinhilde Veugelers and Simone Tagliapietra elaborate on the recent Policy Contribution they co-authored on the European automotive industry in the light of the global electric vehicle revolution.

Electrification is a key trend transforming the global automotive industry, especially in the light of increased decarbonisation efforts. The speed at which the technology is being developed and the decreasing production costs make for a rather optimistic prognosis for future global deployment of electric vehicles (EVs). The automotive sector is undoubtedly an important one for the EU economy, yet it has lagged behind in terms of both EV manufacturing and deployment.

In this episode of Deep Focus, Sean Gibson interviews Reinhilde Veugelers and Simone Tagliapietra, the co-authors of a recently published Policy Contribution on the EU automotive industry and the global EV revolution. European manufacturers have extensive experience, robust R&D projects and a large internal market, but can they make the switch to EVs sufficiently fast to remain competitive? To answer that question, Reinhilde and Simone outline the current picture of China's industry and point to the lessons that can be learnt from their electrification success story. While Europe cannot and should not adopt the centrally planned policy measures, a more comprehensive policy framework combining both demand- and supply-side instruments is necessary to bring the industry back up to speed.

The research discussed in this episode is available in full in the Bruegel Policy Contribution, "Is the European automotive industry ready for the global electric vehicle revolution?", by Gustav Fredriksson, Alexander Roth, Simone Tagliapietra and Reinhilde Veugelers. For further reading, we recommend a blog post on low carbon technology exports by Georg Zachmann and Enrico Nano.

With 2018 drawing to a close, and the dawn of 2019 imminent, Bruegel's scholars reflect on the economic policy developments we can expect in the new year – one that brings with it the additional uncertainty of European elections.

These elections will be a bellwether for the continent-wide rise of populist politics that has been a defining characteristic of the year past. The results will certainly have profound consequences for all policy debates within the EU, but also for the bloc's relationship with external partners. The shifts in the geopolitical landscape have borne a trade war, prompting renewed talk of closer ties between China and the EU, the potential internationalisation of the euro, and how the multilateral trading system might be saved, reformed, or left behind.

Meanwhile, 2019 promises fierce debate of the next EU budget for 2020-2027, not entirely separate from the mooted euro-area budget and the ongoing efforts at euro-area reform and expansion. The upcoming elections will be pivotal in determining the complexion of these discussions as the year progresses.

Speakers:

Maria Demertzis

Jean Pisani-Ferry

Francesco Papadia

Elina Ribakova

André Sapir

Nicolas Véron

Thomas Wieser

Guntram Wolff

Bruegel senior scholar Zsolt Darvas speaks about his review of systematic errors in ECB forecasting, in another instalment of the Deep Focus podcast on 'The Sound of Economics' channel

In this episode of the Deep Focus, Sean Gibson speaks with Bruegel senior scholar Zsolt Darvas about his research on European Central Bank forecasting.

Zsolt has analysed that, over the past five years, ECB forecasts have proven to be systematically incorrect: core inflation remained broadly stable at 1% despite the stubbornly predicted increase, while the unemployment rate fell faster than predicted.

Such forecast errors, which are also inconsistent with each other, raise serious doubts about the reliability of the ECB’s current forecast of accelerating core inflation, and necessitates a reflection on the inflation aim of the ECB.

You may also be interested in this blog post by Zsolt Darvas, which contains charts illustrating just how erroneous the ECB's forecasting on inflation and unemployment has become in recent times.

Bruegel fellow Georg Zachmann talks through a Bruegel Blueprint he has co-authored, looking into the potential distributional effects of climate policies, in another episode of the Deep Focus series.

Climate change is one of the big questions of this century, and mitigating its effects remains an enormous challenge. Decarbonisation will require a massive shift in our economies. Heating, transport, electricity and industry will have to transition to a world without fossil fuels. Agriculture and industry will have to find new ways to reduce emissions. This aim – as ambitious as it is essential – necessitates intrusive climate policies.

In this episode of Deep Focus, Sean Gibson interviews Georg Zachmann, a co-author of a recently published Blueprint on distributional effects of climate policies. They untangle the complicated picture of said effects, which may vary depending on the policy tool and its design, the sector addressed and the initial socio-economic conditions in the country. Some policy tools such as carbon taxes may leave low-income households worse off, while policies such as taxes on aviation may leave them better off relative to high-income households. Others, like public investment and agriculture policies, still have unclear effects.

One thing is for certain: whatever distributional effects climate policies may have, they constitute no argument against their implementation. Climate change would leave everyone worse off and disproportionately hit the poorest part of the population. It is therefore essential to design policies in a way that minimises the adverse effects on those most vulnerable.

For further reading, you might consider an opinion piece by Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann on what the “gilets jaunes” movement tells us about environment and climate policies, as well as their blog post on the EU energy industry transformation.

In this episode of the Backstage series, Bruegel's Non-Resident Fellow Dirk Schoenmaker welcomes Molly Scott Cato, a Green party MEP for South West England, for a conversation on the EU's plan to transition towards sustainable finance.

To achieve the EU's 2030 targets agreed in Paris, such as a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, in May 2018, the Commission announced its action plan on sustainable finance. Its aims are, among others, to facilitate sustainable investment and improve the availability of information on investments carbon footprint.

Molly Scott-Cato in conversation with Dirk Schoenmaker outlines the details of the plan and elaborates on the steps necessary for the transition from brown to green finance, from vast investments into public infrastructure to the introduction of carbon tax on aviation.

While it is important to introduce dynamism to the discussion, we have to keep in mind to balance the sense of desperate urgency to avoid a systemic crisis.

For further reading, you might consider a policy contribution by the same author Sustainable investing: How to do it.

This podcast episode was recorded during the event How to speed up sustainable finance? on the 28 of November

Bruegel's director Guntram Wolff looks at north Africa's economic growth in the light of the region's trade agreements with the EU, welcoming Karim El Aynaoui and Uri Dadush to the Backstage series on 'The Sound of Economics'.

In this episode of Backstage, Bruegel's director Guntram Wolff welcomes Uri Dadush, a non-resident scholar at Bruegel and a Senior Fellow at the OCP Policy Center, as well as Karim El Aynaoui, managing director at the OCP Policy Center. Together, they look at north Africa's economic growth in the light of the region's trade agreements with the EU.

This podcast episode touches upon a Policy Contribution co-authored by Uri Dadush, which provides an economic assessment of the EU-north Africa trade agreements. While their performance is not spectacular, the agreements' common view often appears too harsh, especially bearing in mind the unfavourable domestic and international environment in which they came into force.

Despite the visible misallocation of capital and insufficient job creation, some sectors in the region – such as the automotive, pharmaceutical and aeronautical industries in Morocco – are doing exceptionally well, both in terms of performance and integration. The question remains about the potential direction the region may wish to take when moving forward with its growth plan. To ensure strengthened EU-north Africa value chains, we have to move beyond the blanket-approach and instead reward the best performance.

For further reading, you might consider an opinion piece on the China-Africa economic relationship written by Alicia García-Herrero, as well as a blog post by Marek Dabrowski and Yana Myachenkova on the difficult task of achieving free trade in Africa.

This podcast episode was recorded during the third edition of the "Platform for Advanced & Emerging Economies Policy Dialogue", which focused on the core theme of “Policy Responses for an EU-MENA shared future”.

In this episode of the Director's cut, Bruegel's director Guntram Wolff hosts a conversation with Danièle Nouy, the first chair of the European Single Supervisory Mechanism. On the eve of the end of her mandate she traces the legacy of her five years and the prospects for the future of banking supervision in Europe.

In November 2008, the first G20 summit at the leaders' level took place amid the global financial crisis. The admittedly ambitious undertaking has since played its role in stabilising the global economy throughout the aftershocks of the crash. Today, the global order looks much different to the one in which the G20 found itself 10 years ago. How has the institution evolved and is it still equipped to create a supportive political environment for strong national and global actions?

In this episode of Bruegel's Deep Focus series on 'The Sound of Economics', Suman Bery reviews the G20's performance over the past decade to identify the challenges for the future. After the initial success, he identifies a sense of complacency that has seemingly crept into the global forum. Moreover, the emerging and developing economy members have remained observably passive, which may reflect their discomfort at their perceived systemic importance despite lower levels of income.

A further challenge for the G20 arises from Donald Trump assuming the US presidency in 2016, and the following tendency to drift away from multilateralism in favour of bilateral trade. The upcoming summit in Buenos Aires may be revealing in terms of just how much the G20 depends on American leadership. Another question remains about what potential the EU has as a future leader within the institution. One thing is certain: to champion a comprehensive approach, the G20 must conceive a set of rules that closer reflects the changing world.

