Newsletter October 2011

Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

Editorial

Sovereign and Financial Stability in Europe: The Need of Regulating Cross-Border Banking

by Elena Carletti

The crisis that started in 2007 originated in the subprime mortgage market but it quickly spread to asset backed securities and other securitized products. The onset of the crisis was in the financial industry, and it embraced investment banks as well as commercial banks. The failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 accelerated the pace of the crisis and enlarged it to money markets including the interbank market. Several insolvencies among financial institutions were observed and real negative effects started to emerge. A number of countries experienced severe GDP declines and unemployment surges. Regulators and governments had to intervene massively by providing liquidity to the financial system, a series of public guarantees and recapitalization plans. The most striking example is the case of Ireland, where the generalized guarantees given to the banking sector threatened the solvency of the entire country. [...] Read More

Events

The Global Governance Programme organizes four Executive Training Seminars between October and November, dealing with Regional Integration, Global Security Challenges, Multilevel Governance, and Human Rights. The Executive Training Seminars offer three and a half day of intensive and interactive training by some of the world’s leading experts in the field of global governance, to the "leaders of the future": young executives and policy-makers, public sector officials, private sector professionals, junior academics, and diplomats.

The Final Conference of the project Improving EU and US Immigration Systems' Capacity for Responding to Global Challenges: Learning from experiences took place on 15 June in Brussels in the premises of the European Commission, who also co-financed the project. The conference brought together over 100 policymakers, analysts, and members of civil society from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss possible reforms of their respective immigration systems.

On 28 October, the Loyola de Palacio Chair hosts a workshop on EU Gas Security of Supply Architecture: European infrastructure policy in relation to the issue of solidarity.

The 2011 EUDO Dissemination Conference focuses on Including Outsiders: Electoral Rights for non-citizens and non-residents in Europe. The conference takes place on 9 and 10 November in the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels in order to fully connect EUDO activities to the EU Institutions.

During the Energy Transparency Award Ceremony (9 November, Brussels) the winner of the 2011 edition of the ETA Award will be announced. The Award honours a company or institution for a particular contribution to the transparency of energy markets in Europe.

On 16-18 November the Area Communications & Media of the FSR hosts one of the four annual meetings of the BEREC contact network. IRG/BEREC is the European association of Electronic Communications National Regulators, aiming to coordinate and harmonize national regulatory policy.

A workshop organized on 25 November by the FSR Energy, on Energy Trading: How to foster competition, liquidity and integrity? looks at the way in which energy sector regulation contributes to the completion of the internal energy market. While many aspects have an effect on energy trading, the focus of the workshop will be on market access conditions and market monitoring.

Publications

Selected Policy Briefs, Policy Papers and Reports

The Florence School of Regulation has issued a number of policy briefs, the most recent being on A Gas Target Model for the EU: Florence School Proposes MECOS and Identifying Benefits and Allocating Costs for European Cross-Border Infrastructure Projects.

The Global Governance Programme published the policy brief European and United States Counter-Terrorism Policies, the Rule of Law and Human Rights. It also published several policy papers in the RSCAS Policy Papers Series.

The EUDO Public Opinion Observatory issued a ‘Spotlight’ analysis of The Collateral Effects of the Economic Crisis. Towards the Europeanization of Public Attitudes about the Economy.

The CARIM project has released numerous Analytic & Synthetic Notes and Research Reports in the areas of Irregular Migration, Gender and Migration, Trafficking, Circular Migration, and Recent Developments in Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Migration. These are available on the CARIM site, or chronologically in CADMUS.

Several reports have been published from the project Improving EU and US Immigration Systems' Capacity for Responding to Global Challenges: Learning from experiences

More RSCAS Project Reports…

Selected Working Papers

The Global Governance Programme published several working papers, including An Argument for Leverage-Based Business Responsibility for Human Rights by Stepan Wood and Terrorist Listings and the Rule of Law: The Role of the EU Courts by Allan Rosas.

The Florence School of Regulation published several working papers, including Deregulating Telecommunications in Europe: Timing, Path-Dependency, and Institutional Complementarities by Filippo Belloc, Antonio Nicita and Pier Luigi Parcu.

The Loyola de Palacio Programme on Energy Policy has just published Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies by Paul L. Joskow.

The EUDO Citizenship Observatory has published Do legal regulations hinder naturalisation? Citizenship policies and naturalisation rates in Europe by David Reichel.

More RSCAS Working Papers…

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Research News

New ProjectS ON MIGRATION

The implementation of the project Creating an Observatory of Migration East of Europe, financed by the European Union has started on 1 April and is carried out in partnership with the University of Warsaw (CMR) and with a network of correspondents based in the target countries. The project is coordinated by Agnieszka Weinar and will have a duration of 2 years.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funds a 3 year project on Cross-Regional Information System of the Reintegration of Migrants in their Countries of Origin: Impact and Implications. The project started on 1 July and the kick-off meeting took place on 19 October.

Delphine Perrin coordinates KNOW RESET: Building Knowledge for a Concerted and Sustainable Approach of Resettlement in the EU and its Member States, a project on refugee resettlement in the EU. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (Brussels) is a partner in this project, which in co-financed by the EU and started on 1 September.

New ERC Project

BORDERLANDS: Expanding Boundaries, Governance, and Power in the European Union’s Relations with North Africa and the Middle East, a project funded by the European Research Council, started in October 2011 and will have duration of 5 years.

