Finance Minister Stächele Visits ZEW

The finance minister for Baden-Württemberg, Willi Stächele MdL, recently conducted a fact-finding visit at ZEW. He was accompanied by State Secretary Dr. Stefan Scheffold, Ministerial Director Dr. Gisela Meister-Scheufelen as well as several other high-ranking ministry officials.

Following a brief presentation on the institute’s main research areas, its activities in the field of economic policy advising as well as ZEW management’s commitment to the transfer of knowledge and provision of further training, a number of ZEW researchers gave talks on their latest research projects. Key research topics included the EU’s own resources system, the causes of opposition to reform, the fiscal competitiveness of German companies and the recent financial and banking crisis. As one might expect, the causes of the financial crisis as well as possible approaches to reforming the international financial markets sparked particularly intense discussion. At the end of the visit, it was agreed that the specialist departments of the Finance Ministry would intensify contact with ZEW and organise regular informative meetings in the future in order to discuss the latest issues relating to economic policy.