Europe is against a wall

Blog post

Europe is against a wall

Publishing date: 02 December 2008
Authors: Jean Pisani-Ferry

For Jean Pisani-Ferry the next EU summit, on 11 December, will show whether Europe is capable of a much needed concerted action. This would imply that member states resist the temptation to merely go through the motions, that Brussels be tough in its assessment of national efforts, and that a serious debate be held about burden-sharing. Pisani-Ferry believes it would be best for each country to contribute equally to the stimulus, with those whose initial fiscal position is poor having to specify upfront how they intend to put their house in order tomorrow. Only those in absolutely dire budgetary situations, he suggests, should be exempted.

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This comment was also published in Le Monde.

About the authors

Jean Pisani-Ferry

Jean Pisani-Ferry is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the European think tank, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute (Washington DC). He is also a professor of economics with Sciences Po (Paris).

He sits on the supervisory board of the French Caisse des Dépôts and serves as non-executive chair of I4CE, the French institute for climate economics.

Pisani-Ferry served from 2013 to 2016 as Commissioner-General of France Stratégie, the ideas lab of the French government. In 2017, he contributed to Emmanuel Macron’s presidential bid as the Director of programme and ideas of his campaign. He was from 2005 to 2013 the Founding Director of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic think tank that he had contributed to create. Beforehand, he was Executive President of the French PM’s Council of Economic Analysis (2001-2002), Senior Economic Adviser to the French Minister of Finance (1997-2000), and Director of CEPII, the French institute for international economics (1992-1997).

Pisani-Ferry has taught at University Paris-Dauphine, École Polytechnique, École Centrale and the Free University of Brussels. His publications include numerous books and articles on economic policy and European policy issues. He has also been an active contributor to public debates with regular columns in Le Monde and for Project Syndicate.