For further reading we suggest not only the Policy Contribution written by Suman Bery – 'The G20 turns ten: what’s past is prologue' – but also the blog post of Jim O'Neill and Alessio Terzi, outlining a proposal for a reformation of the G7.

This episode of the Director’s Cut features a conversation between Bruegel’s director, Guntram Wolff and Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, where her research focuses on citizenship, pluralism, and social justice in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.

Yahya is the author of numerous publications, including most recently “Unheard Voices: What Syrian Refugees Need to Return Home” (April 2018); “The Summer of Our Discontent: Sects and Citizens in Lebanon and Iraq” (June 2017); and “Refugees and the Making of an Arab Regional Disorder” (November 2015).

For further reading, we recommend our blueprint "People on the move: migration and mobility in the European Union", written by Uuriintuya Batsaikhan, Zsolt Darvas and Inês Goncalves Raposo.

Zolt Darvas also contributed to the debate on migration and refugees in Europe with two blogs on similar topics: Beyond border control, migrant integration policies must be revived and The challenge of fostering financial inclusion of refugees.

Think-tanks play a critical role in developing and promoting policy solutions, particularly in times of extreme disruption and change.

However, these organisations now operate in information-rich societies where facts, evidence and credible research are often ignored – and where disinformation can gain a footing.

In this edition of the Bruegel Backstage podcast series on ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel secretary general Matt Dann welcomes senior thought leaders from research centres around the world, to discuss a range of strategies and best practices for transforming public policy and institutions in an era of digital and political disruptions as well as increased social and economic turbulence.

Speakers

Matt Dann, secretary general at Bruegel

James McGann, director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania

Milena Lazarević, programme director and co-founder of the European Policy Centre in Belgrade, Serbia

Edward Kofi Anan Brown, senior director for research and policy engagements at the African Center for Economic Transformation in Ghana

Credits

Produced by Giuseppe Porcaro

_James McGann, Milena Lazarević and Edward Kofi Anan Brown participated in the Global Think Tank Summit 2018, hosted by Bruegel in Brussels._

The final act of the Brexit negotiations is upon us, with many questions still seemingly unresolved and the future relationship between the EU and the UK yet uncertain.

The EU remains unyielding on compromising the integrity of the single market, with the UK struggling to propose an agreement suitable both for the EU as well as its own nuanced internal political situation.

With the numbers delicately balanced in the UK’s House of Commons, whose MPs have to ratify the final deal, the subtlest shifts in positions and proposals have the potential to constitute serious stumbling blocks on the road to an agreement.

Joining Bruegel’s Maria Demertzis for this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ is Robin Niblett, director of the Chatham House institute in London. Together they run through what has already been agreed, what sticking points remain to be got past, and how the two sides might yet reach a deal that suits them both.

For further reading, we recommend our blog post, written by Maria Demertzis and André Sapir, outlining the basic options for the future relationship of the EU and the UK, how they might be negotiated upon, and which would suit each side the best.

Bruegel senior fellow Nicolas Véron joins Sean Gibson to delve into the recent Policy Contribution on how to better the European Union anti-money laundering (AML) regime, a paper he has co-written with Joshua Kirschenbaum.

The study offers a response to the evident flaws of the present system, exemplified by a series of banking scandals in multiple European Union countries, and amplified by changing geopolitics.

The shortcomings of the current legal framework are identified by the authors as systemic in nature – the combination of an enforceable single market and national supervision of banks fails to meet the AML objectives.

In their analysis, the authors propose a new European AML authority that would work on the basis of deep relationships with national authorities such as financial intelligence units and law enforcement agencies.

For further reading, you might consider a blog post by Isabel Schnabel and Nicolas Véron discussing the need to "complete the banking union" by breaking the bank-sovereign vicious circle.

Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas welcomes Sayuri Shirai, professor at Keio University, visiting scholar at the Asian Development Bank Institute and former Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), for a discussion of the Japanese monetary policy outlook.

Japan is often portrayed in the economic circles as a country facing decades of loss, as it has long been experiencing slow economic growth and sluggish underlying inflation, despite numerous attempts at boosting it.

The ambitious plan designed to do just that is known as ‘Abenomics’, a macroeconomic package advocated by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, based upon the ‘three arrows’ of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms.

To evaluate the outcomes of the Abe’s policies and explore the challenges facing Japanese economy, Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas welcomes Sayuri Shirai, professor at Keio University, visiting scholar at the Asian Development bank institute and former Member of the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan.

The discussion touches upon the reasons why target inflation is so hard to achieve, including the issue of stagnant wages and low labour productivity, especially in the context of Japan’s aging society. It also reflects on the Bank of Japan’s monetary easing normalisation, and whether it is feasible for it to tamper its massive government bond purchases.

For further reading, you might consider a blog post by Akio Egawa on the third arrow of Abenomics – a growth strategy. We can also recommend our recent round up of economists’ opinions on the past years of Abe’s policies.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, deputy prime minister of Singapore and chair of the G20 Eminent Persons Group, and Jean Pisani-Ferry, mercator senior fellow at Bruegel, for a conversation about the growth and stability challenges facing the global financial system, and how the system can be better equipped to deal with the significant and novel problems of the future.

In this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ Guntram Wolff is joined by Bruegel’s mercator senior fellow Jean Pisani-Ferry, and by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, deputy prime minister of Singapore and chair of the G20 Eminent Persons Group.

A report from the Eminent Persons Group looks into how the global financial system can adapt to meet the sizeable challenges the future will pose, with particular reference to growth and financial stability.

Small episodes of growth scarcity accumulate to make for a significant reduction worldwide, and the current model is not going to achieve the necessary uptick in growth in the next decade. Meanwhile, financial stability remains elusive, despite the positive changes made – particularly in the banking sector – since the most recent crisis.

But the report from the G20 Eminent Persons Group is not without hope, and in fact sees a practical way forward by which the gaps in the current system can be plugged before new foundations are laid for the future.

For further reading, we recommend Jean Pisani-Ferry’s Bruegel Policy Contribution on the question of whether we should give up on global governance in such turbulent times.

Amid the Asia-Europe Economic Forum on the fringes of the 12th ASEM Summit, Bruegel senior fellow hosts a conversation on developing global trade relations, with guests Moonsung Kang, professor as Korea University, and Michael G. Plummer, director at SAIS Europe – Johns Hopkins University, for an episode of the Bruegel Backstage series on ‘The Sound of Economics’.

With Bruegel hosting the two-day Asia-Europe Economic Forum in the same week as the Asia-Europe Meeting takes place in Brussels, André Sapir takes the opportunity to talk about the quickening changes to the global trade landscape in conversation with Moonsung Kang, professor as Korea University, and Michael G. Plummer, director at SAIS Europe – Johns Hopkins University.

Led by President Donald Trump, the US has begun to challenge the multilateral trade system. Meanwhile, Europe has been busy securing free trade agreements – most recently with Japan, previously with Canada and others.

With the US appearing to withdraw, and abdicate its leading role in the global trading system, Asia’s moves to improve relations with Europe make sense; the EU seems to have better appreciated the shift of the gravitational centre of world trade towards Asia.

The question remains how closely Asia and the EU will agree to cooperate in the years to come, and whether the US political narrative will develop in a way that leads them back towards free trade, or even further down the road of bilateral agreements.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic, we can recommend the research paper on the EU-Japan agreement that Bruegel has submitted to the European Parliament, by André Sapir, Sonali Chowdhry and Alessio Terzi.

Consider also the Bruegel Backstage podcast episode on the developing EU-China relationship in the face of rising global trade tensions.

In this episode of Deep Focus, Bruegel research fellow Simone Tagliapeitra explains how the nature of cross-Mediterranean energy relations needs to change, not only in line with new climate-change targets but also to meet the burgeoning energy demand outside Europe.

Oil and gas dominated Euro-Mediterranean energy relations in the 20th century, but with the turn of the 21st century came a new focus on renewable sources. The new ventures were less successful than those of old, and both institutional and commercial plans failed to achieve the same level of fruitful cooperation.

With electricity demand sky-rocketing in the Middle East, future efforts must differ from those of the past in providing much more supply for the countries outside Europe. The EU can play a key role in ensuring that both they and the countries on the southern side of the Mediterranean Sea benefit from such a spike in energy demand, with a strategy in-keeping with agreements already reached on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode of Bruegel’s Deep Focus series, Simone Tagliapietra explains how the regulatory and financial constraints on renewable energy projects can be overcome. European institutions have the capability to back the sizeable upfront investment in renewables that will propel such projects towards their long-term pay-offs. But funding must be conditional on reform that promotes private investment and removes archaic bias towards fossil fuels. The research discussed in this episode is available in full in the Bruegel Policy Brief, ‘The Euro-Mediterranean energy relationship: a fresh perspective’, by Simone Tagliapietra. This scholar has also collaborated with Bruegel senior fellow Georg Zachmann on a study of Europe’s failure to clean up its transport sector, which we recommend as further reading.

