Economic integration and solidarity after the Euro crisis: re-aligning facts, principles and politics
ACCESS EUROPE Annual Lecture
Maurizio Ferrera, advisor to the European Commission and the Italian government, will give the first ACCESS EUROPE Annual Lecture. He will examine the conflict between the logic of 'opening', which drives the European integration process, and the logic of 'closure', which underpins national solidarity and cohesion.
Maurizio Ferrera will focus on the ideational dimension of this conflict exacerbated by the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The lecture celebrates ACCESS EUROPE’s first anniversary. Luuk Middelaar will comment on Ferrera’s lecture.
Reconciliation confronts two distinct intellectual challenges
Drawing on theoretical insights from the work of Max Weber, Ferrera's main argument will be that a reconciliation between the two logics must confront two distinct intellectual challenges:
- the recognition that the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has become an irreversible and complex adaptive system with 'emergent' properties, requiring centralized steering well beyond the current institutional status quo.
- the search for normative principles for a correct framing of the 'fairness question'. If EMU is something more than the sum of interdependent units, what are the implications of such a 'phase change' in terms of mutual obligations? The fairness question is especially relevant for solving the new conflict lines which have emerged during the crisis, i.e. between core and peripheral economies, on the one hand, and 'old' vs. 'new' Member States, on the other.
About Maurizio Ferrera
Maurizio Ferrera is professor of Social Policy at the State University of Milan and has published widely on European integration and the welfare state. He is a prominent advisor both to the European Commission and the Italian government.
About Luuk van Middelaar
Luuk van Middelaar is a historian, political theorist, and speechwriter for the President of the European Council.
Location
Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond
Nes 45 Amsterdam
Doors open at 15.30, coffee and tea are served. The lecture starts at 16.00. Drinks will be served after the lecture.
About ACCESS EUROPE
ACCESS EUROPE, a cooperation of University of Amserdam (UvA) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), is a platform for research, education and public debate about Europe, the European Union and its member states.