The European Union and Global Financial Turmoil

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The world economy has experienced financial turmoil on a scale that has not been witnessed since the Great Depression. The effect of this crisis on the European economy to date has been acute, prompting an unprecedented degree of policy intervention at the national, euro area and EU levels designed, inter alia, to unfreeze credit markets, secure bank deposits and recapitalise the banking sector. While the credit crunch has brought several Western European banks to their knees, caused recession and massive public spending deficits, the impact upon several of the newest EU member states in Eastern Europe has been even more devastating. Though it has yet to run its full course, the global financial turmoil has already raised a crucial set of questions regarding the functioning and future of European economic and financial governance. What should be the EU’s regulatory response to the financial crisis? Which national models of financial sector governance should be emulated? Are the EU’s ambitions to create a Single European Market for Financial Services still credible in the light of recent events? Is Economic and Monetary Union sustainable without a more centralised approach to financial supervision and stability? Is the European Union equipped to meet global policy challenges of this magnitude and what role should the euro area play in a new international financial order?

The Europa Institute funded a mini-conference and additional seminars with academic and expert-practitioner speakers, held in December 2009.  Speakers included:

Sylvia Maxfield, Simmons College, School of Management, Boston
Capital adequacy rules: the US versus the EU

Amy Verdun, University of Victoria:
EU responses to East European crises

Steve Ryan, DG-Internal Market, European Commission
Reforming EU financial supervision

Sebastian Royo, Suffolk University, Boston
Spain's response to the global crises: Lessons for the EU

Henrik Enderlein, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
On the European Central Bank and the credit crunch

Lucia Quaglia, University of Sussex
Regulating Hedge Fund activity at the EU-level

George Pagoulatos, University of Athens
United we stand?: The EU’s international leadership and the financial crisis

Kenneth Dyson, University of Cardiff
German response to the global crisis: Lessons for the EU.

Gavin Kretzschmar, University of Edinburgh, Business School
Why Basel II and the EU capital directive miss the point: Banks are
'methodologically' under capitalised

Charlotte Rommerskirchen, University of Edinburgh
Chacun pour soi:
The Franco-German relationship and the future of fiscal policy

David Howarth (d.howarth@ed.ac.uk) and Iain Hardie (iain.hardie@ed.ac.uk), Politics and IR, SSPS