European Solidarity and Just Financing

Academic workshop on
European Solidarity & Just Financing
29-31 March 2023
University of Antwerp, Belgium

Call for Papers

Application deadline: 24 October 2022
Notice of acceptance: 30 November 2022
Full details below

On March 29th – 31st 2023, UCSIA organizes an academic workshop on European solidarity and just financing at the University of Antwerp.

The 2008 financial and economic crisis as well as the current war in Ukraine and the persistent COVID-pandemic fundamentally challenge the European Union (EU) and its member states. These crises go to the core of the question which place solidarity has and ought to have within the EU. Over the years different support mechanisms have been developed, while in the meantime an inconceivable hurdle has been taken: on the motion of Berlin and Paris, the European Commission launched a temporary recovery instrument that would be financed through common debt issuance and that does not impose supplementary conditions on the member states. At the same time, the latter will once have to repay all these funds. And even more important, the common debt issuance only offers a temporary instrument and cannot be seen at all as a precedent. Exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures.

The support mechanisms (e.g. ESM, SURE and NextGenerationEU obligations) which have been installed over the years, also require new and adapted financing instruments. The European Commission has acquired new fiscal competences which make it possible, among other things, to charge carbon emissions at its borders as well as digital services. Next to that, other funding possibilities include emissions trading, taxes on financial transactions and a new common corporate tax base.

The introduction and further development of new and existing support mechanisms along with new financing instruments entail further steps in the creation of a ‘Social Europe’. It makes the question ever more pressing which place the EU actually holds in the domain of social policy.

  • What role does the EU need to take on as an actor in income redistribution and insurance?
  • What is the relation of the EU towards its member states, citizens and towards other larger international organizations, such as the OECD?
  • What, if anything, can justify the development of temporary and/or structural support mechanisms?
  • How should these support mechanisms best be organized? What advantages do they create and what risks do they entail?
  • How can the financing instruments be rolled out in a just way? Are there particular winners and/or losers?
  • Can this be justified or remedied?

The quest for solidarity, whether or not on a European level and in whatever form, could be labelled as a ‘wicked problem’. The challenges with which the EU has been confronted during the last 15 years in its search for an appropriate role in the field of social policy (if any), are not new at all. Over the centuries questions about solidarity and responsibility have been dealt with in various ways. And although we have come a long way, the core of the problem remains, as could be seen clearly in the pioneering discussions of the early modern period. At the time various intellectuals explored new and innovative methods to deal with liquidity problems and investment instruments – just as we do today. However, the early modern discussions were strictly related to a micro level that affected relations between individuals. A crucial step was the development of (nation) states which acted as reliable financial institutions and lenders themselves. The state itself became an actor as a result and part of the social contract tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries. It laid the basis for the present situation in which we are no longer just thinking in terms of relations of solidarity and responsibility between individuals, but between states and between a supranational level and its individual citizens. The current developments in Europe and the world make these questions about solidarity and responsibility ever more pressing. Can we arrive at a new social contract between states as we did in the past with a social contract between individuals? Or can we come to a new social contract writ large?

 

Keynote Speakers

Bert Brys

Senior Tax Economist | Head of the Country Tax Policy Team and Head of the Personal and Property Taxes Unit in the Tax Policy and Tax Statistics Division of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration

He joined the OECD in 2005. Within the OECD he has worked on a broad range of taxes, tax indicators and tax policy design topics, including personal income taxes and effective tax rates on labour income, property taxes, corporate income taxes, political economy issues of tax reform, taxation and economic growth and taxation and skills indicators and issues. Prior to joining the OECD, he worked on tax issues for the Flemish Regional Government in Belgium. He holds a PhD degree from the Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He also obtained Master degrees in economics from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), from CenTEr at Tilburg University (the Netherlands) and from Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium).

Philipp Genschel

Professor of European Public Policy at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute, Florence | Professor of Political Science at Jacobs University

Before joining the EUI, he was Deputy Director of the Collaborative Research Center on ‘Transformation of the State’ in Bremen and a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He has taught at the University of Chicago, the Technische Universität Munchen and Harvard University. His fields of expertise are International political economy, European integration, International organisations (regime complexity, domestic politics, political parties, collective memories). His work revolves around the topics of the international political economy of taxation, European integration of ‘core state powers’, i.e. of the three key resources of sovereign government: money, coercive power and public administration and governance theory and the agency of international organizations.

Waltraud Schelkle

Professor in Political Economy at the European Institute of the London School of Economics | Adjunct Professor of economics at the Economics Department of the Free University of Berlin

Professor Schelkle obtained a post-doctorate degree of the Free University of Berlin in 1999 with a thesis on ‘The new theory of monetary integration’, published in German in 2001. Professor Schelkle is also a Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C. and Member of the Advisory Board of the Research Centre for Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM) in Bremen. Her research focuses on the political economy of monetary integration, understood as a form of inter-state risk sharing. Her book on ‘The political economy of monetary solidarity: understanding the experiment of the euro’ has been published with Oxford University Press in 2017. This work will now be continued in an ERC-funded research project on ‘Policy crisis and crisis politics: Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in Europe post-2008’. Her second interest concerns welfare state reforms, encompassing the restructuring of social risk management induced both by market creation and integration in Europe and by the macroeconomic framework in the monetary union, with a specific interest in how financial regulation is now used for social policy purposes.

