“The Eurozone Crisis is Over—Now What?”

The university community is invited to join the Public Affairs Discussion Group for a talk titled “The Eurozone Crisis is Over—Now What?” Nicolas Véron, a founder of the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and fellow of the Peterson Institute, will give the talk Friday, April 13, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in Peter B. Lewis Building, Room 202.

About the talk

The 2008 financial crash and its aftermath in Greece—and to a lesser extent, other nations—led to fears that the Eurozone would collapse. Yet, somehow, the euro and its zone have survived—perhaps for lack of a sensible way out, perhaps because of merits that were too easily ignored during the crisis. Over the past three years, the economies of the Eurozone countries have grown at the same rate as in the United States, so the crisis appears to be over. But can the Eurozone be reformed to improve security and growth for all its members? Or will it remain, as Véron recently wrote with colleagues, “vulnerable, underperforming, and divided?” There are divisions between elites and much of the public, and between two groups of national leaders. One, led by France, believes new European Union governance and risk-sharing mechanisms are needed. The other, led by Germany, views the problems as caused by national policies that require domestic reforms. Véron has become a leading expert on financial regulation in the European Union. Recently, he joined with other independent French and German economists to propose a package of reforms designed to bridge the gap between official French and German perspectives.

About the speaker

Nicolas Véron co-founded Bruegel in Brussels in 2002, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics (Washington, D.C.) in 2009, and currently is employed on equal terms by both organizations as a senior fellow. His research is primarily about financial systems and financial services policies. He frequently briefs senior economic policy officials in Europe, the United States and Asia, and has testified at parliamentary hearings in the U.S. Senate, European Parliament and in several European member states. He has been a financial policy expert for the European Commission, European Court of Auditors, European Parliament, International Monetary Fund (Independent Evaluation Office) and World Bank, as well as nonprofits including the CFA Institute and Transparency International. He also is an independent board member of the global derivatives trade repository arm of the Depositary Trust and Clearing Corporation, a financial infrastructure company that operates on a nonprofit basis. A graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines, his earlier experience includes senior positions in the French government and private sector in the 1990s and early 2000s. In September 2012, Bloomberg Markets included Véron in its yearly global “50 Most Influential” list, with reference to his early advocacy of European banking union.