Highlights

Lost property: The European patent system and why it doesn't work

Blueprint, 29 June 2009

 

Bruno van Pottelsberghe paints a dark picture of today's patent landscape both in Europe and internationally. It is a tale of failed public cooperation at all levels and of a regime in danger of rampant patent inflation unless minds and resources are focused on tackling the root causes of the problem. This blueprint comes forward with a sequence of concrete, short-, medium- and long-term policy recommendations to this end.

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"Whether you agree or disagree with what van Pottelsberghe has to say, you should read the paper from cover to cover."

Intellectual Asset Management Blog, 30 June 2009

In More names enter the fray in the battle to be the next EPO president posted on the Intellectual Asset Management's Blog, one of the main magazines on intellectual property, Bruno Van Pottelsberghe's latest blueprint is described as identifying very successfully the unsustainability of the present international system.

The Euro at ten: the new global currency?

Book, 16 June 2009

The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and Bruegel presented the new study The Euro at Ten: The Next Global Currency? 

Adam Posen, deputy director of the PIIE and Bruegel Board member, participated in the launch as newly appointed external member on the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Presentation of the book by Jean Pisani-Ferry and Adam Posen were followed by a panel discussion with Joaquin Almunia, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, Chairman of the Board of Notre Europe and former Italian Economy and Finance Minister.  [download it]

A solution for Europe’s banking problem

Policy brief, 11 June 2009

Europe has yet to convincingly address the current situation in which a number of banks, albeit under state guarantee, are insolvent or likely to become so. Authors Adam Posen and Nicolas Véron advocate the creation of a temporary fiduciary authority to steer triage, recapitalisations and the management of distressed assets in public ownership, whilst leaving the key financial decisions in the hands of national governments. [download it]


Recent Opinion Pieces

European banking needs a state-led triage body

Op-ed, Financial Times, 2 July 2009

Adam Posen and Nicolas Véron propose the creation of a “European Bank Treuhand”, a fiduciary entity or trustee that would be created jointly by those countries where the main continental European banks are headquartered. [download it]

 

The good and the bad flexibility

op-ed, Le Monde, 29 June 2009

Jean Pisani Ferry believes the crisis is posing the question of labour-market flexibility in a new light. It is now a question of absorbing a violent shock while minimising the immediate social costs and the long-term economic costs. In both cases, some social models will be seen to be more equitable or more effective than others.
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Some advice for the new MEPs

Op-ed, Le Monde, 8 June 2009

Jean Pisani-Ferry tells MEPs that over the next five years, three tests awaits the European Union: avoiding dismantling the Single market, redefining government intervention at European level and enhancing the governance of Europe. Bottom line: the best advice to Brussels-bound MEPs, and later to the new commissioners, is not to be faint-hearted but to dare. [download it]

 

Europe must take control of banking stress tests

Op-ed, Financial Times, 1 June 2009

Peter Bofinger, Christian de Boissieu, Daniel Cohen, Wolfgang Franz, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Christoph Schmidt, Beatrice Weder di Mauro and Wolfgang Wiegard warn against a false sense of security, which European governments seem to be lulled into, and propose common tests to evaluate the true state of Europe's banking system based on common macro scenarios, common valuation rules and common stress assumptions. The authors believe these respective tests should be done for all the largest European banks simultaneously and the results should be published for each bank, leading to a centralised oversight of the tests, and aggregation of results.

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Recent Bruegel Publications

Reframing the EU budget decision-making process

Working paper, 31 May 2009

In this paper, Indhira Santos and Susanne Neheider trace the history of the EU budget and draw lessons for the review to come. The authors propose two-stage negotiation: first member states should negotiate and agree on what constitute EU public goods. Everything else would thereafter - by default - be deemed redistributive/compensatory spending to be financed on the basis of member states’ current overall net balances.

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Cyclical dimensions of labour mobility after EU Enlargement

Working paper, 31 May 2009

Alan Ahearne, Herbert Brücker, Zsolt Darvas and Jakob von Weizsäcker take a look at the impact of migration during the global economic slowdown. In the short run, the authors believe that the stock of new member-state migrants in the EU15 will fall owing to diminished job opportunities for migrants. In the longer run, the crisis is set to increase migration from the new member states compared to what would have been the case without the crisis.

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EU Cohesion policy: some fundamental questions

Policy contribution, 31 May 2009

Indhira Santos analyses the impact of the European Union’s cohesion policy both in terms of economic efficiency and redistribution to needy areas of the EU. She illustrates with data the confusion created by the multiple objectives of current EU cohesion policy and by the political horse-trading over levels of aid granted to different member states and regions. Finally, she shows how a significant part of EU structural funds involves simply transferring funds between individuals within one and the same region.

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Handle with care! Post-crisis growth in the EU

Policy brief, 16 April 2009

 Jean Pisani-Ferry and Bruno van Pottelsberghe show that although the crisis originated in the US, Europe’s outlook has deteriorated to the worst crisis observed during the post-war era. However, the length of the crisis matters at least as much at its depth, and policymakers should not overlook the medium term consequences of their actions. Based on the deep recessions which took place in the 90s in Finland, Japan, South Korea and Sweden, the authors advocate prioritising the improvement of EU growth medium-term performance via the implementation of 6 recommendations.

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