On April 4, 2012, the Paris office organized a special Marshall Memorial Fellows breakfast at the French Senate, with Senator Jean Arthuis, author of the report on the Future of the Eurozone. The Senator presented his report in front of an audience of about 25 Marshall Memorial Fellows (MMF), French and foreign officials, think tankers, economists and academics.

Arthuis highlighted the extent to which the sovereign debt crisis generated awareness about the poor governance of the eurozone. In fact, he argued that the euro never had guaranteed growth and competitiveness, and pointed out three sets of recommendations for more effective and focused governance of the eurozone: the sharing of real sovereignty among the member states, the creation of a European treasury secretariat and the involvement of the national parliaments in supervising the governance process.

After the Senator presented the findings and main recommendations of his publication, GMF Paris Office Director Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer opened the discussion to the room. The audience was very interested in Arthuis’ propositions and in a possible future role of a eurozone treasury and of the European Central Bank. There were also questions on the future institutional architecture of the eurozone, the legitimacy of a potential “budgetary federalism” project and on the level of political will in the member states for strengthening the eurozone governance.