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Please join the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center for a private, off-the-record, roundtable on “Europe’s Growth Outlook” featuring the Chief Economist of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Rolf Strauch and moderated by Associate Director Ole Moehr. This virtual roundtable will take place on Wednesday, October 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m EST. Please join us by registering here.

As Chief Economist of the institution tasked with overseeing the euro area’s financial stability, Mr. Strauch has unique insights into impact of the pandemic on EU member states and can offer advice on the overall investment climate. His remarks will cover Europe’s current economic situation and outlook, the EU’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the ESM’s role in facilitating economic recovery.

In April 2020, the EU designed a €540 billion package to offer immediate economic relief to workers, businesses, and sovereigns. As part the package, the ESM created a Pandemic Crisis Support credit line to support euro area countries’ spending on healthcare and prevention. After a historic summit in July, the EU is now working to implement a new €750 billion Recovery Fund to help Europe emerge stronger from this crisis. When implemented, the new Fund is set to trigger the first large scale issuance of a common European safe asset and could lead to a permanent mechanism to mutualize European debt. Mr. Strauch will unpack the benefits the Recovery Fund and a common safe asset for the European economy and outline ways the ESM can mitigate risks to financial stability in the euro area in 2021.

Speaker

Rolf Strauch
Chief Economist
European Stability Mechanism

Moderated by

Ole Moehr
Associate Director, GeoEconomics Center
Atlantic Council