The European University Institute officially launched its first Alumni Chapter in Germany on 12 February 2026 at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, at a time when the Draghi report has placed Europe’s competitiveness gap and the urgency of deeper financial integration at the centre of the policy debate.
The launch event featured two panel discussions ‘EUI and the Future of Policy Thinking’ and ‘The Role of AI’, which surfaced different perspectives on Europe’s path forward.
Pedro Machado, Deputy Director General in Market Operations at the ECB, framed the stakes clearly: “Knowledge is not peripheral to Europe’s project – it is constitutive of it,” he said, before calling on EUI academics to engage directly with the European Commission’s ongoing consultation on banking sector competitiveness.
Giacomo Calzolari, EUI Provost for Research and External Relations and Professor of Economics, presented a paradox from his research on AI-populated synthetic markets: efficiency improved significantly, but researchers could not explain why. “The more you want a system to be interpretable, the more you degrade the quality of the prediction,” he explained – arguing that this tension makes the involvement of social scientists essential in the governance of artificial intelligence.
The discussion also touched on the broader policy direction suggested in the Draghi report. Waltraud Schelkle, Professor of Political Economy, cautioned against equating technological disruption with social progress. While the report emphasizes the need for innovation to boost growth, she noted that high GDP growth does not automatically translate into high living standards for most citizens, pointing to differences in life expectancy and health outcomes between the United States and many European countries.
At the EUI, Schelkle argued, the focus is on how the EU polity can chart its own course by combining innovation with social cohesion. As an example, she pointed to the ECB’s work on a digital euro, designed to modernise Europe’s already efficient payments infrastructure while ensuring tangible benefits for citizens, including those who are not privileged in the current financial system.
Roland Straub, ECB Deputy Director General Market Operations, who completed his PhD at the EUI in 2004, reflected on the need for caution when new technologies reshape economic systems. Referring to the experience of social media platforms, he noted that harms often become visible only once technologies are deeply embedded. “Perhaps this time, we should take another approach,” he suggested.
The Frankfurt chapter, following launches in Brussels and London, positions EUI alumni in central banking, finance and regulation as active contributors to European policy thinking during the Institute’s 50th anniversary year.