Economics Research at the EUROPAEUM Paul Flather∗

Economics Research at the EUROPAEUM Paul Flather∗ The Europaeum consortium of leading profile of European Studies at the time. European universities (Oxford, Leiden, Thus, the Europaeum was born, amidst a Bologna, Bonn, Geneva (the Geneva lavish dinner at Lancaster House in the Institute), Prague (Charles University), centre of London, hosted by Lord Douglas Helsinki, Madrid (Complutense Univer- Hurd, then Foreign Secretary. The precise sity) and Krakow (the Jagiellonian Uni- aims were for the Europaeum to support versity) is now entering its 16th year. Dur- (i) the advancement of education through ing its existence the Europaeum has ini- the encouragement of European studies in tiated and supported a variety of pro- Oxford and other linked European institu- grammes of cooperation of European tions of higher education; (ii) the move- scholars in different branches of social ment of academic staff and students be- sciences. One of its successful ven- tween these institutions; and (iii) thestudy tures was to back a research group of ofthelanguages,history,cultures and pro- economists, which has focused of the fessions of the people of Europe. problems of European integration.∗ In short, the Europaeum was the vehicle The Europaeum was originally conceived for a select group of leading European back in the days when Britain was re- universities to strive, together, in search garded as being not merely ‘out of step’ of new kinds of pan-European thinking, with Europe, but even still out of ‘the linking the brightest academic minds and Continent’, and politicians warned of the young scholars and at the same time of UK “missing the EU train”. course, boosting the academic worth of its It was very much the brainchild of two university members. highly European ‘Britishers’, George Today the Europaeum remains an au- Weidenfeld, indefatigable, visionary, tonomous federation, marking its 15th an- friend of past and present European Presi- niversary year since that dinner, and com- dents, publisher of many of their biogra- prises 10 leading, like-minded, European phies; and Sir Ronnie Grierson, former universities, who also seek to add to the head of the General Electric Company, sum of academic knowledge and experi- during its heyday. ence in the ‘new Europe’. It began sup- They set out to build an intellectual con- porting projects in law, in politics, and in sortium which promoted thinking across Economics, and in the Humanities, and Europe - which recognized both that ideas how has a variety of projects in History, do not have frontiers, and that tomorrow’s Classics, Theology, Sociology, even the leaders needed to understand the new Eu- History of Science. rope,today.Theyalsobothfeltthat Britain, One of its innovative ways of promot- perhaps more than other European nations ing academic collaboration, alongside its in the 1990s, needed to take the initiative visiting professors programme, its joint - and this certainly chimed with Oxford teaching programmes, its international University, which wanted to boost its own summer schools and workshops is a ∗ Secretary-General, The Europaeum Fellow, Mansfield College, University of Oxford. AUCO Czech Economic Review, vol. 2, no. 1 99 scheme to promote collaborative research among a much reduced number of curren- work. Almost 20 groups have been sup- cies, or even a unique world currency. ported since the scheme was launched in The group had its first formal Europaeum- 2001, though the most active has certainly backed meeting in 2001 and since then been the group working on the Economic has met almost every year in different implications of European Integration. Europaeum partner universities, studying The success of this group can be mea- variations to these original questions, and sured by the fact that it has just held its doing so in different modes. sixth successful workshop or colloquium At all times, the aim, in line with Eu- - winning a sixth small grant from the ropaeum ambitions, has been to stage Europaeum. This publication celebrates inter-disciplinary events, international the output of that last workshop, held in events of course, and events that in- Prague in October 2007, but it also marks volved established professors mixing with the longer success of the group and its va- younger, doctoral and post-doctoral, scho- rious meetings, and the efforts put in by lars or even junior research levels. its leading coordinators. The steering group has grown, over the The roots of the project can be traced to an years variously involving Professors Ric- interdisciplinary conference held in Paris cardo Rovelli and Gianpaolo Rossini from on Europe and Money, heralding the cre- Bologna, Professor Frantisekˇ Turnovec ation of the Eurozone. Two of the Paris from Charles University, Prague, the host participants, Hubert Kempf, professor of for the Sixth Colloquium, and