Isabel Vansteenkiste

Director General for International and European Relations at the European Central Bank (ECB)

Isabel Vansteenkiste has worked at the ECB since 2002. Previously she held the position of Deputy Director General in the Directorate Monetary Policy and in the Directorate General Economics. In the latter Directorate General she was also senior advisor for the preparation of Governing Council meetings and Head of the Country Surveillance Division, which assesses euro area countries’ economic policies. As Deputy Director General Economics, she participated in European meetings (of the Eurogroup Working Group, the Economic and Finance Committee and the Eurogroup), and as Head of the International Policy Analysis Division, she participated in international meetings (of the BIS, G7 and G20). She was also the ECB’s mission chief to Portugal from 2014 to 2017. Isabel’s main fields of research interests are international macroeconomics, applied macroeconomics and monetary economics. Isabel holds a PhD degree in Economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Programme Outline

Public Opening Lecture
Wednesday 29 March 2023

More information will be posted soon.

Thursday 30 March 2023

9h00

Welcome by UCSIA

9h05

Introduction by chair

9h15
Lecture on

Political Analysis

Philipp Genschel
Professor of Political Science
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

9h45

Response

respondent to be confirmed

10h00

Q & A

10h45

Coffee Break

11h00

Paper Presentations Panel I

12h30

Lunch

13h30

Introduction by chair

13h40
Lecture on

Three Pillars Approach of the OECD

Bert Brys
Senior Tax Economist
Centre for Policy and Tax Administration, OECD

14h10

Response

respondent to be confirmed

14h20

Q & A

15h10

Coffee Break

15h30

Paper Presentations Panel II

17h00

End of Day Programme

Friday 31 March 2023

9h00

Welcome by UCSIA

9h05

Introduction by chair

9h15
Lecture on

Policy Analysis

Waltraud Schelkle
Professor in Political Economy
European Institute, London School of Economics

9h45

Response

respondent to be confirmed

10h00

Q & A

10h45

Coffee Break

11h00

Paper Presentations Panel III

12h30

Lunch

13h30

Introduction by chair

13h40
Lecture on

Financial Analysis

Isabel Vansteenkiste
Director General for International and European Relations
European Central Bank

14h10

Response

respondent to be confirmed

14h20

Q & A

15h10

Coffee Break

15h30

Paper Presentations Panel IV

17h00

End of Day Programme

Call for Papers

The workshop ‘European Solidarity and Just Financing’ consists of a two-day international meeting (preceded by a public opening lecture) with specialized lectures, presentations and debates by invited senior and junior scholars. The aim is to offer a platform to scholars to present their research on the topic and exchange their ideas on research findings. Such a meeting may open up new multidisciplinary horizons to think about the topic.

We welcome both theoretical contributions and empirical papers.

Papers presented at the workshop will focus on, but will not be limited to, such questions as:

  • What role does the EU need to take on as an actor in income redistribution and insurance?
  • What is the relation of the EU towards its member states, citizens and towards other larger international organizations, such as the OECD?
  • What, if anything, can justify the development of temporary and/or structural support mechanisms?
  • How should these support mechanisms best be organized?
  • What advantages do they create and what risks do they entail? How can the financing instruments be rolled out in a just way?
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Application Procedure

To submit your application

  1. fill in the online submission form
  2. upload the abstract (750 – 1.000 words including references, in English) of your proposed paper
  3. upload your curriculum vitae, in English, list of publications included (if available)

Application deadline: 24 October 2022

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Selection Criteria

Applicants should

  • be a master student, doctoral student or postdoctoral researcher
  • be involved in ongoing academic research relevant to the themes addressed in the sessions of the workshop
  • respect formal requirements of the application process
  • submit a well written paper proposal, related to the main topic of the workshop and representative of your research work, indicating the methodology and theoretical underpinning of your research

Selection Procedure

Blind peer-review:

The selection of participants will be made on a competitive basis by the members of the organizing scientific committee. The papers will be examined through a blind refereeing process. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Notice of acceptance:

30 November 2022 at the latest

Workshop Attendance

  • conference attendance, meals and accommodation for the selected presenters are free of charge
  • all participants are expected to arrange and pay for their own travel
  • all participants are expected to take part in the full programme

Presentation and publication opportunity

  • selected participants will present their papers in a panel session
    (20 minutes in English)
  • a selection of papers presented at the workshop will be considered for publication

Organisers

Bea Cantillon, Professor of Social Policy, Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck, University of Antwerp

Dirk De Bièvre, Professor of International Politics and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp

Sarah Marchal, Tenure Track Professor Socio-Economic Inequality and Policy, Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck, University of Antwerp

Bruno Peeters, Professor at the Faculty of Law and Director of the Antwerp Tax Academy, University of Antwerp

Erik De Bom, Deputy Director, University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp UCSIA

Barbara Segaert, Project Coordinator Europe & Solidarity, University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp UCSIA

Contact

Barbara Segaert, Project Coordinator, UCSIA
barbara.segaert@ucsia.be

UCSIA vzw

University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp

logo CSB - University of Antwerp

Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy

studies social inequality and wealth distribution in the welfare state

logo Antwerp Tax Academy - University of Antwerp

Antwerp Tax Academy

interfaculty institute for tax science at the University of Antwerp

logo research group international politics - University of Antwerp

Research group International Politics (IP)

researches on international security, international diplomacy, and the political economy of international institutions

Practical details

Date & Time

Academic workshop: 30-31 March 2023
Public opening lecture: 29 March 2023

Call for Papers

Application deadline: 24 October 2022
Notice of Acceptance: 30 November 2022
Full details | Online submission form

Venue

University of Antwerp
City Campus – Hof van Liere
Prinsstraat 13 & 13 B, 2000 Antwerp
BELGIUM

Travelling to Antwerp from Abroad

International trains

Antwerp Central Station offers direct railway connections to Amsterdam Centraal, London St Pancreas International, Paris Nord and Köln Hauptbahnhof.

This makes the train a comfortable and green way to travel to Antwerp from many larger cities in the Netherlands, Great-Britain, France and Germany.

We recommend you to order your train tickets as soon as possible, because prices increase in time. The earlier you book, the cheaper your trip. Ticket sales open three to six months in advance, depending on the trainline operator.

When you arrive in Antwerp Central Station, take a minute to look around you. Many travel guides have rated it as one of the most beautiful stations in the world.

Visit Antwerp

While visiting Antwerp for academic purposes, take the opportunity to get to know our unique and beautiful city!

Antwerp skyline with Cathedral

Brussels National Airport

Brussels National Airport in Zaventem is the most travelled airport in Belgium. If you are coming by plane, you will most likely arrive here.

The Airport Express is a direct coach service that runs every hour (3 a.m.-12 p.m.) between Brussels Airport and Antwerp Central Station. The ride takes about 45 minutes. You can find the bus stop at park P15, close to the terminal. The covered walkway leads you automatically to and from the terminal.

There is also a direct train connection (twice an hour) between Brussels Airport and Antwerp Central Station. The approximate travel time is 32 minutes. The airport train station is located below the terminal (basement level -1). Keep your train ticket at hand upon arrival at Brussels Airport. You will need to scan it at the automated access gates.

More information:
www.brusselsairport.be/

Antwerp City Airport

Antwerp Airport is a small airport located in Deurne at a mere seven kilometers from the city centre of Antwerp. It covers a selection of mostly European destinations such as London Southend, Florence, Innsbruck, Malaga, Split, Toulon, …

The easiest way to travel to the city centre is by taxi (15 min, € 15).

You can also take public transport, but there is no direct service. Take bus 51, 52 or 53 directly in front of the airport building to Antwerp-Berchem railway station in 10 minutes, where you can take bus 21 and 32 or tram 9 and 11 to Rooseveltplaats (Roosevelt Square), near Antwerp Central Station.

More information:
www.antwerpairport.aero

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Another option is the international airport in our neighbour’s capital: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Especially for long distance flights, it is an alternative worth looking into. Your journey could turn out significantly cheaper and/or shorter.

There is a direct train connection between Schiphol Airport and Antwerp Central Station every hour. The estimated travel time is under an hour.

We recommend you to order your train tickets as soon as possible, because prices increase in time. The earlier you book, the cheaper your trip. Ticket sales open four months in advance.

You can also buy international train tickets at the NS Hispeed desks, located near the Meeting Point at Schiphol Plaza.

The NS train station is located directly below the terminal building. Take the escalator or lift downstairs and board the train.

More information:
www.brusselsairport.be/en/

 

Brussels South Charleroi Airport

This is an airport with mostly short distance destinations (with the exception of Hong Kong). The majority of the flights are operated by low cost airlines.

Mind: although your flight might be cheaper, travel time to and from Antwerp will be longer and your transport options for early and late flights are limited.

Also take into account that, although the airport is called Brussels South, it is located in Charleroi, which is in no way near to Brussels National Airport. When booking your train tickets make sure to select the right railway station.

You can buy a single or return ticket (same day return) to “any Belgian station” from the ticket machines outside the terminal near Door 2. This ticket includes the TEC bus journey (from the airport to Charleroi-South station) and the train journey (from Charleroi-South station to another Belgian station of your choice).

More information:
www.brussels-charleroi-airport.com

UCSIA

Koningstraat 2
B-2000 Antwerpen
info@ucsia.be
Tel. +32 (0)3 265 49 60