In this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Guntram Wolff welcomes Bruegel research fellow Grégory Claeys to assess how the new Italian budget proposals measure up against the existing EU fiscal rules.

Italy’s new budget proposals, together with projected deficit levels for the coming years, have put the EU as well as bond-market investors on alert.

In the context of Italy’s already-high ratio of public debt to GDP, the coalition government’s plan to increase the budget deficit has prompted concerns that the country risks running afoul of the EU’s fiscal framework.

What are the means by which the EU can monitor and, if need be, administer sanctions on Italy, in the event of any contravention of its fiscal rules? Bruegel director Guntram Wolff takes this opportunity to discuss all the options facing the European Commission and Council, as well as the specific details of the Italian case and the forecasts underpinning the budget’s figures, with Bruegel research fellow Grégory Claeys.

For further reading, we recommend our full break-down of the EU’s options for response to Italy’s fiscal plans, written by Grégory Claeys and Antoine Mathieu Collin.

You can also hear more on Italy’s economic and political outlook in another of our podcasts, featuring Bruegel affiliate fellow Silvia Merler in discussion with Marcello Minenna, PhD lecturer at the London Graduate School and head of quants at Consob, and Lorenzo Codogno, visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir welcomes Tamotsu Nakamura, dean of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Economics, and Maria Åsenius, head of cabinet to European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström, for a discussion of the EU-Japan economic partnership in the context of heightening global trade tensions.

The EU and Japan have signed a landmark trade deal this summer that will create the world’s largest open economic area.

The economic partnership agreement will be the biggest bilateral trade agreement the EU has ever signed, permitting not only the dropping of tariffs but also regulatory cooperation, as well as a special focus to promote the interests of SMEs.

The trade-positive nature of this agreement goes against the grain of the numerous challenges made to the global multilateral system in recent times, best represented by the tariffs and counter-tariffs imposed by the US and China upon one another.

To explore how this accord suits the EU and Japan, in terms of both the domestic and international interests of each side, Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir welcomes two guests for this edition of the Bruegel Backstage series – Tamotsu Nakamura, dean of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Economics, and Maria Åsenius, head of cabinet to European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic, we can recommend the research paper on the EU-Japan agreement that Bruegel has submitted to the European Parliament, by André Sapir, Sonali Chowdhry and Alessio Terzi.

You might also consider our previous podcast on EU’s options in the event of global trade war, featuring Bruegel director Guntram Wolff with Bernd Lange, member of the European Parliament and chair of the Committee on International Trade.

Tamotsu Nakamura and Maria Åsenius participated in one session of the Bruegel conference on international trade and the EU-Japan agreement.

Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis welcomes Financial Times commentator Martin Sandbu to explore the journey taken by the field of economics since the financial crisis struck 10 years ago, and discusses what new tools economics has now that it didn’t have then.

In this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’, we trace the journey upon which the field of economics has embarked since the financial crisis, what lessons it has learnt and what it can do differently now with the benefit of hindsight.

Economists and financial specialists failed to identify the burgeoning threat of financial imbalances, excessive risk-taking and housing bubbles that led to the crisis that first broke a decade ago. Can economics provide answers to the right questions – and in good time?

Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis is joined by Martin Sandbu of the Financial Times to look at what new tools and approaches can help economists make a difference in the event that any similar such crisis strikes again.

For further consideration we recommend another edition of the Director’s Cut podcast series, featuring a discussion between Maria Demertzis, Nicola Viegi – South African Reserve Bank professor of monetary economics at the University of Pretoria – and Frank Smets – director general of economics at the European Central Bank – on the topic of macroeconomics’ post-crisis reinvention and the flourishing of new models.

FURTHER READING

Rebuilding macroeconomics: Initial reflections on a major theory project

The DSGE Model Quarrel (Again)

Tales from a crisis: diverging narratives of the euro area

Guntram Wolff welcomes Bruegel affiliate fellow Silvia Merler to evaluate the Italian government’s planned budget for 2019, in this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’

Six months after its election, Italy’s coalition government reached an agreement on public spending.

The key tenets of its first budget include a spending increase that will drive the budget deficit to 2.4% of GDP, tax cuts, a proposal for a minimal income for the unemployed, as well as cancellation of the plans to increase retirement ages.

Though the new deficit budget fits into the EU’s limit of 3%, Italy’s debt of €2.3 trillion makes for a difficult case to increase spending. The news comes as a blow for the finance minister Giovanni Tria, who pushed for a more fiscally responsible budget, trying to limit budget deficit to 1.6% of GDP. The decision also received disapproval from Brussels, with EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici criticising Italy for “flouting the rules” and disregarding its large debt.

To discuss the potential consequences, Guntram Wolff welcomes Bruegel affiliate fellow Silvia Merler to this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’.

For further reading, we recommend Guntram Wolff’s opinion piece on how to overcome the hurdles obstructing Italian growth, as well as Silvia Merler’s note comparing the capital flight from Italy in 2018 with similar such scenarios witnessed in 2011 and 2016.

Bruegel senior fellow Scott Marcus welcomes former European Regulators Group chairman Kip Meek to explore the consequences of Brexit for ICT policy-making in Europe.

The divorce of the UK from the European Union will have far-reaching consequences for all sectors, but what will be the balance of continuity and disruption in the sphere of ICT regulation?

With the terms of separation and the nature of the UK’s future relationship with the EU yet to be finalised, there are still many variables that could affect the final outlook. Nevertheless, we can explore the industry’s broader regulatory inclinations, as well as the areas that are most vulnerable to any serious disruption.

Reflecting on the most essential problems that Brexit will pose to the ICT industry, Bruegel senior fellow J. Scott Marcus is joined in conversation by Kip Meek, former chairman of the European Regulators Group.

For further reading, we recommend a blog post written by Scott Marcus on the question of whether mobile roaming arrangements can be maintained between the UK and EU post-Brexit.

Kip Meek appeared as a panellist at an International telecommunications Society conference in Trento, Italy in August 2018, in a session moderated by Scott Marcus.

Following a conference at Bruegel, at a critical moment for the global economic system, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined by Zhang Weiwei, director at The China Institute of Fudan University, together with Bruegel senior fellow Alicia García-Herrero, for a discussion of EU-China trade relations.

With the United States pursuing a policy of imposing trade tariffs on its international partners, the geopolitical landscape is poised for change. What room is there, then, for closer economic ties between China and Europe in a world where a multilateral trading system cannot be taken for granted?

There are many points, political and economic, on which European and Chinese approaches diverge; nevertheless, there remains the opportunity to focus on common ground, establish a more mutually beneficial relationship, while also standing up for the multilateral system.

US trade tariffs have driven China and Europe together more quickly than they might have met otherwise. How prepared China and Europe actually are for building closer ties remains an essential debate. This conversation assesses what problems still prevent a smoother integration of interests in both the Chinese and the European spheres.

We invite you to peruse the audio and video recordings of our sessions from the event, ‘Perils and potential: China-US-EU trade relations’, where Bruegel welcomed a number of Chinese and EU trade experts.

For further reading, consider the Bruegel research paper looking into European and Chinese trade competition in Latin America, written by Alicia García-Herrero with Thibault Marbach and Jianwei Xu.

Also note our blog post analysing data on bilateral trade, services, investment and protectionism between Asia, Europe and the US in recent years, determining whether the nature of the global economy is Transatlantic, Transpacific or Eurasian.

Immigration is one of the most contentious policy matters currently facing the EU. In this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ Bruegel director Guntram Wolff welcomes Ana Palacio, member of the Spanish council of state and former foreign affairs minister, as well as Bruegel visiting fellow Elina Ribakova for a constructive discussion as to which approaches will yield the best results.

Joining Bruegel director Guntram Wolff for this Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ is Ana Palacio, member of the Spanish council of state and former foreign affairs minister, and Elina Ribakova, Bruegel visiting fellow at Bruegel, to discuss the exact nature of the migration challenges currently troubling the EU.

Previous agreement upon the creation of disembarkation centres on the north African coast constitutes only a policy step rather than a resolution. Still very little has been done to draw up a common European migration policy and consensus remains difficult while

Member States continue to operate their own independent, broadly disparate policies.

Separating the concept of migration and refugees is also key to improving the general understanding of the challenges; likewise, being clear that the number of arrivals in the EU is now significantly lower than in 2015.

There is also progress to be made in accepting that integration is a two-way street, and that legitimate concerns should not be written off without a hearing.

