Public lecture: The Future State of the Eurozone and its Effects on European Economy

Date of event: 11.6. 2015

The event took place on 11th June 2015, from 18.00, in the atrium of the CEVRO Institute (Jungmannova 17, Prague 1). The public lecture was opened and moderated by the President of the CEVRO Institute, prof. Josef Šíma.

The first speaker was the Vice-Governor of the Czech National Bank, prof. Vladimír Tomšík. In his speech, entitled “Supervision and Financial Sector in the Czech Republic”, he spoke, among other things, about the stress test of the Czech banking sector. Prof. Tomšík said that the Czech Republic is able to withstand a large banking shock. Prof. Tomšík further stated: “If I look at the situation in the Eurozone, it is ideal if everything is unified. It makes sense to have a banking union in the future and think about a common fiscal policy, and therefore have, for example, common taxes.” He added that the CNB should not be part of supervision, but only oversee the domestic market. “If a country is a member of the common currency area, it makes sense to have a banking union,” said prof. Tomšík.

The second and last speech was presented by Dr Andreas Dombret, a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Bundesbank. He began with a short excursion into the history of the Eurozone (e.g. what preceded the formation of the Eurozone), and then focused on its main current issues. Dr Dombret claimed that a fiscal union could be one of the “therapy measures/medicaments”, with national fiscal sovereignty transferred to the EU level. He added: “For this step, it is extremely necessary to have not only support from national governments of the EU members, but also public support, and such support does not exist at this moment.” It is more realistic to create a banking union or a capital markets union. Dr Dombret concluded the lecture by saying: “Having a stable monetary union is in the interest not only of EU members but also in the interest of all states around the World.”

The speakers’ presentations can be found here and the photo gallery here. Drinks for speakers were provided by MATTONI.