FEPS COVID Response Webinar: Is Europe SURE?

Join the first FEPS COVID Response Webinar on Friday 17 April at 2PM:

The global financial crisis left us with a certainty: the EU is not well equipped with counter-cyclical measures that can promptly respond to negative shocks. Many influential voices have put forward proposals for a stabilisation function within the EU or the Euro area, nonetheless we have entered this new unexpected crisis without the policy tools we needed to offset it. Once again, European institutions have the difficult task now to design and implement new policy arrangements amidst the emergency. One of the instruments proposed, the “Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency” (SURE) is one of the likely innovations brought to life thanks to the pandemic-induced political will.

The counter-cyclical tool that many economists and policy-makers were proposing was an automatic permanent policy, not a temporary measure; it was meant to cover for the income support to the unemployed, not for short-time work arrangements; it was also based at least in part on grants and transfers and not uniquely in rather short term loans. Is Europe SURE that this is the way to go? What can be improved in the current proposal? What accompanying measures could enhance the stabilisation power of EU intervention agents the socio-economic emergency that will follow the pandemic?

SPEAKERS

• Frank Vandenbroucke, University of Amsterdam and former Minister for Social Security, Health Insurance, Pensions and Employment of Belgium
• Theresa Kuhn, Co-Director of the Amsterdam Center for European Studies
• Roel Beetsma, Member of the European Fiscal Board
• Joan Burton, Former Minister of Social Protection of Ireland and former Leader of the Irish Labour Party

• Introduction and moderation by László Andor, FEPS Secretary GeneralRegister here via Zoom or follow it via Facebook Live