For further reading, consider the Bruegel Blueprint publication ‘People on the move: migration and mobility in the European Union’, which contains a wealth of research on the various challenges that immigration poses to Europe’s policymakers.

Also recommended is this blog post by Zsolt Darvas which illustrates that Europe’s population growth would now be negative if it were not for the inflow of immigrants.

In the first episode of the new Backstage series on ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel senior fellow Nicolas Véron takes time out from the Bruegel Annual Meetings to discuss the immediate future of European banking and capital markets union with Jörg Kukies, state secretary at the German ministry of finance.

The euro-area reform agenda hopes to prevent the repetition of problems that arose during the crisis at the beginning of this decade – to provide better protection for taxpayers and depositors and to avoid any perception of privilege for the banks of one country over those of another. Although there appears to be consensus on the necessity of completing banking union, the question remains open as to which elements are still missing.

On the matter of capital markets union (CMU), though the current European Commission has given great emphasis to progressing with the project, we are still quite far from consensus on the exact shape that a more integrated supervisory framework should take.

This discussion gets into the details of the immediate challenges and the particular sticking points in negotiations over banking and capital markets union.

For further reading, consider the Policy Contribution on making a reality of Europe’s capital markets union, co-written by Nicolas Véron, André Sapir and Guntram Wolff. Meanwhile, in a previous edition of the Director’s Cut podcast, Nicolas Véron discusses the importance of developing deposit insurance as a part of Europe’s broader banking union aspirations.

Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas joins Sean Gibson on ‘The Sound of Economics’ to expound on the themes of a Policy Contribution on the macroeconomic implications of healthcare systems, which he has co-written with Nicolas Moës, Yana Myachenkova and David Pichler.

This episode is the first in a new Bruegel podcast series, ‘Deep Focus’, looking specifically at Bruegel research and elaborating on the insights contained therein, in conversation with the authors.

The effects that healthcare systems can impose upon economies are pronounced and far-reaching. The health sector alone accounts for a significant portion of output and employment in the EU, even before we look at the pharmaceutical companies conducting research and development towards healthcare. From a fiscal point of view, health is one of the most expensive items on a government’s list of expenses.

In this analysis, the scholars measured the efficiency of each EU healthcare system – and of several from beyond the EU’s borders. The results illustrate that improving healthcare outcomes is not as simple as investing more and more money in the system. In this podcast, we discuss some of the areas where real differences can be made both to the health of the general public and to the cost incumbent upon governments.

For further reading, consider our blog post digging into the details of the ongoing lack of German public investment, written by Alexander Roth and Guntram Wolff.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff welcomes Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Jean Pisani-Ferry, mercator senior fellow at Bruegel, to discuss the deterioration of Turkey's economy.

Although a recent souring of relations with the US has provided the immediate prompt for Turkey's current crisis, the country's underlying economic malaise is more deeply rooted.

Headlines have tracked the plummeting value of the lira, while the trust of external investors has been challenged by recent policy decisions. Though Turkey's case bears some of the hallmarks of a textbook emerging-market meltdown, there are key divergences. Meanwhile, President Erdogan's previous refutation of IMF policy recommendation does not bode well for potential assistance in the event that Turkey needs help brokering extension agreements with its creditors.

In conversation with Brad Setser, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Jean Pisani-Ferry, Mercator senior fellow at Bruegel, Guntram Wolff assesses not only the nature of the crisis in Turkey but how the country might navigate its way back to safer economic waters.

For further reading, consider the recent blog post written by Grégory Claeys and Guntram Wolff discussing how the EU might respond to the currency crisis unfolding in Turkey, including options for the EU to help Turkey in the absence of any agreed IMF assistance programme.

More than two months after the Italian elections and its turbulent political negotiations, Italy finally has a new government. While this has had a calming effect on the financial markets, Italy's medium and long term economic outlook is yet to be determined. Bruegel affiliate fellow, Silvia Merler, is joined by Marcello Minenna, PhD lecturer at the London Graduate School and Head of Quants at Consob, and Lorenzo Codogno, LSE visiting professor, to examine the different ways the country can move forward.

Starting off this Sound of Economics, Silvia examines the new government's policy priorities and discusses the message of uncertainty it sends to financial markets and investors. Indeed, the way in which the government will finance its promises is still uncertain, thus leaving room for unpredictability. In the short and medium term, Lorenzo puts forward the proposal that the new government should tread carefully by introducing policies gradually in order to maintain fiscal stability and discipline.

The three guests address the widely discussed topic of Italy's euroscepticism. Italy's relatively stagnant economic growth over multiple generations is seen as a key factor in the country's present-day skepticism towards the single currency. They agree that, although an 'Italexit' is an unlikely scenario, it is nonetheless an important one to consider. Moreover, Marcello points out that Italy's situation is also a testament to ongoing issues at the European level, requiring a reform of the eurozone's policies and a tough look at its current functioning.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff and Ashoka Mody – visiting professor in international economic policy at Princeton University – explore subjects addressed in the latter’s latest book, Euro tragedy: a drama in nine acts.

Kicking off this Director’s Cut of the 'The Sound of Economics', the two explore the historical development behind the EU's creation. Ashoka Mody argues that the adoption of the euro as a single currency has exacerbated economic divergences between EU Member States as some do not have the institutional maturity or capabilities to fully adopt monetary policy measures. Guntram Wolff points out that in the view of Helmut Kohl, the adoption of the euro was a means to further reunite the continent and support peace-building. They also discuss the role of social democracy in the drama on the future of Europe.

The conversation from this episode explores the development of the EU from its early history until its present-day situation. Member States’ commitments to the European project from a political and economic point of view are touched upon, with a particular focus on Germany's role within the whole debate. For a more in-depth discussion on the subject, be sure to play back the full recording of the Bruegel event chaired by Maria Demertzis and featuring Ashoka Mody and Guntram Wolff.

According to Annamaria Lusadi, academic director at the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, financial literacy requires both a knowledge of financial concepts and the confidence to make effective financial decisions in order to maximise one's well-being.

Financial literacy is not only limited to knowledge of monetary calculations, but is also measured by the extent to which individuals understand their financial rights and obligations, in addition to their ability to educate themselves on financial matters.

People are increasingly expected to have the appropriate skills to manage their own financial decisions; however, the rapidly shifting financial environment often proves to be extremely complex to understand and, thus, leaves many with poor financial literacy abilities. The young, the elderly, women, and people with low-education levels are particularly susceptible to the negatives effects of low financial literacy. The consequences of the situation are harmful both for the individual and at a national level.

Just as reading and writing skills are a part of the educational curriculum, Annamaria Lusadi believes that financial literacy courses should now be a requisite part of school programmes. Moreover, the adult population should also have access to workplace and public financial education programmes. All in all, good financial literacy skills have long-term beneficial effects; sound financial decisions take today's resources and invest them in the future. As a result, policy-makers should redouble their efforts in this area.

Maria Demertzis has co-authored a Bruegel Policy Contribution with Uuriintuya Batsaikhan on financial literacy and inclusive growth in the European Union.

Annamaria Lusardi previously made a presentation at the Bruegel event, ‘The importance of being financially literate’.

Paul Tucker, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, joins Bruegel director Guntram Wolff to discuss the thesis of his new book, as well as the current tensions within current models of central banking governance.

On the agenda is the contention that there is, and even should be, a limit to the level of responsibility that a central bank can reasonably be expected to shoulder. Some decisions have such far-reaching consequences that we might prefer they be made by elected, rather than appointed, officials.

Paul Tucker presented his book in an event at Bruegel in May 2018, with Bruegel deputy director Maria Demertzis hosting a debate between Paul Tucker, Joanne Kellermann, former member of the Single Resolution Board, and Jean Pisani-Ferry, mercator senior fellow at Bruegel.

For further reading, consider 'Central Banking in Turbulent Times' - a book co-written by Bruegel senior fellow Francesco Papadia with Tuomas Valimaki, launched at a Bruegel event in April 2018.

Additionally, we recommend reading Silvia Merler's collation of economists' opinions on the current state of central banking in an age of populist politics.

Technological advancements continue to drive change in every industry. In a recent working paper co-written with Francesco Chiacchio and David Pichler, Bruegel research fellow Georgios Petropoulos has explored the impact of the increasing number of robots on employment and wages in Europe.

The introduction of robots constitutes only one industrial advance among many, and each automated technology has different impacts on employment. The impacts across social strata can also be disparate.

In this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Georgios Petropoulos discusses the findings of his study, which focuses on six EU countries (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden) that account for 85% of robots in the EU market. Specifically this work sought to answer the question of whether robots have a positive or negative effect on EU employment and wages, and to place its conclusions in the context of other studies of automated technologies and their consequences for labour.

