The Economic Foundations of European Sovereignty: Assets, Costs and Reforms for a New Geoeconomic Order
ABOUT
From energy to defence to the euro itself, Europe's independence depends on money, institutions, and choices it has deferred for a generation. This conference counts the chips and asks who foots the bill.
The European Macro Policy Network is bringing together national and European policymakers, economists and academics to confront a single question: does Europe have the policy architecture – the instruments, the institutions, the fiscal room for manoeuvre – to defend its economic sovereignty in an era of permanent geopolitical instability?
PROGRAMME
9:30 · Welcome and introduction
10:00 – 11:30 · The euro's missing infrastructure: gap or choice?
A global currency needs a safe asset backed by a credible lender of last resort, deep and liquid capital markets, and payment systems it controls. The euro has fragments of each but none complete. Is that a gap or a choice? Meanwhile, dollar stablecoins are extending US monetary reach through new private payment rails. Can Europe build its own model, and is a stronger euro worth the trade-offs in industrial competitiveness, fiscal risk-sharing, and political integration?
Speakers:
Boris Kisselevsky, Head of the ECB Representation in Brussels
Heiko Hesse, Deputy Resident Representative to the EU, IMF
Shahin Vallée, Director of the Geoeconomics programme, German Council on Foreign Relations
Moderation: Max Krahé, Research Director, Dezernat Zukunft
11:45 – 13:15 · Sovereignty has a cost: who pays, and what gives?
This panel addresses whether Europe has the fiscal capacity to absorb geopolitical shocks today and the political will to build the architecture it needs for tomorrow. Europe's ambitions on energy, defence, and industry all hit the same wall: a financing problem. Fiscal rules and debt constrain public borrowing. Private capital markets remain fragmented. And European savings continue to fund American innovation. Reform creates winners and losers. Who pays, and what breaks if Europe gets it wrong?
Speakers:
Gilles Mourre, Head of Unit for Fiscal Policy and Surveillance, DG ECFIN, European Commission
Clara Leonard, Managing Director, Institut Avant-garde
Tim Legierse, Counsellor for the MFF and Own Resources, Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU
(tbc)
14:15 – 15:45 · The unfinished energy union: what would a deal cost?
Europe has a single electricity market, but arguably never built the politics to keep one running. Each step to complete it – interconnectors, joint planning, shared flexibility, cost-sharing – runs into the same difficulty: governments hesitate to sign off on projects whose bill falls on their own taxpayers while much of the benefit flows next door. What often looks like a technical debate about grids may in fact be a distributional one. The panel explores this question around the European Grids Package, and closes on what may be the decisive one: which capital would sign, and which might walk out?
Speakers:
Tom Howes, Advisor for Green Transition and Market Regulation, DG ENER, European Commission
Alexander Roth, Affiliate Fellow, Bruegel
François Berthélemy, Deputy Director, RTE France
Moderation: Eva González Isla, Energy Modelling Associate, BloombergNEF
16:00 – 17:30 · Strategic autonomy: counting the chips
The external environment that shaped Europe's strategic position for a generation is unravelling: cheap energy, American security, Chinese demands, open supply chains. This panel takes stock of the assets – from regulatory reach to the world's largest consumer market to vast household savings – and asks: are they enough, can they be mobilised fast enough, and what stands in the way?
Speakers:
Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Managing Director, Dezernat Zukunft
Olivia Lazard, Planetary Fellow, Berggruen Institute
(tbc)
(tbc)
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Discussions will be held in English.
Coffee and lunch will be served.