latterly Pro- Economics at Paris 1, now seconded to the fessor Tapio Palokangas from the Univer- Banque de France, and Giorgio Basevi, sity of Helsinki. Many others have played professor of Economics at Bologna, sub- a critical part in the work of the group, and mitted a bid for a grant to assess the func- of course there have been more than 200 tioning of the European Monetary Union; participants in the various activities. to contribute to the understanding of the process and the liabilities of the financial With great care, and no little skill, this integration underway in Europe; and to group encouraged a host of young scho- analyse the consolidation process of cur- lars to take their first steps along their pu- rencies at the world level. tative academic careers, giving specialist papers before a critical - but constructive They recognised three key global deve- - audience, learning... lopments underway then - a concentration and aggregation of financial markets, a It is worth now recalling these various col- reduction of international currencies, and loquia that have followed that first event an ability to pursue independent monetary in the hallowed rooms of the Sorbonne at policies. the University of Paris I on Europe and Money, incorporating themes of markets, They wondered then if world financial and the State and collective identity, on 28-29 monetary systems might evolve towards September 1997: a unique capital market, physically de- located but managed by some major finan- 1. The University of Paris I started the cial centre, and if any country could ever series of meetings with the first re- go back to fixed exchange rates, possibly search workshop entitled Europaeum 100 AUCO Czech Economic Review, vol. 2, no. 1 workshop on European Economic In- rious international joint teaching initia- tegration, focussing on the problems of tives, including a Paris first degree in monetary integration, EMU, the Euro European Economics, headed by Hubert and EBRD, held on March 1–2, 2002. Kempf, and there have been discussions 2. The University of Oxford hosted the involving the European Union, towards a second workshop and summer school putative jointly offered and jointly recog- European Economic Integration aimed nised MA in the Economics of European at doctoral scholars, incorporating the Integration, still at the time of writing un- economics and politics of EU enlarge- der consideration. ment, regionalisation, monetary union, The Europaeum will shortly be launch- convergence and institutional reform, ing a dedicated section to the work of this running from 17th–22nd September, Economics research project group, which 2002. will aim to list the programmes, the parti- 3. The Charles University in Prague, cipants, a bibliography, and aim to capture hosted the third workshop of the se- some last papers, and, perhaps, most sig- ries, Politics and Economics of Euro- nificant of all, allow all those who have pean Integration & Economic Theory been linked to the group - or wish to of Political Markets, from 17th–18th be linked to the group - to use a spe- September, 2004. cial group MemoBoard to put up com- ments, new ideas, new references and 4. The University of Bologna hosted the new data for common use. (please see fourth workshop on Factors, goods, ex- http://www.europaeum.org/content/view/ ternalities, institutions and mobility in 891/208/) Europe and beyond, from 30th Septem- ber to 1st October 2005. When this Europaeum Research Project 5. The University of Helsinki hosted the Group was launched in 2001, it was felt fifth workshop of the Europaeum Re- that a research group might successful search Project Group on European meet for a second, possibly a third meet. Economic Integration on Game Theory The continuing work of the Economics of and Applications in Problems of Inter- European Integration group is a source of national Economics, held from 27th– no little satisfaction for the federation. 28th October, 2006. Much of the success of the group, of 6. The Charles University in Prague, course, lies with the commitment of hosted the sixth workshop on The Eu- the individual members of the steering ropean Union 50 Years On: Mod- group. Europaeum grants remain rela- elling Economics and Politics of Eu- tively small, and need to be matched ropean Integration, from 5th–6th Octo- with institutional support, and departmen- ber, 2007. tal support towards travel costs. In addi- tion, many events have secured third party Various spin-off benefits have also flowed support from local banks, companies, or from the work of the group, over and above foundations. In this way the work of the the academic networking and interna- group has continued down the years. tional cooperation between collaborators. It is to be hoped that their work and col- The group has also been involved in va- laboration can continue. AUCO Czech Economic Review, vol. 2, no. 1 101.

Load more