The research pertinent to this podcast can be found in our publication: ‘The impact of industrial robots on EU employment and wages: A local labour market approach’. Meanwhile, Georgios Petropoulos has previously detailed the specifics of the growing presence of robots in EU industries in a Bruegel blog post.

He has also written an article questioning whether we understand the impact of artificial intelligence on employment. Elsewhere, a number of Bruegel scholars have collaborated on our Blueprint book of research: ‘Remaking Europe: the new manufacturing as an engine for growth’. This comprehensive study looks at how well European firms are responding to new opportunities for growth, and in which global value chains they are developing new activities.

The coalition agreement between Italy’s Five Star Movement and the League puts the country’s new government on a potential collision course with the European Union, and has prompted fears that the country could nosedive out of the euro zone.

Markets have already born witness to investor nervousness over the coalition’s proposed agenda, and the new government’s priorities run counter to the prevailing fiscal and monetary policies of the euro area. If Italy were to follow through on its new plans for spending, the expected reaction in among bond-buyers would make it very difficult for Italy to finance its already-significant amount of public debt.

Any discussion of a possible default necessarily involves the euro area – as Bruegel’s database of sovereign bond holdings illustrates. Just how exposed are the other members of the currency bloc, and what paths might be taken in order to avert a crisis?

In this week’s Director’s Cut, Bruegel senior fellow Francesco Papadia joins Guntram Wolff to assess the problems that currently occupy both Italy and the EU.

For further reading, note Guntram Wolff’s article on why Europe needs a strong Italy, whoever is leading the government.

Also consider looking at Jean Pisani-Ferry’s opinion piece on the opportunity that such political upheaval might offer Italy to overcome its longstanding internal issues.

The global financial crisis exposed flaws in the methods and theories of macroeconomics. Certain aspects of the crisis were completely unexpected; other burgeoning problems were flagged up but explained away, and thus allowed to get worse.

As the profession seeks to reinvent itself post-crisis and reassert its worth, what exactly has been learned and what changes have been made to the practice of macroeconomics? New models appear to be flourishing, but debate continues over whether we have improved our understanding and mitigated the potential for misreading the results that these models present.

In this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics' podcast, Bruegel deputy director hosts a conversation with Nicola Viegi, South African Reserve Bank professor of monetary economics at the University of Pretoria, and Frank Smets, director general of economics at the European Central Bank.

For further reading on this topic, consider our overview of the ‘Rebuilding Macroeconomic Theory Project’ recently concluded by the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, written by Konstantinos Efstathiou.

The deepening and enlargement of Europe’s capital markets has long been a policy target for the EU – indeed, it is a flagship priority of the current Commission. Many legislative proposals have been forwarded, and there is widespread agreement on the necessity of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, but few tangible measures have been formally adopted.

Joining Bruegel director Guntram Wolff for this week’s Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ is Valdis Dombrovskis, vice-president of the European Commission, overseeing the department of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

The Bruegel director met Vice-President Dombrovskis at the informal meeting of the EU’s Ecofin Council in Sofia, where the former presented a research paper (co-written by André Sapir and Nicolas Véron) advocating significant steps forward in the CMU project.

The vice-president here expounds on the Commission’s own planned measures to have significant initial elements in place before the end of the current term in 2019.

The EU's transport sector is now a significant burden in the context of commitments made under the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions. Transport is the only sector in which Europe's CO2 emissions are now higher than in 1990.

Countermeasures are imperative, but it is not a simple challenge to abandon car-friendly policies; policymakers are not blind to economic benefits brought about by the automotive industry in the past.

In this episode of 'The Sound of Economics', Bruegel fellows Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann discuss the findings of a Policy Brief that they have co-written containing policy prescriptions for cleaning up Europe's transport sector.

Utilising taxation, as well as funds already allocated within the current multiannual financial framework, the EU can incentivise change not only in the habits of Europe's citizens but its industry leaders too, promoting the policy discussion at country- and city-level where locally appropriate plans and changes can be introduced. Though the EU's research and development funding for transport is dwarfed by that of the continent's automotive sector, there are fields in which the EU can take the lead – fields which private money would otherwise leave undeveloped.

As global trade war continues to unfold, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff is joined for this Director's Cut of 'The Sound of Economics' podcast by Bernd Lange MEP, chair of the Committee on International Trade (INTA), to discuss Europe's options.

Increasingly it appears that the EU will have to choose between standing strong with the established laws of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), or striking a deal for a permanent reprieve from the US trade tariffs.

There is no question that the tariffs have significant implications for European industry. Indeed, as the US and China brandish lists of further products on which they would consider imposing tariffs, the full scale of the potential future damage to EU exporters is unclear. Yet there remains some hope that the EU could align with other nations to use the WTO to bring US President Trump back on side.

To discuss what opportunities as well as threats this current stand-off presents to the EU, Bernd Lange - member of the European Parliament and chair of the Committee on International Trade (INTA) - joins Bruegel director Guntram Wolff in this instalment of 'The Sound of Economics'.

In this week’s Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ podcast, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff talks with Nicolas Véron, senior fellow at Bruegel, about the implementation of a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), one of the three pillars needed for the completion of banking union.

Significant progress has been made on European banking supervision and resolution schemes, but the debate on a common framework for deposit insurance has remained stuck since the first consistent proposal in 2012.

Member States are currently enjoying their own deposit insurance system, an example of financial fragmentation through the various national differentiations of policy instruments. The Cyprus case highlights the flaws of a national-level system, based only on a presumption of financial assistance between Member States in case of bail-out.

The financial crisis has proven this is not sufficient. Referring to his own research, Nicolas Véron, senior fellow at Bruegel, recommends strengthening trust by setting up a fully integrated, country-blind deposit insurance system to break the vicious circle of the linkage between banks and sovereign debt.

In this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’, Nicolas Véron joins Bruegel director Guntram Wolff to debate the implementation and advantages of such a common system, aiming in the long-term at the completion of a harmonised banking union.

Proponents of blockchain see it as the future – but when might it become the present? In this latest episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’ we welcome Julio Faura, global head of innovation at Banco Santander, and Johan Pouwelse, associate professor at Delft University of Technology, to help illuminate the blockchain concept and where it could be taking us.

The development and implementation of blockchain networks is meant to give everyone an opportunity to participate in a market that is not controlled by a central body.

Questions remain, however, over the practicality of blockchain networks; how to transition from proof-of-concept to real-world usefulness, how to integrate with and provide benefits for the world economy, and where the greatest benefits of such decentralisation might lie.

Shining a light on the brave new blockchain world in this latest episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’ is Julio Faura, the global head of innovation at Banco Santander, and Johan Pouwelse, associate professor at Delft University of Technology and found of the Tribler peer-to-peer service.

Both Julio Faura and Johan Pouwelse participated in the Bruegel event ‘The implications of blockchain platforms’, video and audio recordings of which can be reviewed on our events page.

In this week’s Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ podcast, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff hosts a discussion with Bruegel fellows Alicia García-Herrero and André Sapir on where Europe will position itself between the two major trading powers of China and the United States if relations continue to cool.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff begins his regular Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ podcast with a broad assessment of the recent fomentation of global trade tension, joined in conversation by Bruegel fellows Alicia García-Herrero and André Sapir.

Amid escalating trade tensions, Europe is still working out where it stands between China and the United States. Reprieved – for now at least – of inclusion in the US tariff on steel and aluminium imports, the EU remains regretful of the prospect of global trade war.

China, and Asia more broadly, faces a range of difficulties in the event of a tariff tit-for-tat. Some countries will have to choose where they align themselves; other countries will not have the option to choose.

For a more in-depth look at global trade balances, consider Nicolas Moës recent Bruegel blog post data on bilateral trade, services, investment and protectionism between Asia, Europe and the US in recent years.

Meanwhile, Francesco Chiacchio has written another blog post identifying which sectors would be most vulnerable to any deterioration in relations between the EU and the US.

Ongoing negotiations over the next multiannual financial framework represent an opportunity for the EU to support its new priorities, such as increased investment in border control and defence.

However, new investment necessitates either an expansion in the size of the budget or cuts to other sectors – each a difficult sell to different Member States. Brexit compounds the problem of finding funds for the seven-year framework, which will run from 2021-27.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) accounts for a sizeable portion of the current budget, and Bruegel director Guntram Wolff here elaborates on the possibility of freeing up more space in the budget by freezing funding for CAP – either in real or nominal terms – based on a research paper he has co-authored with Bruegel senior fellow Zsolt Darvas.

Joining the conversation in this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’ is Lars Hoelgaard, former deputy director general at the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, who explores specific options for reforming the CAP.

