Transatlantic economic challenges in an era of growing multipolarity

Jacob Kirkegaard chairs a discussion on “Europe, the US, and the International Monetary System” at a Bruegel conference on transatlantic economic challenges.

From Bruegel:

On 27 September Bruegel hosted a conference in Berlin on transatlantic economic challenges with Vitor Gaspar, Finance Minister of Portugal, and Wolfgang Schäuble, Finance Minister of Germany giving the key note speeches.

The conference focused on the new global challenges currently facing Europe and the United States. Countries outside the European Union and United States now account for about half of the world economy, and their share is growing rapidly. Their increasing role and concomitant demands for greater influence over the global governance pose a series of challenges to the European Union and the United States, as illustrated by the eclipse of the G8 by the G20. The rise of outside actors of potentially equal, or even greater, economic weight will invariably force a rethink of not only how the European Union and the United States should act externally toward the new rising economic poles but also of the substantive contents of the EU-US bilateral economic and political relationship.

Three current policy topics were selected, on which Bruegel and the Peterson Institute experts presented conference papers, followed by remarks by discussants from Europe and the US. Each discussant offered a critique of the paper presented and broader perspectives on the transatlantic relationship, as seen from his or her geographic perspective. The conference concluded with a panel discussion.