Banka Slovenije hosts panel on the Future of Europe

07/16/2021 / Press release

A panel discussion entitled The Future of Europe: Monetary Policy Challenges and Citizens’ Views was held as part of a series of events on the future of Europe, as Slovenia embarked on its presidency of the Council of the EU. The panellists gave their views of the current situation and the euro area’s future challenges.

Boštjan Vasle, the Governor of Banka Slovenije, hosted Peter Kažimír, governor of Slovakia’s central bank, Andrej Šircelj, Slovenia’s finance minister, and Mojmir Mrak, a professor at the University of Ljubljana’s School of Economics and Business. In the opening part of the discussion the panellists exchanged their views of the current situation and the euro area’s future challenges from the perspective of monetary policy. The issues that they discussed included the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the stability of the euro, and the importance of this stability to export-oriented firms, the building of the banking union, the ECB’s role and tasks, and the possibilities for progress in fiscal integration in the EU.

Following the introduction, the discussion was then opened up to others at the event, including Bojan Ivanc from Slovenia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Branko Meh from the Chamber of Craft and Small Business, Aleksander Kurtevski from Bankart, Marko Rant from the Invoice Exchange, Alenka Jerkič from the foreign ministry, Andrej Pirjevec from the Students’ Union, Jana Repanšek from the CEF and Ulla Hudina from the European Commission Representation in Slovenia.

The entire discussion was recorded, and can be viewed online.