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Jörg Asmussen Jörg
Asmussen
José Manuel Barroso José Manuel
Barroso
Eric Bartelsman Eric
Bartelsman
Marek Belka Marek
Belka
Marco Buti Marco
Buti
Rebecca Christie Rebecca
Christie
Thérèse de Liedekerke Thérèse
de Liedekerke
Servaas Deroose Servaas
Deroose
Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis
Dombrovskis
Fernando Jiménez Latorrer Fernando
Jiménez Latorre
Maria Luís Albuquerque Maria
Luís Albuquerque
Yves Mersch Yves
Mersch
Reza Moghadam Reza
Moghadam
Olli Rehn Olli
Rehn
Beda Romano Beda
Romano
André Sapir André
Sapir
Bernadette Ségol Bernadette
Ségol
Peter Spiegel Peter
Spiegel
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell Gertrude
Tumpel-Gugerell
Herman Van Rompuy Herman
Van Rompuy
Maarten Verwey Maarten
Verwey
Bettina Wasteels Bettina
Wasteels
Anders Åslund Anders
Åslund
Brussels Economic Forum 2014
10 June 2014 – A Europe 2020 Initiative
Sustaining the Recovery:
Strategies and Policies for Growth and Stability
More competitive economies are fitter for the globalised world.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
The fundamental problem facing the EU is political: how do we keep up pace of reforms when the dangers are receding?”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
Citizens want results, they want growth and jobs. We owe it to them to get it together. If this happens, I can assure you that the level of satisfaction with European and national institutions will grow.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
Even if we know that reforms are sometimes politically difficult…the member states that share a common currency have a responsibility to reflect on their national policies and the effect they have on the rest of the euro area.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
Investment has had a dismal performance in Europe in recent years.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
The downside risks are mainly political.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
All too often we think of how to make the decision not the actual decisions. That is putting the cart before the horse.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
We hold this in our hands. These are exciting times.”
José Manuel Barroso,
European Commission President
Without financial stability banks are not lending, companies are worried and not investing, citizens are not spending.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
The very fact that Latvia was the country that did the most austerity but had the biggest in growth shows there is not a causal link between austerity and growth.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
The risk is now of slow economic growth, a Japanisation of the EU, this seems to be the key risk.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
The key word is competitiveness, in the coming years we must concentrate on initiatives to strengthen competitiveness.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
When you have the rules one has to meet them. The track record of meeting the rules has not been very good.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
The most difficult project of our economies now is reduction in debt.”
Valdis Dombrovskis,
MP, former Prime Minister, Latvia
The banking union, especially the bail in regime, better aligns with the financial sector.”
Reza Moghadam,
Director of the European Department, IMF
Corrective actions in case of non-compliance are not strict and should be placing pressure on national budgets.”
Reza Moghadam,
Director of the European Department, IMF
Ideas for job creation and growth are met with public disillusionment with the complexity of the current system.”
Reza Moghadam,
Director of the European Department, IMF
Reform fatigue will be met when the actions are effective.”
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
Structural reform is needed on a more functionalist than federalist agenda.”
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
I agree that there is room for simplifying and streamlining the rules but […] if you simplify the rules too excessively that could be a way to make them pro-cyclical.”
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
We still have a fragmented financial system where viable businesses, especially SMEs in some countries, find it very hard to obtain financing."
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
Today’s EMU 2.0 is much smarter, sturdier and more persistent to economic and financial shocks than the original. Now the eurozone must focus on the implementation and use of the expanded and reinforced toolbox."
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
Today, a wave of reforms is underway to remove long-standing obstacles to growth and employment.”
Olli Rehn,
Vice President, European Commission
Things will improve but not as quickly as people would like them to improve, not with this programme, not with any kind of programme.”
Maria Luís Albuquerque,
Minister of State and Finance, Portugal
Markets will assess whether we are able to assess the future programme, they will only be imposing what we already know we need to do.”
Maria Luís Albuquerque,
Minister of State and Finance, Portugal
We need to develop further the rules and the governance in a community method for the euro area.”
Jörg Asmussen,
State Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Germany
What should be fixed is that those who are not able or willing to move ahead with the euro area can stop those that need to integrate further.”
Jörg Asmussen,
State Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Germany
We should learn from the Ukraine. We need to develop a common energy market and joint EU defence structures.”
Jörg Asmussen,
State Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Germany
Short-term, the recovery is there. What is important is that it is based on more internal demand, not external demand.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
The leveraging process makes the recovery more fragile.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
We entered the crisis with an incomplete economic and monetary union.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
We have growth, but this is not enough to fill needs.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
Structural reforms cannot be done by force or stealth.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
Boosting investment is the name of the game.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
A key word underpinning this is trust, between institutions, and between institutions and citizens.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
Our fiscal adjustment is now much more focused on quality rather than quantity. We need better micro foundations for macro policies, and better macros foundations for micro policies.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
The question is how to make sure that the countries who announce reforms in earnest deal with them.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
Juncker’s curse does not apply. We tested it empirically. You can do reforms and be re-elected, do no reforms and not get re-elected. Reformist governments can be re-elected or lose elections. So if you think about the elections, you can still do reforms and be re-elected.”
Marco Buti,
Director General, European Commission
