“Toward a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union”

Workshop to be hosted by the OeNB in Vienna on September 10 and 11, 2015

The Five Presidents’ Report “Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union” released in mid-2015 has restocked the ongoing debate about how to make the euro area more resilient to future crises. According to the report, centralized monetary policy making ought to be complemented by jointly coordinated economic and budget policies over the medium term. But what should this stronger pooling of decision making look like? How much coordination or centralization is necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)?

International experts are convening in Vienna on September 10 and 11, 2015, to discuss these questions at a workshop entitled “Toward a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union,” which was organized by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB).

Governor Ewald Nowotny of the OeNB looks forward to welcoming a number of renowned experts and representatives of European institutions at this event. The keynote lectures will be delivered by Paul De Grauwe (London School of Economics), Otmar Issing (former member of the Governing Board of the ECB and ECB chief economist) and László Andor (former EU Commissioner responsible for employment). The coorganizer of this workshop, Euro50 Group, is represented by the former French finance minister Edmond Alphandéry, and Member of the European Parliament Othmar Karas is among the panelists.

In the Five Presidents’ Report, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, in close cooperation with Donald Tusk (European Council), Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Eurogroup), Mario Draghi (European Central Bank) and Martin Schulz (European Parliament), presented a far-reaching map for deepening EMU. To put EMU on a more solid foundation, they propose gradually complementing today’s economic and fiscal rules with further sovereignty sharing within common institutions. By 2025, i.e. at the end of this stage-based process encompassing the four areas Economic, Financial, Fiscal and Political Union, a euro area treasury should be in place for collective decision making. The upcoming workshop takes a look at individual reform proposals through the lens of economic theory, e.g. compensatory mechanisms for stabilizing the economy, productivity-oriented wage-setting rules, Capital Market Union, shared debt management, golden rules for public investment and a budget for the euro area.