Between the State and the Market: Power and Accountability in European Economic Governance

Date: 

Tuesday, May 2, 2017, 4:15pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

CES, 27 Kirkland Street Cambridge, MA 02138, Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) are key players in European economic governance. All three are hybrid organizations that implement their public mandates by lending and transacting in financial markets – the EIB and the ECB are banks, the ESM operates as a fund. Insulated from the political process to varying degrees, these technocratic organizations pose a challenge for democratic oversight. In 2015, Transparency International therefore commissioned reports on the transparency and accountability of the EIB, the ESM, and the ECB, all of which are now published. The authors of the reports, Cornel Ban and Benjamin Braun, will present their main findings. Transparency International’s Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm will summarize the key recommendations, and Sofia Perez (Boston University) and Jeffry Frieden (Harvard) will act as discussants.

Speakers: Cornel Ban, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Co-Director of the Global Economic Governance Initiative, Boston University; Benjamin Braun, Senior Researcher, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, CES, Harvard University; Visiting Scholar, CES, Harvard University; Jeffry Frieden, Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Department of Government, Harvard University; Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm, Research & Advocacy Coordinator, Eurozone Economic Governance, Transparency International EU; Athanasios Orphanides, Professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Sponsors: RCC; Center for European Studies, Harvard University