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The future of the stability and growth pact
Testimony given to a Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal roundtable discussion on the future of the stability and growth pact.
- Publishing date
- 24 November 2021
- Authors
- Guntram B. Wolff
On 24 November 2021, Guntram Wolff 'A green fiscal pact: climate investment in times of budget consolidation' to a hybrid roundtable discussion on the future of the stability and growth pact (SGP) in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands. This part of the discussion took place with Rolf Strauch, Chief Economist and Management Board Member of the European Stability Mechanism also giving testimony.
In this Bruegel policy contribution, Zsolt Darvas and Guntram Wolff outline how increasing green public investment while consolidating deficits will be a central challenge of this decade and why a green fiscal pact would address this tension, notwithstanding difficult trade-offs.
Watch the full recording of the session or consult the full policy contribution.
About the authors
-
Guntram B. Wolff
Guntram Wolff is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and from 2013-22 the director of Bruegel. Over his career, he has contributed to research on European political economy, climate policy, geoeconomics, macroeconomics and foreign affairs. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His co-authored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press.
An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics. He also regularly testifies to the European Parliament, the Bundestag and speaks to corporate boards. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him one of the 28 most influential “power players” in Europe. From 2012-16, he was a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the external advisory group on surveillance to review the Fund’s priorities. In 2021, he was appointed member and co-director to the G20 High level independent panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the co-chairs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lawrence H. Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. From 2013-22, he was an advisor to the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth. He is a member of the Bulgarian Council of Economic Analysis, the European Council on Foreign Affairs and advisory board of Elcano. He is also a fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Guntram joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in the research department at the Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn. He also worked as an external adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He is fluent in German, English, and French. His work is regularly published and cited in leading media.
- Keyword
- public debt investment European semester and fiscal rules european monetary union decarbonisation climate change
- Language
- English
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