This Euro 50 roundtable organized with CEPS and CEPII, intends to look at the obstacles that could be removed and reforms that could be undertaken, through addressing cross-border issues in the first place, in order to foster investment in the European Union.

Thursday October 29th 2015

A debate on Greece
Guest speaker: Nikos Pappas, Minister of State of Greece

Friday October 30th 2015

Introductory Remarks
Edmond Alphandéry, Chairman, Euro 50 Group

Session I – Investment in the EU versus the US: lessons to be drawn from a comparative approach
In this session, we will look at the idiosyncrasies of investment decision making and funding in the EU in the framework of a comparative analysis with the US (role of banks, of capital markets, impact of regulation, the working of the currency area, the economic and fiscal environment).
President: Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, Chairman, Société Générale ; Chairman, Snam
Guest speaker: Torsten Ehlers, Monetary and Economic Department, Bank of International Settlements
Among panelists: William B. English, Senior Special Advisor, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Mark Medish, Former advisor to US President for European and Eurasian Affairs, Gilles Moec, Head of Developed European Economics, Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
Erik F. Nielsen, Chief Economist, UniCredit

Session II - Improving the environment for investing in Europe
This session will look at the various initiatives that are already in the offing (the Juncker plan…) or that should be taken in order to foster investment in the European Union.
President: Debora Revoltella, Director of Economics Department, EIB
Guest Speaker: Jacques de Larosière, Senior Advisor, BNP Paribas
Among panelists: Stefano Micossi, Director General, Assonime, John Moran, Director, European Investment Bank, Franz Nauschnigg, Head of European Affairs and International Financial Organizations Division, Austrian National Bank, Nicolas Veron, Senior Fellow, Bruegel; Visiting Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Lunch : Guest speaker: Luc Frieden, Vice Chairman Deutsche Bank, former Finance Minister of Luxembourg : “After the crisis: a growth agenda for Europe”

Session II (continued)
In this session’s second part, Natacha Valla will present the CEPII approach which will be discussed among panelists and the roundtable.
Guest Speaker: Natacha Valla, Deputy Director, CEPII “A holistic approach to ECB asset purchases, the Investment Plan and CMU”
Among panelists: Olivier Garnier, Group Chief Economist, Société Générale, Miguel Gil-Tertre, Member of Cabinet of Jyrki Katainen, European Commission, Cristian Popa, Former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Romania, Beat Siegenthaler, Macro Global Advisor, UBS Investment Bank

Session III - Fostering investment to support the Energy Union
This session will take stock of the work which is being undertaken by the “High-Level Group on Energy Infrastructure in Europe” which intends to present a report to the President of the European Commission on the obstacles (of the cross-border type) which exist when it comes to meeting the huge needs in investment in the energy sector.
President: Philippe Maystadt, Former Finance Minister of Belgium
Guest speaker: Edmond Alphandéry, President of the Centre for European Policy Studies
Among panelists: Laurent Dumarest, Senior Partner, A.T. Kearney, Christian Egenhofer, Head of the Energy and Climate programme, Director of the Energy Climate House, CEPS, Daniel Gros, Director, CEPS, Gerassimos Thomas, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-general For Energy (ENER), European Commission

Concluding remarks
Henning Christophersen, Former Vice-President of the European Commission, Author of the report: “Making the best use of new financial schemes for European transport infrastructure projects"