15/05/2008 - 16/05/2008 : Brussels Economic Forum 2008

Ten years after the landmark decisions which led to the launch of the euro and the creation of a monetary union in Europe, this year's Forum was dedicated to an assessment of what Economic and Monetary Union had achieved so far and what challenges it would face. It included sessions on growth and adjustment in the euro area, the euro and global financial markets, euro-area governance, and the medium-term challenges for Economic and Monetary Union.

The Forum also provided an excellent opportunity for policy makers and academics to debate issues that currently figure prominently on the EU and international agenda, such as recent financial market developments and their possible implications for Europe.

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The Forum (841 kB)   (pdf 762 kb)	Poster (66 kB)   (pdf 65 kb)	Programme (679 kB)   (pdf 640 kb)

For all speeches and presentations, copyright rests with the authors.

Final programme
Thursday 15 May
08.15-09.20	Registration of participants
09.20-09.30	Welcome: Klaus Regling, Director-General DG ECFIN, European Commission
09.30-10.00	Opening address: Joaquín Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Commission
Session I	Growth and employment in Europe – Assessing ten years of EMU
	Chair: Marco Buti, Deputy Director-General DG ECFIN, European Commission This session will focus on how the creation of the euro and the policies conducted since then have helped the European single market to contribute to higher growth and employment in Europe. Special attention will be given to financial market integration within Europe, one of the components of the single market most affected by the introduction of the single currency.
10.00-11.00	Part 1: EMU policies and the single market Wouter Bos, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Netherlands Pedro Solbes, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Spain Pervenche Berès, Chairwoman, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament (83 kB)
11.00-11.40	Part 2: The euro as a catalyst for global financial market deepening Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, former Minister of Finance, Italy Malcolm Knight, General Manager, BIS (62 kB)
11.40-12.10	Keynote address: Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup and Prime Minister, Luxembourg
12.10-13.10	Panel discussion: 1992-2008: Has Europe lived up to expectations? Chair and introduction: Theo Waigel, former Federal Minister of Finance, Germany (68 kB)   Speakers from parts 1 and 2. Questions from the floor
13.10-14.45	Lunch
Session II	EMU in the global economy - Weathering the storms
	Chair: Klaus Regling, Director-General DG ECFIN, European Commission EMU is a political and economic project of global importance. Currency crises within Europe have become a thing of the past and within less than a decade, the euro has become firmly established as a global currency. It has successfully weathered the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and large movements in commodity prices. But is EMU sufficiently equipped to cope with the new challenges posed by an ever-growing international interdependence? This session is expected to focus on a broad range of issues related to Europe's external economic position and policies in a global context. It will also include an assessment of the current distress on international financial markets and of the policies needed to accommodate the impact on the real economy of global financial sector developments.
14.45-15.15	Keynote address: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director, IMF
15.15-16.00	Part 1: The euro in a rapidly changing international environment Haruhiko Kuroda, President, Asian Development Bank (77 kB)   Lucas Papademos, Vice-President, ECB Speech(162 kB)
16.00-16.30	Coffee break
16.30-17.15	Part 2: From local subprime to global slowdown: the euro and financial market distress Stephen S. Roach, Chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia (385 kB)   Adam Posen, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
17.15-18.15	Panel discussion: Is there a need for global policy coordination? Chair and introduction: Klaus Regling Speakers from parts 1 and 2. Questions from the floor
20.00	Address by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former President of the Republic, France (102 kB)
Friday 16 May
08.15-09.20	Registration of participants
Session III	EMU: Realising its full potential
	Chair: Joaquín Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Commission In the last ten years, the euro area has made great strides towards macroeconomic stability and this must be maintained. Tackling new global and domestic challenges will, however, require growth prospects to be raised through higher productivity growth, greater economic flexibility and enhanced policy discipline, while safeguarding Europe's social models. This session will add a forward-looking policy dimension to the discussion and will touch upon issues such as the Lisbon Strategy, euro-area governance, enhanced surveillance and the process of adoption of the euro.
09.00-09.30	Keynote address: Jean-Claude Trichet, President, European Central Bank
09.30-10.30	EMU@10: An ambitious agenda for stronger growth (part 1) Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Minister of Finance, Portugal (83 kB)   Mario Monti, President, Bocconi University of Milan Michael Sarris, former Minister of Finance, Cyprus (215 kB)
10.30-11.00	Coffee break
11.00-11.40	EMU@10: an ambitious agenda for stronger growth (part 2) Erkki Liikanen, Governor, Bank of Finland (71 kB)
11.40-12.10	Keynote address: Guy Verhofstadt, Minister of State, Belgium
12.10-13.10	Concluding panel: EMU: Realising its full potential Chair and introduction: Joaquín Almunia Speakers from parts 1 and 2. Questions from the floor
13.10	Lunch

Contact

For any queries related to the programme or the organisation of the conference, please contact the Brussels Economic Forum team by mail or fax, or send us an email.

European Commission
Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
Brussels Economic Forum 2008
BU-1, 3/147
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200
B-1049 Brussels
Fax: +32 2 296 36 50