Europe is not catching up but falling further behind the United States, and not just in economic growth.”
Anders Åslund,
Peterson Institute
Too high public expenditures – particularly when spent on inefficient public enterprises – are not promoting growth.”
Anders Åslund,
Peterson Institute
The three big markets have not come into fruition: services, energy and digital economy. That could really bring Europe up to speed with the United States in a large number of functions.”
Anders Åslund,
Peterson Institute
Gas prices across the world are absurd. Why? Because gas markets are local. With LNG that should change.”
Anders Åslund,
Peterson Institute
We should – of course – have a more integrated energy market.”
Bettina Wasteels,
EU Development Director, GDF Suez
Gas prices should be seen in the context of a unified market.”
Bettina Wasteels,
EU Development Director, GDF Suez
It is not just a question of producing energy, but producing it cleanly.”
Bettina Wasteels,
EU Development Director, GDF Suez
We support an open market with open competitiveness.”
Bettina Wasteels,
EU Development Director, GDF Suez
Europe faces a number of challenges: globalisation, aging, climate change, and technology. But we were basically facing them before the crisis. They never disappeared, they were just not visible. They were not properly addressed before. It is good that we are coming back to them now.”
André Sapir,
Senior Fellow, Bruegel
It is sad that we are still talking about the single market. It is 2014, and we should have completed it in 1992.”
André Sapir,
Senior Fellow, Bruegel
Member states need to take their responsibilities. Most of the instruments will remain in the hands of member states.”
André Sapir,
Senior Fellow, Bruegel
We know that structural reforms are difficult to implement politically. They need to be done in a politically transparent manner.”
André Sapir,
Senior Fellow, Bruegel
Countries don’t compete, firms do.”
Eric Bartelsman,
Professor of Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
There are a lot of technologies coming on that could help in the long term. ”
Eric Bartelsman,
Professor of Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
We should look at what is coming towards us and be ready for it.”
Eric Bartelsman,
Professor of Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
The traditional job is no longer the way to put the social safety net.”
Eric Bartelsman,
Professor of Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Long periods of low inflation could lead to a downward spiral.”
Yves Mersch,
Board member, European Central Bank
The sentiment towards financial institutions has continued to improve. But we have lingering concerns about earnings outlook and asset quality.”
Yves Mersch,
Board member, European Central Bank
To say we have reached a turning point would be a little bit daring.”
Yves Mersch,
Board member, European Central Bank
But not everything is so negative. We have seen enormous efforts by banks to improve capital positions.”
Yves Mersch,
Board member, European Central Bank
How did we cope? Our [i.e. Eastern non-euro area] banks are very well capitalised. They are small, so the economies are not over-leveraged. They are by and large profitable and stable.”
Marek Belka,
President, National Bank of Poland
The banks [i.e. Eastern non-euro area] behaved very decently, good corporate citizens, but some of them went bankrupt.”
Marek Belka,
President, National Bank of Poland
Are we entirely happy with this state of affairs? Banks [i.e. Eastern non-euro area] remained in good shape, but their balance sheets showed that lending was heavily skewed towards households and not business. So banks love consumption and hate to finance production. ”
Marek Belka,
President, National Bank of Poland
We have reformed our banking system, stabilising banks.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
We went from 55 institutions to less than 15.And we did that while adapting to a completely new regulatory framework.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
Some banks, like ours, have been pretty much untouched, while others have disappeared. But the work is not done.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
Prudent behaviour should be pursued by every single bank in Europe.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
We need to increase clarity and transparency in more areas.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
We should be happy with what we have done, but we cannot afford to have reform fatigue.”
Jaime Sáenz de Tejada,
Chief Financial Officer, BBVA
Four years after stabilisation measures, you could say we are halfway through.”
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell,
Emerita Consultant, Austrian Institute of Economic Research
Spreads have come down. But measures have not fully worked yet as fragmentation is still there.”
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell,
Emerita Consultant, Austrian Institute of Economic Research
Banks are organised in local markets with no real competition.”
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell,
Emerita Consultant, Austrian Institute of Economic Research
We have come very far in the stabilisation of the sector – but growth and jobs need to become visible.”
Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell,
Emerita Consultant, Austrian Institute of Economic Research
It is striking and unsettling, but not surprising, that there is still no common understanding of what happened during the economic crisis.”
Herman Van Rompuy,
President of the European Council
The differences in the understanding of the crisis are deep and should not be neglected, since they impact our response to the crisis.”
Herman Van Rompuy,
President of the European Council
The banking union is the biggest policy change since the introduction of the euro itself, and to EU standards, it is all happening with the speed of light.”
Herman Van Rompuy,
President of the European Council
[…]the decision on the banking union should give us hope that indeed we are able to embark on major reforms and can convince the electorate of their necessity.”
Herman Van Rompuy,
President of the European Council

The Brussels Economic Forum 2014 will debate how the EU and its Member States can support the nascent economic recovery and which lessons to draw from Europe’s response to the crisis so far. The annual gathering of key economic decision-makers, legislators and commentators will once again be the place to discuss and analyse current economic issues in depth.

While Europe is gradually returning to growth, the recovery is still fragile and employment figures are improving more slowly than desired. While the ground for a sustained recovery has been laid, now is the moment to critically examine all strategic options to keep shaping EU economic policy for growth and stability.

Questions to answer include:

  • Which lessons can be drawn to make our economies permanently more resilient?
  • Which structural reforms can best help to support growth in the EU, and what is Europe’s growth potential in today’s highly globalised economy?
  • How about Europe’s financial sector? Is it fit to contribute to the recovery?

The 15th edition of the Forum will once again be an inspiring event not to be missed.

Sustaining the recovery
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Olli Rehn website
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