ZEW Memorial Event - "Lothar Späth Was a European Through and Through"

As a result of globalisation and the associated phenomena of migration, climate change, and digitalisation, Europe now stands on the brink of enormous economic and social changes. Professor Lothar Späth, former Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg and one of the early initiators of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), was ahead of his time in anticipating these challenges. At a memorial event jointly organised by the Baden-Württemberg state government and ZEW in Mannheim on 21 March 2017, ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach, PhD, Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann MdL, and EU Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger discussed Lothar Späth’s intellectual, economic, and political legacy, while noting the lessons it holds for Europe today.

As ZEW President Achim Wambach put it in his speech to the 300 invited guests from the realms of politics, economics, science, and civil society, "Lothar Späth was someone who knew how to get things done." With his ceaseless energy, Späth had driven forward ambitious plans to secure Baden-Württemberg’s economic future – not least through his contribution to the founding of ZEW in 1990. "At the time," Wambach noted, "giving the new research institute the task of focussing on European and international economic research was extremely forward-looking."

Wambach stressed that for Lothar Späth, the dissemination of knowledge and sharing of research insights with practitioners were always crucial. "ZEW was thus never conceived as an ivory tower institution." Its original mission, he noted, had only gained in importance today, and was “an appeal to us as economists." Occupational training projects could be a key to successfully meeting the challenges of digitalisation, innovation, climate change, equal opportunity, and migration in Germany and Europe. Yet such projects also represent a significant contribution to fulfilling ZEW’s mission and establishing clarity on the basis of facts. As Späth himself was said to have remarked, "The interrelationships are clear; we just can’t see them yet."

"Europe needs to remain dynamic and ready for change"

Achim Wambach was followed by Baden-Württemberg’s current minister-president, Winfried Kretschmann, who spoke on "the role of Europe in a time of change." Kretschmann noted that Späth regarded Europe as a model for the globalised world of the future. "It was he who first made innovation one of the key pillars of national policy – an enormous achievement." Amidst growing nationalist sentiment in Europe, he remarked, this vision nonetheless seemed to have receded from the centre stage. "Many people feel threatened by the upheavals of our time," he said, citing the examples of the migration crisis, terrorism, the regulation of multinational companies, and data protection. "We need to meet these challenges head on," Kretschmann stressed, since "none of them can be solved without Europe." Europe needed to remain dynamic and ready for change – and indeed to be the very motor of global change "once the motor in the USA starts to splutter".

Kretschmann also noted how closely Baden-Württemberg, as a region at the heart of Europe, was interwoven with a whole host of international partners. "Our companies' value chains today go twice around the world before turning a few pirouettes in our neighbouring European countries." Regions like Baden-Württemberg, he stated, were indispensable resources in such times of rapid change: "What we need – to borrow Lothar Späth’s words – is a 'Europe of regions.'" This did not mean imposing an artificial harmony on these regions, but rather making space for diversity: "This is why we need to take the principle of subsidiarity seriously." Such change required responsible coordination, while also representing "an opportunity to inspire enthusiasm for Europe – as Lothar Späth always did."

“We have to get people on board”

Günther Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, concurred with Winfried Kretschmann in remarking that "Lothar Späth was a European through and through." Baden Württemberg’s former minister-president had always recognised that, in the long run, Europe's nation states were too small for the great tasks and too big for the small tasks. As Oettinger noted, this idea had also played a part in the founding of ZEW: "A Centre for European Economic Research – that in itself was a forward-looking vision at a time when most researchers were still exclusively concerned with national economies." It had been Späth's wish that ZEW would provide Baden-Württemberg with a high-profile research institute – and he had established a permanent state representation to Brussels at a very early stage. "Today," the commissioner pointed out, "that would go without saying for all of Germany’s federal states and the other regions of Europe."

Späth’s appreciation of the coming challenges for Europe had been amply demonstrated by the initiatives he established and supported. "The coming decades will continue to be marked by globalisation, digitalisation, and automatisation," Oettinger noted, "just as the last few have been." He nonetheless stressed how important it was "to get people on board." Since Europe was surrounded by instability like no other continent in the world, it would need to remain a union of peace in the future. With a view to Donald Trump's USA, he remarked that "'America first' means that Europe finally has to grow up." In the global competition of value systems and social models, it would be a question of exporting European values such as the rule of law, free speech, and representative democracy. In this endeavour, he concluded, "Lothar Späth has provided us with a blueprint."