European competitiveness: Is completing the single market the key?

Can Europe bring greater competitiveness without completing the single market? How can the competitiveness gap between surplus and deficit countries be overcome?

Guests

 Yannos Papantoniou, Former Greek Finance Minister

Sebastian Dullien, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR

Prof. Damian Chalmers, Professor in European Union Law, LSE

Chaired by

Prof. Iain Begg, Professorial Research Fellow, LSE

Some argue that Europe needs to complete the single market in order to recover from the crisis, create growth and remain competitive in the 21st century. However, against the backdrop of  the euro crisis, there is a danger that the single market could disintegrate or shrink . Can Europe bring greater competitiveness without completing the single market? How can the competitiveness gap between surplus and deficit countries be overcome?

Yannos Papantoniou was the Minister of Economy and Finance of Greece (1994-2001) and is currently the President of the Centre for Progressive Policy Research. Previously he served as Minister of National Defence of Greece, MP and MEP. He was elected as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 1999.

Sebastian Dullien is a professor of International Economics at HTW Berlin and a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR. From 2000 to 2007 Sebastian worked as a journalist for the Financial Times Deutschland and he currently writes a monthly column in the German magazine “Capital” and is a regular contributor to Spiegel Online. He is the co-author of Decent Capitalism. A Blueprint for Reforming our Economies (with Hansjörg Herr and Christian Kellermann) and the author of several ECFR publications including A German Model for Europe (2013) and Why the euro crisis threatens the European single market (2012).

Prof. Damien Chalmers is Professor in European Union Law, LSE. His visiting positions include being a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (2003-2004) and Visiting Professorships at the College of Europe and the Instituto de Empresa.

Prof. Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics. He has published extensively in academic journals and served as co-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies.

This event is part of ‘The Europe Question: perspectives from the UK’ initiative which aims to bridge the evident gap in understanding and mutual distrust between the UK, its European partners and the EU institutions in Brussels, through a sober and systematic examination of the most fundamental issues surrounding European integration and the UK's place within the European project. For more information, visit www.ecfr.eu/europequestion

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