The EU and Economic and Monetary Union Reforms

How do Member States from Central and Eastern Europe perceive the debates on the euro and the reform of the European Monetary Union? Our Lunch Debate will focus on how different EU Member States view the EU reform options – with a specific focus on CEE countries. Especially with regard to the current and future euro members in Central and Eastern Europe, it is striking that their perspectives seem to have been somewhat neglected (e.g. compared to French and German positions). Our debate will be based on a large-scale survey on the reform preferences of Eastern European economists, which we have compared to those of German, French and Italian economists. This allows us to create an innovative map of Eurozone preferences and identify reforms over which a consensus may be reached among old and new Member States.

At our Lunch Debate in June, ZEW researcher Annika Havlik will present the results of the ZEW survey, which will be followed by a panel discussion. The panel includes Eva Zamrazilová, Chairwoman of the Czech Fiscal Council, Istvan Székely, Advisor to the Commission’s DG ECFIN, Mateusz Szczurek, Lead Regional Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD), former Polish Minister for Finance and member of the European Fiscal Board, and Friedrich Heinemann, head of ZEW’s Research Department “Corporate Taxation and Public Finance” and author of the survey.

This Lunch Debate is organised with support of the Brigitte Strube Stiftung.