Posted on 21 January 2016
On the 28 and 29 January the Historical Archives of the European Union will host the workshop “Financial History of Europe, eabh Oral History Project and theConversation “Eurovision? The Initial Period of Europe’s Monetary Union”. The events, organised by the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre and the European Association for Banking and Financial History (eabh), will focus on the research on European financial history and how it is approached by professionals and scholars.
On the 28th, the half-day workshop “Financial History of Europe” will lay the groundwork for a project on the oral history of European Finance. More than 60 years have passed since the first attempts towards European integration after the destructions of World War II. Since then, the European Union has become a reality for more than 500 million European citizens. Oral history is an important addition to every archive – striving to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources. This workshop aims to kick off a larger discussion on European oral history and about exemplary ways of integrating oral history to financial archivists practice.
On the 29th, the Conversation “Eurovision? The Initial Period of Europe’s Monetary Union” will bring together financiers, politicians, lawyers and academics that were involved in relevant decisions concerning the financial sector 25 years ago – and those in charge today, which will give participants the opportunity to look at the initial period of Europe’s Monetary Union (EMU) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of eabh.
The European Monetary Union and the introduction of the Euro in 1999 were unexpected achievements without precedent. And expectations were high. The Community anticipated output and productivity growth, the realisation of the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital, the elimination of customs and duties, and in the social sphere, the creation of a European Social Fund. What happened to the hopes and objectives of the Treaty of Maastricht? Have some of them come true? Decision-makers today face the challenges of a fractured union; however, not all problems policy makers face today are new. Which crucial turning points or decisions in the history of the Union should and could be revised in order to avoid the mistakes of the past?
More information on the events
Full Programmes can be downloaded from the eabh website