19th Conference on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe

from 20-22 September 2013, organised by the EuroMemo Group, in London at School of Oriental and African Studies

The deepening divisions in Europe and the need for a radical alternative to EU policies

The EuroMemo Group conference 2013 was held in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 20-22 September 2013. The programme was as follows:

Friday afternoon: The state of the Union

• Klaus Dräger (GUE-NGL, Brussels): The political state of the Union
• Engelbert Stockhammer (Kingston University): The economic state of the Union
• Marcella Corsi (Sapienza University of Rome): Economic crisis and gender equality in Europe (summary)

Saturday morning: Workshops

Saturday afternoon: Plenary on policy proposals from workshops and special plenary on the impact of the crisis and the way forward

• Dany Lang (University of Paris 13 & Appalled Economists): Les économistes atterrés – Que faire de l’Europe? (What to do about Europe?)
• Marica Frangakis (Nicos Poulantzas Institute): Greece: The futility of austerity
• Jože Mencinger (University of Ljubljana): Central and Eastern European Countries between the Collapse of Socialism and the Crisis of Capitalism
• Mario Pianta (University of Urbino): Italy: The political economy of decline

Sunday morning: Planning meeting: EuroMemorandum 2014 and other activities

The second day was dedicated to key themes of EU policy within five different workshops:

• Economic and financial policy: The official policy focus on fiscal discipline and austerity has driven the European economy into a renewed recession, with widening economic and social divisions both within and between member states. This workshop will focus on the macroeconomic and financial policies necessary to promote full employment with good jobs and an end to the hardship and social differentiation that has been rising in many parts of Europe.
• Governance and democracy in the EU: This workshop will examine critically the recent changes in EU governance towards a ‘surveillance union’: the Fiscal Compact, the six-pack of legislation and the associated ‘scorecard’, the proposed two-pack and the bailout conditions imposed by the troika. It will also ask whether governance changes are possible to promote an effective and solidaristic alternative to austerity – what moves towards federalism could be economically feasible and politically legitimate?
• Tax policy, poverty & inequality: Economic and social deprivation is rising in Europe. As major corporations shelter their profits from taxes, public spending on economic and social programmes is subjected to renewed restrictions. Contributions to the workshop are particularly encouraged on the role of tax policy, including combating tax avoidance and promoting a more progressive system of corporate and personal taxation.
• Industrial policy and social-ecological transformation: The European single market, the common currency, and now austerity policies have all contributed to a deepening process of deindustrialisation in many parts of Southern and Eastern Europe. This workshop will focus on the need for the development of industrial policies that promote good jobs in socially and ecologically desirable investment projects in every part of Europe.
• The EU-US free trade agreement and EU external relations: The EU’s mercantilist approach to trade policy has contributed to the paralysis at the WTO and a shift to bilateral negotiations. Contributions on the proposed EU-US trade agreement, and its implications for employment, social cohesion and the environment, both in Europe and in other parts of the world, are especially encouraged.

The list of presentations scheduled for the workshops can be found here.

Papers for the conference are uploaded here.

Programme

19th Conference on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe, 20-22 September 2013 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, organised by the EuroMemo Group

Friday 20 September (Birkbeck College, room 414-415, 4th floor)

2:30 – 3:00 Arrival and registration

3:00 – 4:30 Plenary: The state of the Union

• Klaus Dräger (GUE-NGL, Brussels): The political state of the Union
• Engelbert Stockhammer (Kingston University): The economic state of the Union

4:30 – 5:00 Coffee break

5:00 – 6:30 Plenary: The state of the Union

• Marcella Corsi (Sapienza University of Rome): Economic crisis and gender equality in Europe (summary)
• Open discussion

7:00 Conference Dinner at Ciao Bella (86-90 Lamb’s Conduit St)

Saturday 21 September

9:00 – 1:00 Five parallel workshops (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Workshop 1: Economic and financial policy (Brunei Gallery, room B101)
Coordinator: Trevor Evans

Workshop 2: Governance and democracy in the EU (Main building, room 563)
Coordinator: John Grahl

Workshop 3: Tax policy, employment and social inequalities (Main building, room 559)
Coordinators: Jeremy Leaman & Mahmood Messkoub

Workshop 4: Industrial policy and social-ecological transformation (Main building, room 467)
Coordinator: Frieder Otto Wolf

Workshop 5: The EU-US free trade agreement and EU external relations/ Eastern Europe (Brunei Gallery, room B401)
Coordinators: Werner Raza/ Wlodzimierz Dymarski

