European Central Bank, Frankfurt

The European Union Centre of Excellence at York, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies  and the Schulich School of Business’ IMBA program were pleased to co-present a roundtable discussion featuring York faculty which looked at the future of the European Union in light on the economic crisis currently gripping the region. This event will take place on Tuesday, March 1, 2011.

Should you have been unable to attend this event, you will find the opening statements of the four contributors at this link.

Speaking first is Sakis Gekas (Assistant Professor, History) who provides a brief historical overview of how the EU has arrived in its current situation.
He is followed by Theodore Tolias (Adjunct Professor, Economics/Schulich School of Business)  who ponders the specific roots of the crisis and its potential outcomes. Ulrich Best (DAAD Visiting Professor, Geography) then rejects the labeling of the present situation as a “crisis” and argues that it will not cause major damage to “the European project”. The last speaker is Burkard Eberlein (Associate Professor, Public Policy/Schulich School of Business) who provides more insight into the “structural failures” of fiscal policy born out of political, and not economic, considerations.