ENTRANCE: TRAINING OF Judges

In November the Florence School of Regulation starts ENTRANCE 2011, the first edition of a training project for national judges on European Competition law financed by the EU. 27 Judges from 19 EU Member States have been selected to take part in the training course focusing on competition law private enforcement in network industries and quantification of damages. The FSR will also organize two future editions of the ENTRANCE training course, one starting in 2012 and the other in 2013. ENTRANCE 2012 will focus in particular on state aids and will be dedicated to judges from the new Member States (EU12).

New Project ON the role of small EU Member States

With financial support from the Fundaçao Francisco Manuel dos Santos, Lisbon, EUDO will systematically examine the role of representatives of small countries in the European Union policy process, with special reference to Portugal. The project Participation in EU decision-making: Portugal in Comparative Perspective will produce a series of reports. Directed by Professors Richard Rose and Alexander Trechsel, the project will run until 30 October 2013.

Globalization Database

The development of a Globalisation Database, a GGP project funded by the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, started in September 2011. It aims at collecting, uniting and presenting statistical data on trends of globalisation and sustainable development. The project has a duration of 24 months and is directed by Gaby Umbach.

New Project on CITIZENSHIP

EUDO Citizenship has launched a new research project financed by the EU. ACIT: Access to citizenship and its impact on immigrant integration will generate indicators for citizenship laws, their implementation, acquisition rates and their impact on immigrant integration in 33 European states. ACIT will also organize stakeholder dialogues and produce citizenship handbooks in 10 EU member states. The other project partners are: the Migration Policy Group (Brussels), University College Dublin, University of Edinburgh and Maastricht University.

Selected Books

	Joel Beinin and Frédéric Vairel Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2011.
	Claus-Dieter Ehlermann and Mel Marquis European Competition Law Annual 2009: The Evaluation of Evidence and its Judicial Review in Competition Cases Oxford/Portland, Hart Publishing, 2011.
	Franklin Allen, Elena Carletti and Giancarlo Corsetti Life in the Eurozone With or Without Sovereign Default? Philadelphia, FIC Press, 2011.
	Youssef Cassis Crises and opportunities, 1890-2010: The shaping of modern finance Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011.
	A. Denny Ellerman, Barbara K. Buchner, and Carlo Carraro Allocation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme: Rights, Rents and Fairness Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

More RSCAS Books…

Announcements

The Global Governance Programme welcomes applications for the Executive Seminar on Economics of Multilevel Governance in an International Context, which will take place in Florence on 16-19 November. Deadline for applications: 4 November. Application form

Staff News

Massimiliano Marcellino has joined the RSCAS on 1 September as a Joint Chair with the Economics Department. He holds the Pierre Werner Chair on Monetary Union and coordinates the European Forecasting Network. His main areas of research are applied macroeconomics and econometrics.

Raffaella Del Sarto has joined the RSCAS on 1 October as part-time professor. She directs the project on BORDERLANDS: Boundaries, Governance, and Power in the European Union’s Relations with North Africa and the Middle East for which she has been awarded a Starting Independent Researcher Grant by the European Research Council.

Fellows-in-Residence academic year 2011/12:

Jean Monnet Fellows

Alessandra Arcuri, Erasmus University (Global Governance Programme)

Philip Bajon, EUI

Rosa Julieta Castro, Banca Intesa SanPaolo (Global Governance Programme)

Cristina Dallara, University of Bologna (Global Governance Programme)

Szabolcs Deak, Bocconi University (Pierre Werner Chair)

Marc Devore, University of St. Gallen (Global Governance Programme)

Jelena Dzankic, University of Edinburgh

Luc Fransen, University of Amsterdam (Global Governance Programme)

Carine Germond, Maastricht University

Angelica Gianfreda, University of Verona (FSR)

Michelle Hallack, University of Paris Sud XI (FSR)

Oleg Korneev, CERI/Sciences Po

Gregoire Mallard, Northwestern University (Global Governance Programme)

Nadia Marzouki, EUI

Duncan McDonnell, University of Turin and University of Birmingham

Andrea Renda, CEPS (Global Governance Programme)

Torben Stühmeier, University of Düsseldorf (FSR)

Giuseppe Telesca, University of Florence

Willem Bastiaan Van Bockel, EUI

Silvester Van Koten, EUI (Loyola de Palacio Programme)

Miguel Vazquez, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (FSR)

Tong Wang, Toulouse School of Economics (FSR)

Marie Curie Fellows

Christian Kaunert, University of Salford

Sabrina Marchetti, Utrecht University

EU Fellow

Katrin Huber, European Parliament

Visiting Fellows

Eirik S. Amundsen, University of Bergen and University of Copenhagen

Alberto Asquer, University of Cagliari

Federica Bicchi, London School of Economics and Political Science

Aurélie Gfeller (FNS fellowship)

Joanna Gray, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Cathrine Holst, ARENA, University of Oslo

Chantal Lavallée, University of Québec (FQRSC fellowship)

Eleonore Lépinard, University of Montreal

Giorgio Natalicchi, University of Firenze

Maria Alessandra Rossi, University of Siena

Pascal Sciarini, University of Geneva

José A. Tavares, New University of Lisbon

Anne Thies, University of Reading