Bilateral ESRC/FNR: Banking on Europe

双边 ESRC/FNR：欧洲银行业

• 批准号: ES/W000733/2
• 负责人: Dermot Hodson
• 金额: $ 35.29万
• 依托单位: Loughborough University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW000733%2F2
• 关键词: Bilateral; ESRC; FNR; Banking; Europe

This three-year project will bring together a team of four researchers in the UK and Luxembourg with the aim of generating new knowledge among academics and policymakers about the evolution and accountability of pan-European public financial institutions. Institutions with the authority to raise funds on financial markets to provide grants, loans or guarantees were part of the European Communities' early efforts in the 1950s to support the coal and steel sectors and regional development. Such institutions formed key elements of European responses to the economic crises of the 1970s, the reuniting of Europe in the 1990s and the euro crisis in the 2010s, and they are now pivotal to the EU's response to COVID-19. The Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank, now the world's largest multilateral lender, has provided EUR 25 billion in guarantees for European businesses hit by the pandemic. This is in addition to the EUR 750 billion that the European Commission plans to borrow to help with the economic costs of COVID-19. As a result of these and other initiatives, the EU will soon be borrowing on the scale of a large state.As pan-European public financial institutions grow in importance, they face calls for greater accountability to governments, parliaments and NGOs. And yet, there is limited political science research on either the evolution or accountability of these bodies. Existing studies typically look at pan-European public financial institutions individually and ahistorically. The funding requested will support a Principal Investigator and Postdoctoral Research Associate in London and a Co-Investigator and Postdoctoral Research Associate in Luxembourg to undertake the first comparative study of pan-European public financial institutions, drawing out the institutional and historical interconnections between a range of such bodies created since 1950. We will refine and develop a novel theoretical account of pan-European public financial institutions based on new intergovernmentalism, which we will test against other contemporary theories of European integration through archival research, elite interviews, process tracing, meta-synthesis and a mixed method study of accountability practices. Our findings will generate new knowledge on: (1) the evolution and accountability of pan-European public financial institutions since 1950; (2) who is driving these developments and what this means for accountability; and (3) how accountable these bodies are in practice and how their accountability to governments, parliaments and NGOs can be strengthened. Through journal articles, a monograph and conference presentations, this project will shape debates about public financial institutions among scholars of European integration and International Political Economy. Through working papers, policy briefs and workshops, the project will produce knowledge exchange with practitioners who work in and on pan-European public financial institutions. Our findings will encourage governments, parliaments, NGOs and pan-European public financial institutions themselves to explore new and stronger accountability practices. This project is timely given public debates over how temporary responses to COVID-19 might permanently change the EU. It is relevant for understanding how Brexit will impact upon the UK's continued membership of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the British government's search for a new relationship with the European Investment Bank. It is salient for debates about how a new generation of international public financial institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, can learn from Europe. The project offers considerable value-added by fostering international collaboration on a topic of shared importance for the UK and Luxembourg, which are home to important pan-European public financial institutions.

这个为期三年的项目将汇集英国和卢森堡的四名研究人员组成的团队，旨在为学者和政策制定者提供有关泛欧公共金融机构的演变和问责制的新知识。有权在金融市场筹集资金以提供赠款、贷款或担保的机构是欧洲共同体在 20 世纪 50 年代早期支持煤炭和钢铁行业及区域发展的努力的一部分。这些机构构成了欧洲应对 1970 年代经济危机、1990 年代欧洲统一和 2010 年代欧元危机的关键要素，现在它们对于欧盟应对 COVID-19 至关重要。总部位于卢森堡的欧洲投资银行目前是全球最大的多边贷款机构，已为受疫情打击的欧洲企业提供了 250 亿欧元的担保。这还不包括欧盟委员会计划借入的 7500 亿欧元来帮助应对 COVID-19 的经济成本。由于这些举措和其他举措，欧盟很快就会达到一个大国的规模。随着泛欧公共金融机构的重要性日益增强，它们面临着对政府、议会和非政府组织承担更大责任的呼声。然而，关于这些机构的演变或责任的政治科学研究却很有限。现有的研究通常单独地、非历史地考察泛欧洲公共金融机构。所申请的资金将支持伦敦的一名首席研究员和博士后研究员以及卢森堡的一名联合研究员和博士后研究员进行第一项泛欧公共金融机构的比较研究，找出自 1950 年以来创建的一系列此类机构之间的制度和历史联系。我们将基于新的泛欧公共金融机构完善和发展一种新颖的理论解释。 我们将通过档案研究、精英访谈、过程追踪、元综合和问责实践的混合方法研究，对政府间主义与欧洲一体化的其他当代理论进行检验。我们的研究结果将产生以下方面的新知识：(1) 1950 年以来泛欧洲公共金融机构的演变和责任； (2) 谁在推动这些发展以及这对问责意味着什么； (3) 这些机构在实践中如何承担责任，以及如何加强它们对政府、议会和非政府组织的责任。通过期刊文章、专着和会议演讲，该项目将在欧洲一体化和国际政治经济学学者中引发关于公共金融机构的辩论。通过工作文件、政策简报和研讨会，该项目将与泛欧公共金融机构的从业者进行知识交流。我们的研究结果将鼓励政府、议会、非政府组织和泛欧公共金融机构本身探索新的、更强有力的问责实践。鉴于对 COVID-19 的临时应对措施可能如何永久改变欧盟的公开辩论，该项目是及时的。这对于了解英国脱欧将如何影响英国继续保留总部位于伦敦的欧洲复兴开发银行的成员资格以及英国政府寻求与欧洲投资银行建立新关系具有重要意义。关于亚洲基础设施投资银行等新一代国际公共金融机构如何向欧洲学习的争论尤为突出。该项目通过促进就英国和卢森堡共同重要的主题开展国际合作，提供了可观的附加值，英国和卢森堡都是重要的泛欧洲公共金融机构的所在地。