Old Europe faces a number of strong challenges: Rising fiscal instability, a large inflation potential, immobile labor markets, large and rising unemployment rates, unequal job opportunities, and beyond the upcoming demographic pressures of aging and declining populations. 27 governments fail to agree on adequate responsive actions. A more centralized European government, stricter rules or a breakdown of the European idea are possible outcomes of the process. The talk will make the developments transparent and discuss true and false solutions including eurobonds, bank union, tax breaks, labor mobility, vocational training and migration policy.

Klaus F. Zimmermann is Founder and Director of IZA, the Germany - based Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) that operates an international network of about 1,200 economists and researchers spanning across more than 45 countries in the world. He is Professor at Bonn University and Honorary Professor at the Free University of Berlin and at the Renmin University of China, Beijing.

He is a regular adviser of the Worldbank, the EU commission and various governments around the world. His special research interests are on labor policies, migration and European integration. Zimmermann is one of the key European economists visible also around the world.

This lecture is presented by the Research School of Economics, ANU College of Business and Economics.