1:00 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 – 4:00 Plenary: Policy proposals from workshops (Birkbeck College, room 414-415, 4th floor)

4:00 – 4:30 Coffee break

4:30 – 6:30 Plenary: Confronting the crisis (Birkbeck College, room 414-415, 4th floor)

• Dany Lang (University of Paris 13 & Appalled Economists): Les économistes atterrés – Que faire de l’Europe? (What to do about Europe?)
• Marica Frangakis (Nicos Poulantzas Institute): Greece: The futility of austerity
• Jože Mencinger (University of Ljubljana): Central and Eastern European Countries between the Collapse of Socialism and the Crisis of Capitalism
• Mario Pianta (University of Urbino): Italy: The political economy of decline

Sunday 22 September (School of Oriental and African Studies, Brunei Gallery, room B101)

9:00 – 12:30 Planning meeting: EuroMemorandum 2014 and other activities

Workshops & Papers

19th Conference on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe, 20-22 September 2013 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, organised by the EuroMemo Group

The second day of the EuroMemo Group conference (Saturday, 21 September) was dedicated to key themes of EU policy within within five different workshops (Workshop Programme as pdf-file).

Workshop 1 – Economic and financial policy

Coordinator: Trevor Evans

9:00 – 10:30

• Erixson, Lennart / University of Stockholm
  Can fiscal austerity be expansionary in present Europe? The lessons from Sweden
• Onaran, Ozlem / University of Greenwich
  How to create more and better jobs via a wage-led recovery in Europe?
• Tomidajewicz, Janusz / Poznan University of Economics
  What type of European economic policy is necessary for stopping the crisis?
• Acocella, Nicola / Sapienza University
  A tale of two cities: Exit policies in Washington and Frankfurt

10:45- 12:15

• Soy, Antoni / University of Barcelona
  The euro crisis and its future
• Mazier, Jacques / University Paris 13
  In search of sustainable paths for the eurozone in the troubled post-2008 world
  The future of the euro (in French)
• Plihon, Dominique / Paris Nord University
  The European banking Union
• Sterdyniak, Henri / OFCE
  Banking union: a solution to the euro zone crisis?

12:15 – 1:00

Policy proposals for afternoon plenary

Workshop 2 – Governance and democracy in the EU

Coordinator: John Grahl

9:00 – 10:30

• Grahl, John / Middlesex University
  The European semester & institutional reform in the EU
• Kompsopoulos, Jannis / University of Tübingen
  The EU´s crisis policies that work – but for whom?

10:45 – 12:15

• Mathieu, Catherine / OFCE
  Redemption
• Reiners, Suleika / World Future Council
  Making central banks serve the real economy

12:15 – 1:00

Policy proposals for afternoon plenary

Workshop 3 – Tax policy, employment and social inequalities

Coordinators: Jeremy Leaman & Mahmood Messkoub

9.00 – 10.30 Tax policy

• Picciotto, Sol / Tax Justice Network & Lancaster University
  Transnational Corporations and International Taxation
• Ioannidis, Yiorgos / Labour Institute of the Greek Confederation of Workers
  The peculiar distributional character of Greek taxation system (1995-2008) and the necessary reform that never happened

10.45 – 12.15 Employment and social inequality

• Česen, Tanja, formerly Ministry of Labour, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  Social contract and social progress in modern Europe
• Herrmann, Peter / EURISPES – Instituto di Studi Politici, Economici e Sociali Osservatorio Europeo sulla Qualità Sociale
  Precarity – An Issue of Changed Labour Market and Employment Patterns or of Changed Social Security Systems?
• Tridico, Pasquale / University Roma Tre
  Italy: From Economic Decline to the Current Crisis. A comparison with France and Germany

12.15 – 1.00

Policy proposals for afternoon plenary

Workshop 4 – Industrial policy and social-ecological transformation

Coordinator: Frieder Otto Wolf

9:00 – 10:30

• Pianta, Mario / University of Urbino
  What’s to be produced? Ideas for a new industrial policy in Europe
• Botta, Alberto / Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria and University of Pavia
  The Road to Structural Convergence in the Eurozone. Industrial Policies in a future Eurozone Federal State

10:45 – 12:15

• Dellheim, Judith / Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Frieder Otto Wolf / Free University Berlin
  Industry Policy pro or contra Socioecological Transformation?
• Dymski, Gary / Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds
  Financing Mechanisms for Local and Regional Development: Lessons from History and from the global-South

