RESEARCH CENTRE CONFERENCE 2017

EU 2.0: Challenges of Globalization

Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic

May 18 – 19, 2017

Conference Programme

Europe appears to be on the crossroad. Economic recession has transformed to political instability and challenges both the European project and the European idea themselves. To preserve the achievement of the last 60 years, Europe has to reinvent itself and to face squarely both the resurrected spirits of the past and the challenges of the future. The globalization with its bright promises and often misunderstood challenges is here to stay, albeit in the dynamic and somewhat unpredictable form. To face the globalization challenges, Europe has to re-invent itself. EU 2.0 if you wish.
The resumption of economic growth is commonly perceived as the answer for the “European” future – economically, politically and socially. There is a broad consensus that deep structural reforms and the improvement of competitiveness are the key answers to current European challenges. However, there are many open issues related to deeper questions: What do mean the structural reforms in particular? What is the role of capital flows? And what constitutes the improvement in global competitiveness?

A thorough discussion of these issues is urgently needed. The conference will provide a platform for discussion and exploration of the various meanings of the globalization. The topics addressed at the conference will address the content, feasible structural arrangements, possible governance structures and, the likely robustness of various arrangements in the dynamic globalized economy of the 21st century. Finally, the academic discussion of political arrangements compatible with the different models of economic recovery and sustainable economic growth will complete the focus of the conference.
These issues will be addressed at the next annual conference of Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic on May 18-19, 2017.

Especially (but not exclusively) the following issues will be discussed:

1) Eurozone’s Stabilization: Is It Sustainable without Structural Reforms?
2) Structural Reforms and Eurozone’s “Unions”: Fiscal, Banking, Political?
3) Competitiveness Transformation as the Key to the Eurozone’s (And EU’s) Future?
4) The Role of the EU in the global economy
5) Capital Markets Union
6) Capital Flows as the Key to Sustainable Recovery?
7) North vs. South. Economic, Political and Social Phenomena
8) “Political Union” and Financial Transfers
9) Demographics – The Key to the EU Future?
10) The Cultural Fabric of Europe: Social Capital in the Era of Globalisation

Organizing Committee:

Prof. Antonin Rusek, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, USA
Prof. Dr. Jarko Fidrmuc, Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, Germany
Dr. Carsten Colombier, Federal Finance Department, Bern, Switzerland; FiFo - Institute for Public Economics, University of Cologne, Germany
Dr. Luděk Kouba, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
Prof. Lubor Lacina, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
Dr. Petr Rozmahel, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic

Contacts (for information and submitting abstracts):

In Czech Republic and Slovakia: lacina@mendelu.cz  or rozi@mendelu.cz 
In USA: rusek@susqu.edu 
In Europe: Carsten.Colombier@efv.admin.ch or kouba@mendelu.cz 
In Asia: jarko.fidrmuc@zu.de