Munich Economic Summit

The Munich Economic Summit is co-organized by the BMW Stiftung Herbert Quandt and the CESifo Group Munich (a joint initiative of the University of Munich and the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research), in partnership with The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal Europe.

The Munich Economic Summit aims at bringing together academic scholars and decision-makers in politics, industry and finance to discuss key issues of European economic development. Now in its ninth year, the Summit has firmly established itself as a leading international policy forum.

The first Summit in 2002 focused on "Europe after Enlargement." The second Summit drew attention to the challenges Europe faces in the world economy. The third Summit dealt with the economic challenges implicit in the drafting of the European Constitution. The fourth Summit conducted a critical assessment of the achievements attained so far towards the goal of the Lisbon Agenda to establish Europe as "the world's most competitive and dynamic economy by 2010." The fifth Summit delved into the question of how the far-reaching changes in the global division of labor - characterized by so-called "outsourcing" and "offshoring" - affect the global economy in general and the European economy in particular. The sixth Summit dealt with one of the more problematic issues facing industrialized countries in the decades to come: the ageing of their populations. The seventh Summit dealt with the challenges of attracting and retaining talent in a globalized world, the eighth focused on the "correct" climate and energy policy. Entitled "The Financial Crisis: The Way Forward," the past Munich Economic Summit will explored the causes of the global financial and economic crisis and, above all, showed ways out of the crisis.

In preparation for the Munich Economic Summit, a Summit Lecture takes place every year. Its goal is to single out a particular issue of the Summit theme for discussion in a smaller setting and to develop new perspectives for the Summit debates.