In this episode our senior fellow, André Sapir discusses with Uri Dadush, non-resident scholar here at Bruegel about President Trump's announcement to apply a 25% tariff on all steel and a 10% tariff on all aluminium imports into the United States.

What comes next for the euro area? Europe has emerged from crisis, and progress has been made with banking union; but more can be done to reform the EU budget and improve the public perception not only of EU money but of the Union itself.

Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs correspondent at the Financial Times, and Manfred Weber, chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, discuss their thoughts on current state and future direction of the euro area alongside Bruegel director Guntram Wolff.

Guntram Wolff, Gideon Rachman and Manfred Weber enjoyed a lengthier debate on this same topic at the third Bruegel-Financial Times Forum earlier this week.

Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir clarifies the UK's options for a new relationship with the EU in the wake of Brexit.

The UK's position relative to the European Union following Brexit remains undecided. With negotiations ongoing, Bruegel senior fellow André Sapir explains the UK's options, and explores the scope for a new kind of relationship between the two parties.

This latest episode of 'The Sound of Economics' considers what it might mean, in reality, for the UK to remain in a customs union with the EU but to leave the single market, as well as what the examples of Turkey and Norway can indicate about the UK's potential future dealings with the EU.

André Sapir has also co-authored a blog post with Bruegel deputy director, Maria Demertzis, elaborating on the various paths open to the UK in phase two of the Brexit negotiations.

Maria Demertzis has more recently considered in a blog post why a positive Brexit outcome matters not just for the UK, but for the EU too.

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff frames the two debates that will dominate the upcoming meeting of the European Council on 23 February 2018 – the shape of the next EU budget, and the method by which a new European Commission president will be appointed.

Major questions still hang over the next EU budget, or multiannual financial framework (MFF), and not just because of Brexit.

The next budget, another seven-year MFF that will run from 2021 through to 2027, will likely reflect Europe’s developing priorities in sectors such as defence, border control and fighting climate change. Other sectors may face a cut in spending, particularly given the shortfall left as a result of the UK’s departure.

Elsewhere, the European Council and European Parliament have still to reach agreement over the future of the Spitzenkandidaten process, by which the appointment of current European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was decided in 2014.

These topics are lead items on the agenda for the European Council meeting on February 23. Bruegel director Guntram Wolff features in this episode of ‘The Sound of Economics’, highlighting the key considerations and likely deciding factors in the debates still to be had.

Bruegel fellow Georg Zachmann joins Richard Tol, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex, and Pieter-Willem Lemmens, head of analysis at the climate policy think-tank Sandbag, for this episode of 'The Sound of Economics', to discuss the impact of Brexit on climate and energy policy in the European Union

Britain's departure from the European Union poses questions not only for the EU energy market, but the bloc-wide climate-change targets and emissions trading system.

Presented by Sean Gibson, edited by Giuseppe Porcaro

In the energy context, Brexit not only marks the separation of Britain from the EU but also places Ireland in a uniquely difficult position, having previously utilised infrastructure in Britain to connect to the rest of the EU.

On the matter of climate change, the loss of Britain might make it more difficult for Europe to meet current targets, and set further ambitious goals for the future.

In this episode of 'The Sound of Economics', senior Bruegel fellow Georg Zachmann joins the conversation with Richard Tol, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex, and Pieter-Willem Lemmens, head of analysis at the climate policy think-tank Sandbag.

Georg Zachmann co-authored a research paper in November 2017 for the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, about the impact of Brexit on the Irish energy system - also writing a Bruegel blog post on the same topic. More recently Georg has written an opinion piece on how climate-change policies risk increasing social inequality.

The final document on the German coalition agreement will have significant consequences for the European Union and the Eurozone. Bruegel director Guntram Wolff gives his assessment of the agreement's key features in this episode of 'The Sound of Economics'

The negotiations to form the next German government have been a significant factor in European affairs for months now. With an agreement finally struck, this episode of 'The Sound of Economics' sees Bruegel director Guntram Wolff analyse the document of the agreement and what it means for the EU.

In short, there is a lot of continuity: the Bundestag remains in charge of the European Stability Mechanism, and the EU's fiscal rules are praised; there will be money for the EU budget, too. More significant is the will to move towards a common tax base and minimum tax rate for corporate taxation. Overall, this is not a breakthrough for Europe.

Further reading:

What has driven the votes for Germany’s right-wing Alternative für Deutschland? - by Alexander Roth and Guntram B. Wolff

SPEAKER:

Guntram B. Wolff, Director, Bruegel.

PRODUCTION:

Sean Gibson & Giuseppe Porcaro

Brexit has afforded the European Parliament with the opportunity to reform - but will the current proposals for reallocating the UK's 73 seats after 2019 fully realise that opportunity?

In the latest chapter of 'The Sound of Economics', Bruegel director Guntram Wolff highlights the potential political ramifications of seat reallocation, and the difficulties inherent in making the Parliament more representative while staying within the bounds of previous agreements.

Read more on the topic on Bruegel website

SPEAKER

Guntram B. Wolff, Director, Bruegel

PRODUCTION

Sean Gibson & Giuseppe Porcaro

SUMMARY:

Manufacturing in its 21st century guise is markedly different from its traditional portrayal. Innovations are not only improving the efficiency of production processes but are also allowing for the establishment of more complex supply chains, with smarter communications systems and big-data management systems driven by an increasing digitalisation.

Companies in a variety of sectors in Europe are having to adapt quickly to keep pace with the change. In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Simone Tagliapietra discusses how the established energy companies are ensuring they stay relevant in this new age; J. Scott Marcus elaborates on the opportunities thus far missed in Europe to make e-commerce work better for everyone; and Reinhilde Veugelers looks at what Europe needs to do to maintain a global presence as new manufacturing takes hold, and what lessons might be learnt from elsewhere.

Each of these three scholars has contributed significant research to the Bruegel Blueprint publication 'Remaking Europe: the new manufacturing as an engine for growth', which explores the topic of new manufacturing in Europe across many sectors.

SPEAKERS

J. Scott Marcus, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

Simone Tagliapietra, Research Fellow, Brugel

Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

PRODUCTION

Sean Gibson & Giuseppe Porcaro

The issue of member-state integration in two or more speeds is one of the recurring questions in the debate about the European project. While previously this was a subject for academic circles, it has now moved into policy circles. Is this the future of Europe? Would the idea of proceeding in two or more speeds provoke a break-up of the EU? Is it an opportunity for each country to rethink and renew its commitments to the European project?

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, Bruegel's deputy director, Maria Demertzis, asks some of these questions to Sandro Gozi, Italy's State Secretary for European Affairs.

Multispeed #Europe #FutureOfEurope #EU

Senior Bruegel fellow Zsolt Darvas discusses the impact and integration of migrants in the European Union, based on a new research paper he has co-authored with Uuriintuya Batsaikhan and Inês Gonçalves Raposo.

Joining him on 'The Sound of Economics' is Manu Bhardwaj, vice president for research and insights at the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth, while Sean Gibson takes the reins of his first podcast as the new Bruegel press officer.

Zsolt Darvas has written several blogs ahead of the release of the research paper, the issues of which are discussed in this episode:

How the EU has become an immigration area by Zsolt Darvas

Support for intra-EU mobility of people is on the rise by Zsolt Darvas

The challenge of fostering financial inclusion of refugees by Zsolt Darvas

In addition, watch Bruegel's event on the same topic: Better policies for people on the move

SPEAKERS

Manu Bhardwaj, Vice President for Research and Insights, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, & Zsolt Darvas, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

PRODUCTION

Sean Gibson & Giuseppe Porcaro

Bruegel senior scholar Nicolas Véron speaks with Steven Maijoor, the chair of ESMA, about the future of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), and of the EU's financial supervisory architecture. Currently, the organisation of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) is based on a sectoral approach with one ESA for each sector: separate authorities for banking, insurance, and securities and markets. Maijoor's institution, ESMA, is an independent EU Authority that contributes to safeguarding the stability of the European Union's financial system by enhancing the protection of investors and promoting stable and orderly financial markets. What does he think about the future of CMU, and the regulatory changes that might entail?

Bruegel scholar Dirk Schoenmaker speaks with James Murray, London’s Deputy Mayor with responsibility for housing. They talk about the challenges London is facing in guaranteeing fair access to reasonably-priced housing. What is the right balance between rental and owned accommodation? And how much can local government influence the housing market in our most desirable cities?

SPEAKERS

Dirk Schoenmaker, Senior Scholar, Bruegel James Murray, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Residential Development

PRODUCTION

Giuseppe Porcaro Bryn Watkins

Bruegel’s Alicia García-Herrero and Robin Niblett of Chatham House discuss a new joint report on EU-China relations. How easy was it to find common ground with Chinese partners? And what should be the priorities for economic cooperation between Europe and China?

