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José Manuel Martínez Sierra, Jean Monnet ad personam Chair in EU Law and Government is pleased to announce this conference, organized by the Jean Monnet Chair for European Constitutional Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
In a world reeling from one financial crisis to the next, the aim of the conference is to build awareness around the topical issue of how to stimulate business and better facilitate the sustainable operation and growth of companies in the current EU political and socio-economic climate. The conference specifically aims to develop a new line of academic thought in scholarship in the disciplines of social sciences and law, specifically in the disciplines of law, politics, economics, international and EU relations by moving away from traditional corporate governance discussions focusing on the relationship between shareholders and companies towards a wider range of topical discussions which focus on the relationship between companies and the societies in which they operate.
Discussions on Greece’s ongoing social depression and slow economic recovery have resurfaced with the latest election of Greece’s left-wing party Syriza. Political discussions and political preferences aside, the case of Greece deserves attention from a pragmatic point of view. The case of Greece illustrates a series of deficiencies and failures of the European Union. The EU Treaty after Lisbon emphasises the overarching objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress. We are now however witnessing a different Union from the one envisaged by its founders, with unemployment amongst especially young people in the Southern European countries over 50 per cent, businesses closing down or moving overseas, gender inequality, xenophobia, social unrest, human rights violations, global warming and pressure on other planetary boundaries. Business has a crucial role to play in solving these issues and in this current socio-political-economic climate how to stimulate business is a pervasive question. How to stimulate business in an EU in crisis provides the broader setting for reflecting on current European trends for regulating and managing corporations, and the significance this has for corporations’ legal status and their operations, as well as for corporations’ behaviour towards society and the world.
Questions may be addressed to Professor Beate Sjåfjell at b.k.sjafjell@jus.uio.no