Can a monetary union work without financial solidarity? Is financial solidarity only legitimate when there is empathy between the states sharing a single currency? And does public opinion allow for the solidarity the EU's redistributive policies demand? This summer’s heated debate on the coronavirus recovery fund showed the public sentiments’ strong effect on the course and outcome of European negotiations. According to new research, however, there is space for governments to shape public opinion. In fact, national leadership is necessary in order to find the solidarity necessary for the EU’s survival.
The panelists will answer these questions based on the findings of PLATO, a large research project on EU crisis and legitimacy, and discuss the issue of legitimacy and solidarity.
The CEPS webinar is free and open to the public, but you must register to gain access.
Speakers
Chris Lord is professor at ARENA and scientific coordinator of PLATO. He is co-editor of a forthcoming book from the project with the working title Legitimacy recovered? The politics of legitimation in the European Union.
Joris Melman is PhD candidate at ARENA. His PhD project investigates public opinion on the euro through focus-group research in France, Italy and The Netherlands.
Waltraud Schelkle is professor of political economy at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. She published The Political Economy of Monetary Solidarity: Understanding the Euro Experiment in 2017 and currently works on the ERC-funded SOLID project on sovereignty, solidarity and identity in Europe post-2008.
Moderator
Cinzia Alcidi, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Economic Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.
About the project
The Post-Crisis Legitimacy in Europe (PLATO) is a European training network bringing together 15 PhD researchers and senior scholars from across Europe to study the implications of the 2008 financial crisis for the EU's legitimacy. It is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (2017-2020).
CEPS is one of 20 partner institutions of the ARENA-coordinated project.