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we host a conversation between Alicia García-Herrero and Robin Niblett. Our guests talk about a new joint report, EU–China Economic Relations to 2025, produced by four leading institutes in Europe and China.

They discuss the process of finding common ground between the authors, and draw out some of the most interesting findings. It turns out that the most obvious sphere for EU-China economic cooperation, trade and investment, might be the most difficult. So what could be the next step for Europe and China?

SPEAKERS Alicia García-Herrero, Senior Scholar, Bruegel Robin Niblett, Director, Chatham House CREDITS Presented and produced by Bryn Watkins

EU #China #Cooperation #economics

In this episode of The Sound of Economics we focus on trade multilateralism. What are the advantages of a multilateral approach to trade, and what are the risks? What challenges is the global trade system facing, and how should Europe react? Bruegel’s André Sapir explains the benefits of multilateral trade agreements, and calls on society’s to find ways to compensate those who lose out. Arancha González, executive director of the International Trade Center, makes a strong case against protectionsism. Petra Pinzler, journalist and author, highlights the weaknesses in some narrow economic thinking about trade and argues for better quality trade agreements that empower states. And Guntram Wolff, Bruegel’s director, discusses Europe’s place in the multilateral trade system.

Trade #Europe #Protectionism #Globalisation #Multilateralism

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we host a conversation between Jean Pisani-Ferry and Guntram Wolff on the future of Europe after the French election.

Our guests discuss how to address the urban-rural divide that was visible not only in the French election, but also in the Brexit vote and the US election. They also address Emmanuel Macron's pro-European platform, and discuss the significance of winning on such a platform. Finally, they speak about what Macron's victory will mean for the future of the eurozone.

SPEAKERS Guntram Wolff, Director, Bruegel Jean Pisani-Ferry, Director for Programme and Ideas of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign

CREDITS Presented by Bryn Watkins Produced by Giuseppe Porcaro

This episode of The Sound of Economics focuses on the banking system in Europe and some of the challenges it is facing. The financial crisis made it clear that more should be done to create conditions for a safer financial system. The EU has taken measures to do that, and one of those measures is the creation of the banking union, which implies bringing all instruments of the banking sector policy to the eurozone level.

Nicolas Véron explains to which extent the banking union has been completed, and shares his assessment on how successful the implementation of the new framework has been so far. While there are some aspects of the framework that can already be assessed, it seems that addressing the issues of Italian banks will be the first big test of how it will function in practice. Silvia Merler shares her opinion on the situation in Italy and reforms that have been taken so far.

One of the key aspects of the banking union is the creation of the European deposit insurance scheme, which has proven to be the most challenging part of completing the banking union. Dirk Schoenmaker reflects on the topic.

Our guests go on to discuss how Brexit will affect the European banking and which risks and opportunities it might bring. Finally, they identify some of the challenges that the European banking system will have to address in the longer run.

SPEAKERS Silvia Merler, Affiliate Fellow

Dirk Schoenmaker, Senior Fellow

Nicolas Véron, Senior Fellow

CREDITS Presented and produced by Antonija Parat

This episode of The Sound of Economics focuses on labour mobility in Europe. Anti-immigration sentiment is on the rise due to the perception that immigrants are taking away jobs and benefits. But what is the real impact of migration on European labour markets? What are the economic challenges for migrants and how do these challenges impact on social integration? These are some of the questions we explore with our guests.

Alessandra Venturini speaks about the perception of migrants and how it differs from research findings. Samuel Engblom argues that the impact of migration on labour markets depends on political choices, and that it varies between countries. Anna Ilyina discusses IMF research on the economic impact of emigration from Eastern Europe, and Maria Demertzis emphasises the effect of migration on sending countries.

Finally, our guests debate what the ideal policy response to migration should be, and how perception of migration could be improved.

SPEAKERS Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director, Bruegel Samuel Engblom, Policy director, The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) Anna Ilyina, Division Chief, International Monetary Fund Alessandra Venturini, Deputy Director Migration Policy Center,Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI)

CREDITS Produced and presented by Giuseppe Porcaro

This episode of The Sound of Economics focuses on artificial intelligence (AI). The important technological advancements in computer science and information systems move us towards the artificial intelligence era with the creation of computing machines and systems that perform operations analogous to human learning and decision making. How will our lives change in this new era?

Robert Atkinson shares his opinion on how AI will develop in the future and what we can expect from this development. Anna Byhovskaya addresses the widespread perception that AI will replace jobs as we know them. Is that a myth to be debunked or something we should be ready for? Merja Kyllönen discusses the role of legislators in the process of AI advancement, and Georgios Petropoulos emphasises other important issues to consider, such as the role of companies.

Our guests go on to discuss the specific ways in which AI might change the nature of work. They also debate whether it will have an impact on politics and the political process. Finally, they discuss what they think will be the biggest change resulting from AI development.

SPEAKERS Robert Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Anna Byhovskaya, Policy & Communications Advisor, TUAC/ OECD Merja Kyllönen, Member of the European Parliament Georgios Petropoulos, Research Fellow, Bruegel

CREDITS Produced and presented by Giuseppe Porcaro

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which started the process of European integration. This presents an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made so far, and to discuss what Europeans can expect in the future. We explore some of the central questions on this topic with our guests.

Europe is facing a period of doubt and uncertainty, but this is not the first time it has faced a crisis. We begin this episode by asking Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol how today's challenges compare to previous periods where Europe has faced difficulties. Ivan Krastev goes on to discuss how much control Europe has over its decision-making, and to what extent it responds to external circumstances.

As uncertainty especially affects the younger generation of Europeans, Johanna Nyman examines how young people perceive the future of Europe and what they have to look forward to. Guntram Wolff shares his view on what Europeans should be hopeful about, and what they should worry about.

Our guests go on to debate what Europe can offer its citizens and what questions it will have to answer to move forward. Finally they reflect on the impact of the Treaty of Rome over the last 60 years.

SPEAKERS

Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, Non-resident fellow, Bruegel

Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies ,Sofia and Permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna

Johanna Nyman, Expert on youth policy and human rights

Guntram B. Wolff, Director, Bruegel

CREDITS

Produced by Giuseppe Porcaro Presented by Bryn Watkins

This episode of The Sound of Economics focuses on non-performing loans (NPLs), a pressing issue for Europe's banks. The financial crisis and the recession that followed left European banks with € 1 trillion of NPLs. This has a negative impact on banks, borrowers, and the wider European economy.

A range of experts offer insights into why NPLs are a challenge for banks, and why they are a problem for the European economy as a whole. They also discuss cultural differences in our relationship with debts, and how NPLs affect borrowers and undermine entrepreneurship.

NPLs are a big issue for the European economy, and the show's guests explore how this issue can be solved. They explain what NPL workout entails, and assess Europe's progress in streamlining the process. Asset Management Companies (AMCs), so-called "bad banks" are part of the solution, and this episode asks if a European approach to AMCs can be effective. And finally, since both banks and borrowers are negatively affected by NPLs, we address the difficult question of who should bear the loss.

In this episode of “The Sound of Economics” we examine the issue of inclusive growth and inequality in Europe.

We asked Zsolt Darvas, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, to explain us how is it possible to define and measure inclusive growth.

We spoke to Jana Hainsworth, President of the Social Platform, about the negative effects of social inequalities.

We also asked her which new policies should be implemented to support inclusive growth. Luca Visentini, Secretary General of the European Trade Unions Confederation, and Markus J. Beyrer, Director General of Businesseurope, also shared their opinion.

Finally, Zsolt Darvas highlighted the key policy recommendations from the Bruegel Blueprint “An Anatomy of inclusive growth”.

SPEAKERS Zsolt Darvas, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Jana Hainsworth, President, Social Platform Luca Visentini, Secretary General, European Trade Union Confederation Markus J. Beyrer, Director General, BusinessEurope

CREDITS Presented by Giuseppe Porcaro Produced by Vanessa Cotterell and Giuseppe Porcaro

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we focus on trade relations between the EU and China.

We asked Alicia Garcia Herrero, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, where relations between China and the EU stand at the moment, and why their trade relations are so important.

Currently the US seems more interested in the Pacific than its Atlantic alliance. Does this situation leave any room for the EU and China to get closer? We asked Pascal Lamy, former General Director- of the World Trade Organisation.

Lawrence Lau, Professor of Economics at the University of Hong Kong, told us why he believes that both China and the EU can benefit from closer relations.

We spoke with Jianwei Xu, Visiting Scholar at Bruegel, about the effects of Brexit on the EU-China relations: what would happen if the UK strikes a free trade agreement with China before the EU does?

