Past events

Ageing populations in European countries are putting pressure on public finances through higher spending on old age benefits and lower tax revenues. Several European countries have conducted pension reforms in recent years aimed at enhancing fiscal sustainability. However, further policy challenges will arise due to the projected demographic changes ahead.

The second joint CEPS and EconPol lunchtime seminar discussed the issue of pension reform from different angles. In particular, it reflected on the experience with recent pension reforms in Europe, their public finance and labor market consequences and intergenerational fairness aspects. Another crucial question the seminar focused on is under which conditions pension reforms may find political support.

You can see the video of the debate here.

International migration is at the top of the European political agenda. European labor markets need immigrants. Population aging has already created labor shortages, but immigration also raises concerns about distributional conflicts.

These concerns, sometimes real and sometimes imagined, have played an important role in the rise of populist parties across Europe, and in the Brexit referendum. This lunchtime seminar, the first in a series, presented an overall assessment on the welfare effects of immigration when both the effects on labor market and public finances are accounted for.

It analyzed an often-overlooked aspect of international migration: emigration from European welfare states and how it can be expected to affect their fiscal and political sustainability.

The challenges facing the Eurozone are multifaceted, with Greece still having a long road to recovery and Italy facing a dangerous mix of a large government deficit and an already high debt level. This Lunch Debate was dedicated to discussing possible courses of action for the EU, if levels of sovereign debt become unsustainable. A special focus was placed on how an insolvency procedure for sovereigns may be designed as well as the risks and opportunities this presents.

The 2019 report, ‘A Fragmenting Europe in a Changing World’, touched upon the increasing challenges that the EU was facing – both within and outside the Union. After thoroughly assessing the current macroeconomic outlook for Europe, the event focused on discussing the rise of China as a leading power in science and technology. The report showed that Chinese acquisitions of European high technology companies and investments in sensitive public infrastructure attracted public attention and these developments challenged the European Union to respond appropriately, while offering ample opportunities for progress both at the member country and at the EU level.