Keynote Speaker

Mr Lasse Michael Boehm

Head, Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit (EGOV), European Parliament

Time and location: Thursday, June 5, 2025, 12.15-13.30 (CEST)

Abstract of the Keynote Speech: The Economic Challenges of Europe in Uncertain Times

Faced with global uncertainty and new economic, political and security challenges, the European Union’s economic model is under strain. Externally, a protectionist wave threatens the EU’s export-driven economy which is based on free trade and tightly-interwoven supply chains. Internally, the EU faces the need to adjust its operating modus from a long-term, regulatory, model built around the single market to a system able to react quickly and with adequate means to unexpected challenges. As part of the answer, the European Commission has proposed a renewed focus on competitiveness.

Starting from what the EU has already done to react to the new challenges, the talk will ask the question what competitiveness means, what kind of governance questions the new challenges throw up for the European Union, and what their financial implications are. Ultimately, addressing the economic challenges Europe is facing lead to fundamental institutional questions far beyond the realm of economic policy-making. Addressing these requires a broad economic, political and institutional reflection - including on the role and contribution of academia.

 

Short biography:

Lasse Boehm is leading a team of economists providing expertise and analysis for the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on macro-economic, monetary and fiscal policy developments. The EGOV unit monitors the European Semester for economic policy coordination as well as euro area monetary policy, preparing the ECON committee's monetary dialogues with the European Central Bank and regular dialogues with the European Commission and EU member states on the implementation and impact of the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility. In addition, the unit provides analyses on the state-of-play of the EU Banking Union, and assists the committee in scrutinising relevant EU-level institutions such as the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Lasse joined the European Parliament in 2004. He holds an MPhil degree from St Antony's College Oxford and a BA in Political Science from the University of Durham.