Megatrends: Key Forces Forging Our Future
A vision for Europe to prosper and best serve its citizens
- Publishing date
- 03 February 2020
- Authors
- Guntram B. Wolff Rebecca Christie
The global economy in the 21st century requires European leadership. Two decades of monetary union have underpinned a period of intense technological and societal change. To build on its achievements and lay the groundwork for future prosperity, Europe must step into a new leadership role that will allow it to shape global forces alongside peers in North America and Asia. Doing this effectively will require understanding and adapting to the fundamental forces at work.
Bruegel scholars have identified a series of overarching challenges that will touch every element of the European project along with economies and societies of Europe. The long-lasting effects of these ‘megatrends’ must be considered comprehensively. It’s time for new ideas that offer strategic solutions, to ensure that our societies continue to thrive.
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, 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.
-
Rebecca Christie
Rebecca Christie is a Senior fellow at Bruegel and hosts Bruegel's podcast, The Sound of Economics. She writes about the crossroads of markets, policy and politics, particularly where it comes to the European Union and how it interacts with the world. She was lead author on the European Stability Mechanism’s official history book, "", and writes the Brussels Briefing column for International Politik Quarterly. In 2024, she spent five months in-house as a senior economist at the European Central Bank, in the division of European Institutions and Fora.
Over more than two decades in journalism, Rebecca has reported from Brussels, Washington and around the world for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal, Reuters Breakingviews and the Financial Times. She joined Bruegel as a visiting fellow in 2019.
She has also served as an expert adviser to a European Economic and Social Committee panel on taxation, is a regular conference speaker and moderator, and has provided editing and policy analysis to the European Commission, members of the European Parliament, and the African Development Bank. A US-Belgian dual citizen, she holds degrees from Duke University and from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
- Keyword
- monetary policy
- Language
- English
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