12:15 – 1:00

Policy proposals for afternoon plenary

Workshop 5 – The EU-US free trade agreement and EU external relations/ Eastern Europe

Coordinators: Werner Raza/ Wlodzimierz Dymarski

9:00 – 11:00 The EU-US free trade agreement and EU external relations

• Bartl, Marija / University of Amsterdam and
  Fahey, Elaine / University of Amsterdam
  Political-legal issues of the transatlantic partnership

Background reading: Pianta, Mario: Slowing trade: Global activism against trade libera lization

Policy proposals for plenary

11:00 – 1:00 Eastern Europe

• Bobkov, Vyacheslav / PJSC “All-Russian Centre of Living Standard” and Veredyuk, Olesya / St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Economics
  Social Vulnerability as a Result of Inequality of Living Standards
• Csoba, Judit / University of Debrecen, Hungary
  From Welfare to Workfare
• Dymarski, Wlodzimierz / Poznan University of Economics
  Impact of the global crisis on economic performance of Central and East European countries

Background papers

• Baldocchi, Umberto / University of Pavia
  Rule of law and “rule of debt”: the crucial challenge facing EU in the beginning of XXI century
• Bejakovic, Predrag / Institute of Public Finance Zagreb
  The importance of social transfers in reducing poverty in Croatia
• Best, Michael
  Productive Structures and Industrial Policy in the EU
• Bömer, Hermann / formerly TU Dortmund
  Productive Resources, Productive Structures, Product- and Process Innovations – Experiences of Germany´s industrial and regional policies for crises regions and leading export-areas
• Doukas, Yannis / University of Athens
  WTO negotiations on Agricultural Products: The Political Economy of the EU’s position
• Esposito, Giovanni / Solvay Brussels School Economics and Management, ULB and Carobolante, Anna / Si può fare, ora!
  Corporate Social Responsibility: status quo and prospective developments
• Filipenko, Anton / Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University
  Ukraine at the crossroads: between the EU and Russia
• Giannone, Carlo / Università del Sannio – Benevento
  Common Market and the Need for Fiscal Federalism in the EU
• Godin, Antoine / University of Pavia
  Production Functions at the Business End: the Case of the European Fiscal Compact
• Husar, Jaroslav / University of Economics Bratislava
  Is the Fiscal Union the Principal Problem in the EU?
• Koutentakis, Franciscos / University of Crete
  Unemployment Dynamics in the Greek Crisis
• Laukkanen, Erkki / SAK, the central organisation of Finnish trade unions
  Detected corruption in the Nordic countries and elsewhere: How do we stand out?
• Lawson, Neal / Compass
  Europe as a Good Society – The joint transformation of the social democratic and European projects
• Mouhoud, E.M. / University of Paris Dauphine, LEDa-DIAL and GDRI DREEM CNRS
  Offshorability and reshorability of services and manufacturing jobs : the French case
• Nielsen, Klaus / Birkbeck, University of London
  The Eurozone Crisis – Contribution and Reinterpretation of Varieties of Capitalism
• Pasimeni, Paolo / European Commission – DG Employment and Social Affairs
  An Optimum Currency Crisis
• Supinska, Jolanta / Warsaw University, Institute of Social Policy
  The Portrait of Polish Neoliberals – revised
• Tolios, Yiannis / Special State Financial Institution of Athens
  The neo-liberal “prescriptions” to save the Eurozone and the need of refundation it in the interests of peoples and workers

Further information

19th Conference on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe, 20-22 September 2013 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, organised by the EuroMemo Group

How to get to the conference venues, Tavistock Hotel and Ciao Bella restaurant

The conference was held at the Russell Square Campus of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 10 Thornhaugh St., London WC1H 0XG.

The School of Oriental and African Studies is located in the very centre of London, ca. 15 minutes walk from King’s Cross/ St. Pancras tube and railway station and 5 minutes walk from Russell Square tube station.

The opening plenary on Friday and the plenaries on Saturday afternoon took place at Birkbeck College. The main building of Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, is situated just next to Russell Square campus of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

There was a conference dinner on Friday at 7pm at the Italian restaurant Ciao Bella, 86-90 Lamb’s Conduit St.

Please note that there is a conference fee to cover the cost of refreshments during the conference (20 Euro / 10 Euro for students / 50 Euro for participants with institutional support).