Retrospect

The climate is changing and so is the mobility of people. Our infrastructure and transport networks are already congested, causing increasing levels of emissions that pollute the air in cities. Trends like alternative drive systems, car sharing and autonomous driving signal that a change in mobility is taking place. How can we achieve this change in such a way that we can move in a climate-friendly manner in the future? This was the central question of the panel debate on “Mobility of the Future – Shaping Change” jointly organised by the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport on 14 May 2019 at BW Bank in Stuttgart.

The European sovereign debt crisis has underlined the economic and financial vulnerability of the euro area. In the event of another crisis, public debt can quickly rise to an unsustainable level. Hence, alternatives are needed to mitigate future debt crisis. One possibility would be to introduce a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM), a kind of international insolvency procedure. The Lunch Debate on 28 March 2019 in the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union in Brussels organised by the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in cooperation with the research network EconPol Europe, brought together experts who discussed this pressing issue.

Power and decision-making authorities concerning the European tax system are distributed among various institutions. In their own way, they influence the design of a common European tax system and are equally faced with the challenge of taking national tax policies into account. In a lecture organised as part of the First-Hand Information on Economic Policy series at the ZEW – Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, Professor Ferdinand Kirchhof, former Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court, addressed this complex relationship between the different actors of tax policy in a talk on 14 February 2019.

Electromobility, safety, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence (AI) – these are the major topics of the automotive industry according to Klaus Fröhlich, board member for development of the Bavarian automobile manufacturer BMW. With market conditions becoming ever more dynamic, it is difficult for a German carmaker to keep pace with China and the USA, let alone to define new standards. In his talk at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, on 4 December 2018, Fröhlich presented his vision for the future of cars, the industry as a whole as well as his own company in the lecture series “First-Hand Information on Economic Policy”.

While parts of the international community are increasingly turning their backs on multilateralism, Germany is struggling with scepticism towards migration and digitalisation as well as with the challenges that come with an ageing population. A strong Europe is needed to counter these signs of global decline. Besides, in order to respond to the challenges of demographic change, Germany will need to open itself up to structural change through digital transformation. These were the key policy recommendations outlined by Professor Isabel Schnabel, member of the German Council of Economic Experts.