The Florence Report is the flagship initiative of the EMU Lab. The core argument of the 2026 edition, Reconfiguring Europe in a Fractured Global Economy, is straightforward. With the global order at a point of rupture, Europe can no longer rely on its reduced responsibility model to advance prosperity: the foreign security guarantees, open global markets, and relatively stable multilateralism that allowed European nations to advance their integration while avoiding the difficult political choices inherent to providing fundamental public goods such as defence, macroeconomic stabilization, or strategic investment, are no more. The question is no longer how to preserve the inherited model, but how to replace it. In this context, policies once treated as merely optional or associated with distant federalist ambitions — common borrowing, European Public Goods, deeper fiscal coordination, defence integration, safe assets, or the Savings and Investment Union — must be understood as practical instruments of European, both Union and member state, resilience in the new global order. The 2026 Florence Report contributions analyse the nature of this shift and chart a way forward capable of advancing European independence and security. In addition to proposing new ideas, the Report reexamines established governance frameworks, recasting them to articulate a coherent and accessible renewed policy agenda.
The 2026 Florence Report at a Glance - Executive Summary
Last update: May 2026
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Read the EMU Lab 2026 Florence Report
2026 Florence Report Table of Contents
Section I - Framing the European Project: Political Economy Under Pressure
1. André Sapir | Medium-Term Geopolitical Scenarios for the World and Implications for the EU.
2. Moreno Bertoldi and Marco Buti | The New Triad Leading US Capitalism.
3. Poul F. Kjaer | Securitizing Europe: From the Euro to Value Chains.
4. Vivien A. Schmidt | The Twin Political Challenges for the EU: US Geopolitical Disruption and National Populist Fragmentation.
5. Marco Buti and Marcello Messori | European Integration at a Time of National Identity Politics.
Section II - Securing Policy Space from Within EU Systemic Frameworks
6. Daniel Fernandes and Anton Hemerijck | The Macroeconomic Dividend of Social Investment Welfare Provision in an Age of Fragmentation.
7. Lucio Pench | Fiscal Rules and EMU: Past, Present, and Future.
8. Amy Verdun | Differentiation and Euro Adoption: Policy Options for Reducing Fragmentation under Geopolitical Pressure.
9. Giancarlo Corsetti and Leonardo Melosi | Stablecoins and Digital Currencies: Implications for Fragmentation and Multipolarity.
10. Erik Fossing Nielsen | The European Savings Surplus: the Need for Policies to Lower the Risk and to Encourage its Financing of European Growth.
Section III - Sustaining EU Competitiveness Between Geoeconomics and Structural Trends
11. Bernard Hoekman | Responding to Global Trade Disorder.
12. Marco Ratto and Werner Roeger | Global Effects of Recent US Policies: How to mitigate negative spillovers to Europe?
13. Florian Le Gallo, Amélie Robinette, Valentine Salmon | Facing Geo-Economic Threats: The European Union’s Economic Security and the Single Market.
14. Jacques Pelkmans | After Letta and Draghi: Empowering the Single Market in Earnest?
15. Irene Agnolucci | Pushing the Frontiers of Europe: The Role of the Important Projects of Common European Interest.
16. Jos Delbeke and Simone Tagliapietra | A Strong Clean Industrial Deal to Reconcile Europe’s Decarbonization, Competitiveness and Security Objectives.
17. Andrea Gazzani | The Economic Implications of AI: Opportunities and Challenges.
Section IV - Financing Collective Action: From European Public Goods to Security
18. George Papaconstantinou | The Global Commons and European Public Goods.
19. Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol | Between Economic Efficiency and Political Bargaining: A Long View on European Public Goods.
20. Gaetano D’Adamo | The Drivers of the Evolution of the EU’s Long-Term Budget.
21. Ricardo García Antón and Tomasz P. Woźniakowski | Own Resources: A Transatlantic Perspective.
22. Guntram Wolff and Jeromin Zettelmeyer | European Defence Markets: Overcoming National Preference and External Dependence.
23. Andrea Capati and Sergio Fabbrini | The Segmentation of the European Union’s Defence: Comparing the SAFE Instrument and the Ukraine Facility.
24. Luisa Marin | Common Procurement in Defence and the Strategic Autonomy of the Union: A First Appraisal.
Section V - Financing Growth Through Savings, Investment, and Capital Markets
25. Daniel Kapp and Laura Parisi | Unlocking Capital for Europe’s Future.
26. Giancarlo Corsetti, Atanas Pekanov, Giulia Sestieri | Breaking the High-Saving, Low-Growth Trap: Europe’s Savings and Investment Union.
27. Giancarlo Corsetti, Atanas Pekanov, Giulia Sestieri | Rebalancing at Home to Adjust Abroad: Europe’s Savings and Investment Union in a New Global Order.
28. David Murphy | Addressing Fragmentation in EU Post-Trade Infrastructure – A Proportional Approach.
29. Loukas Kaskarelis, Mathias Skrutkowski, Rolf Strauch | Policy Priorities for the Savings and Investments Union.
30. Fabrizio Venditti, Michele Caivano, Pietro Cova, Kevin Pallara, Massimiliano Pisani | The Economic Impact of European Capital Market Integration.
Florence Report 2026 publicity
- How to move beyond Europe’s reduced-responsibility model in Bruegel First Glance. Read here.
- Reconfiguring Europe in a fractured global economy: The Florence Report in CEPR VOXEU - Read here.
- The Florence Report: a new agenda for Europe in a changing world - EUI Research story - Read here.