"Why the IMF Should Be Led by a European" by Jean-Dominique Giuliani, head of the Robert Schuman Foundation, a think tank promoting stronger EU integration. Despite calls for the next Managing Director to come from the emerging countries in Asia or Latin America, the author makes the case succinctly for the Fund to reserve its top job for a European embodying deeply-rooted Western values such as openness, impartiality and accountability. Recommended by European Affairs. (6/2)
On May 25, 2011, The Honorable Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Member of the European Parliament and co-Chair of the Parliament’s European Greens-European Free Alliance Group discussed the growing support for Green Parties across Europe and assessed the increased popularity of the Greens in Europe and the implications of their success on Europe’s priorities and governance. Klaus Linsenmeier, Executive Director of the Heinrich Boll Foundation North American moderated the discussion.
On May 24, 2011, The European Institute hosted a breakfast meeting on the New Dynamic of EU Enlargement: Perspectives from Croatia which featured prominent actors in the accession of Croatia to the EU, Neven Mimica, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and Chairman of the European Integration (Affairs) Committee and Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Chairperson of the Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Joint Croatia-EU Parliamentary Committee and the Parliamentary Friendship Group Croatia- US. Mr. Mimica and Ms. Pejcinovic Buric discussed the challenges to concluding Croatia’s accession to the EU and the benefits it would bring to Croatia as well as the entire Western Balkan region.
International jockeying is already intense about picking a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the IMF on May 18. It is a key post in global financial affairs: under Strauss-Kahn, the Fund regained prestige and power, mainly as an influential investor and arbiter in the rescue and bail-out packages for debt-stricken European countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
On May 17, 2011, The European Institute hosted a program with Pankraz Freitag, President of the Swiss Senate Banking Committee. Senator Freitag shared best practices from Switzerland’s fiscal policies and budget management. He also offered his perspective on what the European Union and United States might take away from Switzerland’s “debt brake” experience, while continuing to secure the global strength of the dollar and the euro, balance their budgets and work to reform fiscal regulations in order to avoid future crises.
© COPYRIGHT THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE 2009
You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from our site and redistribute by email or post to the web.