The pandemic crisis has disproportionately affected sectors and businesses, that have inflexible business models and have less in-built buffers. Policy approaches adopted to address the immediate Covid-19 crisis inevitably affect the process of creative destruction and will mutate the structures of our economy. In the process, markets are seen to under-function and the state is playing an increasingly orchestrating role.
How can those responses help advance economic recovery and build more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient systems for the long-run? What is the direction that the EU recovery plan should play in this process? Does this require a more state-driven economy with increased state intervention? Or can we rely on markets for ensuring the framework conditions for creating digital, clean, and healthy services and goods for the future? How much does the state (and the EU) require to make “choices” for championing firms, value chains, or key technologies?
What is Europe's response to Made/Innovate in China 2025 and America First in the US? Do we need a response? Is it safer/wiser to focus on the EU’s internal market? Or should we fight to get back as quickly as possible to a properly international trade system? Do we need critical production to reallocate to Europe so the EU is more self-reliant and no longer overly dependent on 3rd countries? And for which sectors?
Chair: Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow, Bruegel
Philipp Steinberg, Director-General of Economic Policy, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany
Olivier Guersent, Director General, European Commission, DG COMP
This session is held under the Chatham House Rule and is only open to Bruegel members and a small number of selected invitees. The session will not be livestreamed.