Finally we discussed the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, which aims to reduce transportation costs between China and the EU. We asked professor Lau what this initiative entails, and Alicia shared her opinion on potential opportunities and dangers that the initiative can bring to Europe.

SPEAKERS Alicia Garcia Herrero, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Pascal Lamy, former General Director, World Trade Organisation Lawrence Lau, Professor of Economics, University of Hong Kong Jianwei Xu, Visiting Fellow, Bruegel

CREDITS Presented and produced by Vanessa Cotterell and Giuseppe Porcaro

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we discuss the issue of indebtedness and debt resolution with Carmen Reinhart, Professor of the International Financial System at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Professor Reinhart highlights the scale of the debt overhang in many advanced economies. She also presents evidence that deleveraging has been notably slow since the last global financial crisis.

She discusses how this overhang is affecting the speed of recovery, and calls for debt restructuring – especially in the private sector.

We also hear from Bruegel Research Fellow Maria Demertzis, who explains the significance of non-performing loans and argues for simplified bankruptcy laws.

SPEAKERS: Carmen Reinhart, Professor of the international financial system, Harvard Kennedy School Maria Demertzis, Research Fellow, Bruegel

CREDITS Presented by Giuseppe Porcaro Produced by Vanessa Cotterell and Giuseppe Porcaro

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, a panel of experts from Bruegel and the Financial Times discuss the outlook for the UK and Europe.

There is still a lot of uncertainty about the future, but some key questions are becoming clear.

What will be the impact of Brexit on politics and business? Is the UK retracting not only from Europe, but also from globalisation? How should Europe react to what is happening in the UK, and could the EU offer any flexibility on migration and ECJ jurisdiction?

This episode was recorded in conjunction with a Bruegel/Financial Times event about Brexit. Notes from this event, along with video and audio recordings, are available on the event page: http://bruegel.org/events/ft/

SPEAKERS Lionel Barber, Editor, Financial Times James Blitz, Whitehall Editor, Financial Times Guntram Wolff, Director, Bruegel Maria Demertzis, Research Fellow, Bruegel

CREDITS Presented by Giuseppe Porcaro Produced by Vanessa Cotterell and Giuseppe Porcaro

This episode of The Sound of Economics focuses on innovation. There is widespread agreement that innovation is vital for European economy, but how can we get from smart ideas to economic growth?

We asked Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow at Bruegel, why innovation matters for our economies, and why it is important for the components of the innovation system to be interconnected.

Dominique Guellec, Head of Science and Technological Policy in the Directorate of Science at the OECD, to shared with us his opinion on the main weaknesses in European innovation.

We also spoke with Scott Stern, Professor of Management of Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He outlined why he believes Europe needs to think local if it wants to get the full economic benefit of innovation.

We asked Karen Wilson, another Senior Fellow at Bruegel, why Europe seems to fare badly on this compared to other regions such as the US. She stressed the importance of completing the Single Market to support high-growth firms.

Access to capital is a vital factor for expansion of innovative firms. Karen shared her opinion on what the EU can do on this topic, while Reinhilde discussed why funding for innovative growth should come from capital markets.

SPEAKERS Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Dominique Guellec, Head of Science and Technological Policy, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, OECD Scott Stern, Professor of Management of Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management Karen Wilson, Senior Fellow, Bruegel

CREDITS Presented by Bryn Watkins Produced by Vanessa Cotterell, Giuseppe Porcaro, Bryn Watkins

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, we focus the issue of decarbonisation and the fight against climate change.

Decarbonisation is at the heart of EU energy and climate policy. And the recent ratification of the Paris Agreement makes decarbonisation targets some of the EU’s most important international commitments.

Progress towards the 2020 targets has been impressive. But the 2020 framework is now being replaced by new targets. The EU wants an 80-95 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, with an intermediate target of 40 percent by 2030.

We asked Simone Tagliapietra, Research Fellow at Bruegel, what progress the EU has already made towards its climate targets and what will change with the new emission targets.

We also spoke with Georg Zachmann, Senior Research Fellow at Bruegel, about the recent drop in Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and the future of EU’s emission trading scheme.

Lászlo Varro, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, shared his insights on which energy sources will be most important in the future.

We discussed with Connie Hedegaard, former European Commissioner for Climate Action, which other sectors need to be prioritised in the fight against climate change.

SPEAKERS Simone Tagliapietra, Research Fellow, Bruegel Georg Zachmann, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Lászlo Varro, Chief Economist, International Energy Agency Connie Hedegaard, former European Commissioner for Climate Action

CREDITS Presented by Antonija Parat and Bryn Watkins Produced by Vanessa Cotterell and Bryn Watkins

The Future of Europe by Bruegel

The Sound of Economics is a series of podcasts about economic policy, brought to you by Bruegel. Each episode focuses on a key economic policy debate.

In this episode we are joined by Jeffry Frieden, Professor of Government at Harvard University.

EPISODE 3 Many in the EU look to the USA as a model for monetary union in the Eurozone. But how easy was it to create such a union, and what can Europe learn from the USA’s experience?

This podcast was recorded when Jeffry Frieden visited Bruegel on 25 May 2016 to give a lecture on the topic. Bruegel also published an essay by Frieden, based on his lecture.

CONTENTS 1. Building the US monetary union 2. The dollar | From minute 11:30 3. Lessons for Europe | From minute 13:15

SPEAKERS Jeffry Frieden, Professor at Harvard University Presenters: Áine Quinn & Bryn Watkins

PRODUCERS Giuseppe Porcaro & Vanessa Cotterell

Read the essay: http://bruegel.org/2016/05/lessons-for-the-euro-from-early-us-monetary-and-financial-history/

Watch the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_jMFt5wl-U

The sound of economics is a series of podcasts about economic policy, brought to you by Bruegel. Each episode will look at a key economic policy debate, discuss why it is important and explore some of the work that Bruegel's researchers have done in the area.

This is a special edition about the UK leaving the EU:

On 23 June, the UK voted to leave the European Union, and the UK government will soon begin the process to withdraw from the European Union. What will this huge change mean for the future of the European Union and its member states? What is the process of leaving, and what signal should the EU give to the UK? What issues are on the table as the UK negotiates a deal with the EU?

CONTENT Initial reactions Process of leaving the EU Future of Europe

Producers – Giuseppe Porcaro & Vanessa Cotterell

SPEAKERS Guntram Wolff – Director, Bruegel Maria Demertzis – Research Fellow, Bruegel Nicolas Véron – Senior Research fellow, Bruegel Presenters – Áine Quinn & Bryn Watkins, Bruegel

Read more:

http://bruegel.org/tag/brexit/

http://bruegel.org/2016/06/the-day-after-brexit-what-do-we-know/

The sound of economics is a series of podcasts about economic policy, brought to you by Bruegel.

Each episode will look at a key economic policy debate, discuss why it is important and explore some of the work that Bruegel's researchers have done in the area.

This episode is about European fiscal rules.

EPISODE 1

The strong fiscal tightening implemented in many European countries since 2010 has contributed to the poor economic recovery in Europe. This raises doubts about the effectiveness of the EU’s fiscal rules in achieving their two main objectives: public debt sustainability and fiscal stabilisation.

A key indicator in the framework is the structural budget balance, but it is very difficult to measure. Recommendations made based on the structural budget balance are often revised when initial estimates turn out to be wrong.

Another problem with the current EU fiscal framework is the opaque web of ‘flexibility’ clauses. This leads to never-ending bargaining between member states and the European Commission about the implementation of the rules, which undermines trust in them.

A recent Bruegel policy contribution by Gregory Claeys, Zsolt Darvas and Alvaro Leandro analyses and assesses the framework and proposes a new set of rules.

Producers – Giuseppe Porcaro & Vanessa Cotterell

CONTENT

The current European fiscal framework and its flaws — until min. 07:50

Bruegel scholars propose new fiscal rules — from min. 07:50

Is a European fiscal council a good idea? — from min. 11:30

SPEAKERS

Gregory Claeys — Research Fellow, Bruegel

Zsolt Darvas — Senior Fellow, Bruegel

Jochen Andritzky — Secretary General of the German Council of Economic Experts

Filippo Taddei — Chief Economist of the Democratic Party, Italy

Presenters — Áine Quinn, Bryn Watkins, Bruegel

Read more:

A proposal to revive the European Fiscal Framework by Gregory Claeys, Zsolt Darvas, Alvaro Leandro bruegel.org/2016/03/a-proposal-…n-fiscal-framework/

How to reform EU fiscal rules by Grégory Claeys & Zsolt Darvas http://bruegel.org/2016/04/how-to-reform-eu-fiscal-rules/

Filling the gap: open economy considerations for more reliable potential output estimates by Zsolt Darvas & Andras Simon bruegel.org/2015/10/filling-the…l-output-estimates/