Time: Thursday April 23 at 13.15-14.45
Auditorium: To be announced
Chair: Associate professor Sandra Eckert, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies

Green growth and sustainability is one of the grand challenges of our time and after years of hesitation is increasingly acknowledged as such. The UN Climate Goals of 2015 and the new EU Commission’s commitment to strike a New Green Deal aimed at making Europe the first climate neutral continent are testimonies of this increasing realization. So are the initiatives taken at the national level by the Danish Government which in 2019 passed the first comprehensive Danish climate law set to reduce green house emissions by 70 % in 2030. Similarly in December 2019 Germany’s first major climate law entered into force accompanied by the comprehensive ”Climate Action Programme 2030” detailing how Germany will work towards realizing its 2030 climate goals. Achieving these ambitions requires cooperation at the global, European and national levels, and it also requires cooperation and transformation efforts from all layers of society, not least from all sectors of the economy. For that reason MatchPoints2020 will also focus on what kind of commitment and transformative initiatives are undertaken by industry and other private sector enterprises , and we will discuss if such transformations is speedy and ambitious enough and more generally if green growth is sustainable and an answer to climate change. MatchPoints will treat the issue in two sessions. The first will consist of four presentations related to the issue given by economists and business representatives The Second session will take the form of a panel debate featuring Danish and German politicians, academics and business representatives taking their cues from Session I and developing the issue further. Senior Researcher Sandra Eckert (Goethe University Frankfurt and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies) will moderate the two sessions.

Speakers:

Head of Analysis Frederik Silbye, Danish Climate Council

Responsible for Energy and Climate Protection, German Association for the Chemical Industry Dr. Jörg Rothermel

Director of Danish Energy Industries Federation, Troels Ranis, Confederation of Danish Industry

Time: Thursday April 23 at 15.15-16.45
Auditorium: To be announced
Chair: Associate professor Sandra Eckert, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies

Green growth and sustainability is one of the grand challenges of our time and after years of hesitation is increasingly acknowledged as such. The UN Climate Goals of 2015 and the new EU Commission’s commitment to strike a New Green Deal aimed at making Europe the first climate neutral continent are testimonies of this increasing realization. So are the initiatives taken at the national level by the Danish Government which in 2019 passed the first comprehensive Danish climate law set to reduce green house emissions by 70 % in 2030. Similarly in December 2019 Germany’s first major climate law entered into force accompanied by the comprehensive ”Climate Action Programme 2030” detailing how Germany will work towards realizing its 2030 climate goals. Achieving these ambitions requires cooperation at the global, European and national levels, and it also requires cooperation and transformation efforts from all layers of society, not least from all sectors of the economy. For that reason MatchPoints2020 will also focus on what kind of commitment and transformative initiatives are undertaken by industry and other private sector enterprises , and we will discuss if such transformations is speedy and ambitious enough and more generally if green growth is sustainable and an answer to climate change. MatchPoints will treat the issue in two sessions. The first will consist of four presentations related to the issue given by economists and business representatives The Second session will take the form of a panel debate featuring Danish and German politicians, academics and business representatives taking their cues from Session I and developing the issue further. Senior Researcher Sandra Eckert (Goethe University Frankfurt and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies) will moderate the two sessions.    

Panelists:

Political Leader of the Danish party Det Radikale Venstre Morten Østergaard

Senior Research Fellow Louise van Shaik, Cligendael – Netherlands Institute of International Relations

Associate professor Helene Dyrhauge, Roskilde Universitet     

Time: Friday April 24 at 10.30-12.00
Auditorium: To be announced
Chair: Associate Professor Niels Wium Olesen, Aarhus University

Since its formation in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has played a crucial role for the composition and performance of the European economy. Admired for its industrial competitiveness and respected for its generosity towards European integration, the Federal Republic of Germany has been a cornerstone of European economic and political development for decades. The German economic model with strong economic and political institutions, social partnership and monetary and fiscal discipline, die soziale Markwirtschaft or ordoliberalism, worked well for Germany in the postwar years and increased its political confidence on the European scene. Since the financial crisis, though, the German model has increasingly been subjected to debate. Is the model working for Germany itself? Is a politically confident, if not stubborn, Germany imposing fiscal austerity and unemployment on its neighbours and endangering the social fabric of other European states and the future of the EU? This panel will address questions related to the German model and its implications for Europe seen from the perspectives of scholars and a former politician of one of Germany’s close neighbours.

Speakers:

Chief Editor of Børsen and former Danish Minister of Finance Bjarne Corydon

Professor Poul Fritz Kjær, Copenhagen Business School

Professor Simon Bulmer, University of Sheffield

Time: Friday April 24 at 13.15-14.45
Auditorium: To be announced
Chair:  Professor Christian Bjørnskov, Aarhus University

The national borders of Europe have changed dramatically over time, and countries have been borne and disappeared. One of the main ideas of European cooperation, both within and outside of the European Union, is to make national borders economically irrelevant. Barriers to trade have been substantially reduced and migration and labour migration has become much easier. Yet, this process is in some ways still ongoing, New borders are emerging and old borders that are formally defunct continue to shape differences within Europe. The results from a new strand of literature within economics and political science sometimes identifies actual borders where no modern national borders are and may challenge our constitutional understanding of national borders. This panel addresses such new insights and specifically explores the continued relevance of old borders between France and Germany, the new emerging perceived border between Catalonia and the rest of Spain and the Danish-German border.

Speakers:

Professor Kai Gehring, University of Zürich:
Old borders and contemporaneous political-economic preferences

Assistant Professor Martin Rode, Universidad de Navarra:
New borders in Europe? The political and social conflict over Catalan secession