Bruegel event recordings

This event will discuss the current state of the multilateral trading system and how it might evolve in the future.

2 Robots and artificial intelligence: The next frontier for employment and EU economic policy by BruegelEvents

The advance of artificial intelligence and development of robotics is expected to have a great impact in our society and our economy. On the one hand, automated systems bring many efficiencies in the performance of specific tasks and the operation of markets. On the other hand, their disruptive forces create many challenges for policy makers who have to design an efficient and secure framework so...

Pension funds are the core of the institutional investment that could support greater financial integration and stimulate long term investment in the EU. The low interest environment and disillusionment with the performance of pension funds has led to a widespread retrenchment of funded schemes, and possibly a move back into the redistributive state systems. In this context the EU Commission in 20...

While the outlook for the European economy has been improving there is still a lot to be concerned about. The geopolitical climate is tense and uncertain. Europe is processing the UK’s decision to leave the Union and the Brexit negotiations are ongoing. Meanwhile the Trump presidency is causing disruptions on the global arena. All of this could derail the process of recovery. While there is talk o...

The financial crisis has starkly underlined the dangers of complex financial assets. Such assets are not only hard to value and price, but may also lead to fire sales and solvency risks once liquidity dries up. Based on an extensive study by the Bank of Italy this event will discuss the lack of transparency and problems in valuing correctly significant parts of bank assets in the euro area. This w...

We were happy to host Günther Oettinger at Bruegel on 7 March to discuss the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). We looked at the new spending priorities and where the EU could provide particular added value, as well as discussing the shift towards a higher use of financial instruments.

At this event we looked at the ESRB task force’s investigation on safe assets.

What are the missing pieces of the euro-area architecture? How to go beyond the current visions of euro-area governance? How should the new European Monetary Fund work, in order to break the sovereign-bank link? What are the broader strategic implications for Europe's position in the world?

This event featured a presentation by Daniel S. Hamilton of his new report: Creating the North Atlantic Marketplace for Jobs and Growth. The study charts possible paths by which Americans and Europeans can navigate this strange new world. It describes how the transatlantic economy is being transformed by domestic political uncertainties, the digital revolution, the changing nature of production, a...

Motivated by the emergence of national blockchain ecosystems like Alastria in Spain, we hold this event to discuss the value that Blockchain brings to transactions and industrial relations as well as its implications for entrepreneurship and growth. We discussed the challenges for the operation and success of EU-wide Blockchain platforms.

Think tanks face an operating environment that is full of disruptions. What is the right strategy to avoid them or even to benefit from them? There is no doubt that think tanks have benefited from the new digital era. Nowadays, it is much easier to been seen and heard. But what are the challenges and potential future opportunities resulting from this change? How do fake news impact the work of thi...

Current tax rules were designed for the traditional economy and do not apply to activities of digital corporations that require no physical presence in the country where goods and services are sold. In September 2017, the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Spain sent a letter to the Estonian EU presidency and the European Commission asking the EU executive to design a “equalisation ta...

Bruegel and the Egmont Institute are pleased to host a conversation with Jin Liqun, the president of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond. At this event we discussed the role of the AIIB in contributing to key projects for Europe-Asia economic cooperation.

Digital technologies are set to make the European energy system more connected, intelligent, efficient, reliable and sustainable. Data collection and exchange are growing exponentially, creating digital threats but also valuable opportunities. In this rapidly evolving context, the European energy industry has both the challenge and the opportunity to reinvent itself. With this event, Bruegel aims...

Since the early 1990s, immigration has been a more important source of population increase in the EU than the natural change due to births and deaths, while in recent years Europe is facing a large inflow of refugees. At the same time, Eurobarometer opinion surveys reveal that immigration tops the list of challenges that EU citizens are most concerned about and therefore effective policies toward...

As the EU and UK negotiators dive in further negotiations, it is becoming essential to discuss what our future relationship on policy and in the framework programme for Research & Innovation (R&I) should look like. R&I will clearly not be a ‘zero-sum’ game between the UK and the EU, and as such it will be critical that negotiations in this area are approached accordingly in order to preserve both...

What are the strengths and challenges of health care systems in each EU country? What are the common policy priorities and opportunities for EU value added? What role do healthcare systems play in public finances and macroeconomic developments? What are the economic values of investing in healthcare?

There is growing recognition that the productivity slowdown experienced over the past two decades is partly rooted in a rise of adjustment frictions that rein in the creative destruction process. One important dimension of this phenomenon is that firms that would typically exit or be forced to restructure in a competitive market – i.e. “zombie” firms – are increasingly lingering in a precarious st...

Some European economies are, or have recently been, reforming their labour markets to try to put in place a “flexicurity” model. Indeed, there is a strong demand for further flexibilisation of labour markets, employment and the work organization to adjust to globalization and the competition from other regions. But at same time, an equally strong demand exists for providing security to employees –...

Lack of access to energy is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) most dramatic socio-economic challenges. Solving this issue is a fundamental prerequisite to unleashing the economic potential of the region. Given the order of magnitude of the challenge, only a joint effort of SSA countries and of the international community can contribute to its solution. With this event, Bruegel seeked to discuss Eu...

Technological development, and in particular, digitalisation has major implications for labour markets. The rise of collaborative platforms provides new employment opportunities in which individuals can benefit from information technologies for trading their assets among each other through efficient matching and reputation mechanisms. The emergence on these new internet based transactions is chara...

While global imbalances have fallen from pre-GFC peaks, progress in reducing imbalances has stalled in recent years. Imbalances are also increasingly concentrated in advanced economies, and continuation of large and persistent surpluses suggest automatic adjustment mechanisms might be weak. Drawing on the recently published IMF External Sector Report, the seminar discussed the methodology for asse...

This event discussed the roots of Europe’s trust deficit, the consequent decline in support for established political parties and institutions, and growing scepticism toward the European Union. The rise of populism, which we define as a political tendency distinguished by its anti-elite, authoritarian and nationalist elements and rooted in economic insecurity and identity politics, took a central...

The idea of Universal Income has been around for years, proposed by many economists and sociologists around the world, but for a long time it was not tested at a large scale. However, some experiments are now taking place in Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, UK and Canada. A variety of Basic Income proposals are circulating today: its proponents claim that universal basic income (UBI) would provide...