A bleaker outlook for the Eurozone. Can Euro and non-Euro members share a vision of EU integration?

CEE region needs continued fiscal consolidation, visions of the EU between Eurozone and non-Eurozone vary significantly, and social harmonization is a desirable phenomenon in the EU countries – Christopher A. Hartwell and Izabela Styczyńska, members of the Management Board of CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research, discussed these issues during a conference “Eurozone – idea, practice, problems and social aspect of the integration”.

Christopher A. Hartwell talked about current economic health of the CEE Region vs. the current state of the Eurozone. In his presentation, entitled “Can Euro and Non-Euro Members Share a Vision of EU Integration?”, he explained challenges that lay ahead of Central and Eastern Europe, such as need for continued fiscal consolidation, and underlined the need to make a concerted effort to recapture the spirit of reform and liberalization. He stressed that fiscal challenges will remain but can be tackled with political will, and CEE countries need to push beyond Europe to once again lead the world in structural changes.

Dr. Hartwell also spoke about a bleaker outlook for the Eurozone. Eurozone has several problems to tackle: stagnation of its growth, macroeconomic difficulties and plummeting of the Euro. Hartwell presented the three major areas of disagreement related to the vision of the EU between Eurozone and non-Eurozone: the positive and negative approach to Euro itself, integration and its path, and the overall vision of the EU, which can either be seen as a loss of sovereignty or even a lack of vision.

Izabela Styczyńska gave a presentation on social harmonization, a concept introduced by CESE (the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council) aimed at more efficient Social Europe. She introduced the idea of upward social convergence – a type of social harmonization, which would gradually increase social security to the level of French one, and discussed the goal of Jean-Claude Juncker, who set bringing the European Union to the so-called "Social triple A", the highest category in the ranking of social security, as goal of his term.

However, Styczyńska underlined that raising wages artificially reduces competitiveness. Moreover growing harmonization may cause a decline of jobs in the EU. This is why taking legislative action leading to additional labor market regulation should be based on the positive economics, in-depth research and not rely on vague normative concepts such as "solidarity of the EU" and "social dumping”.

Event was organized by Center for Social Partnership “Dialog” and included speeches from guests from National Bank of Poland, Institute of Labour and Social Affairs (IPiSS) and University of Economics in Kraków.