Keynote Speech for Trade Union Movement in Germany
On Monday, April 19, I gave a keynote speech for a series of online events organized by the trade union movement in Germany together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Hans Böckler Foundation under the title: “Towards the United States of Europe? Trade union visions for a progressive European economic policy.” In addition to my keynote speech, I was asked to participate in the third panel, focused on “How united should the United States of Europe be? Opportunities and limitations of flexible integration in EU economic policy.”
Other keynotes were given by Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament, and Frank Werneke, head of the industrial services Union. The other participants in the panel discussion, which was chaired by Melinda Crane, were Reiner Hoffmann (German Trade Union Confederation), Philippa Sigl-Glöckner (member in the economic advisory board of the German Social Democratic Party) and Lukas Oberndorfer (Chamber of Labour Vienna).
Key questions discussed during the panel were:
What exactly can a flexible EU economic policy look like? How much flexibility is possible in the Monetary Union?
Does the current EU economic governance have a legitimacy problem? How can the legitimacy of the EU economic governance be strengthened?
Are further integration steps needed in EU economic policy? What kind of reforms are needed? Can further integration steps in EU economic policy be harmful?
I also produced a short article for the event with my main points, which will be translated and published on the blog of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the IPG journal: Journal für Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft | IPG Journal.