Former EU Commission President Romano Prodi delivers UCL Centre for Finance Annual Lecture

Image: Prof Romano Prodi pictured before the former home of economist John Maynard Keynes in Bloomsbury, 24th October 2024 (image credit: Xiatong Wu, UCL)

Last bright, autumnal Thursday evening in Bloomsbury saw a very special public lecture given in UCL by Professor Romano Prodi, former University of Bologna Professor of Economics, twice-former Prime Minister of Italy and past President of the European Commission. 

The occasion was the UCL Centre for Finance Annual Lecture 2024.   That centre is one of nine UCL Department of Economics research hubs  and collaborates quite extensively with the UCL School of Management. Its research remit is quite broad, including financial markets, banking, monetary economics, macrofinance, behavioural finance, household finance and financial econometrics. Prof Prodi is someone whose work has spanned that range of study and practice at the highest level.  However, his fascinating, reflective lecture on Thursday evening focused on rather more geopolitical questions about the role of Europe vis a vis the US and China, the global superpowers of our age.

As the Prof explained, Europe holds a unique position in the world between these two behemoths, and in relation to the lesser power (if not ambition) of Russia.  Drawing upon over a half-century of experience of business, domestic politics and trade and treaty negotiations, he contextualised the forces, self-perceived primacy and ideology overt and latent in those high-level interactions in a humane, rational manner that held the audience rapt for over an hour.

Image: Prof Romano Prodi giving the 2024 Centre for Finance Annual Lecture in Logan Hall, IOE

Prof Prodi argued that the only way to expand and export democracy is through the enactment of democracy itself, though negotiation, agreement and cooperation. In other words, he recommended more deal and treaty-making than rhetoric or dictate.  He declared forcibly that foreign policy should be like a bridge with mutually understood and respected traffic rules for use of that bridge, tooled with a view to mutual benefit and macro-level stability.

Having such a range of experience in geopolitics (referencing conversations with Vladimir Putin, for example), the Prof was able to give great perspective on recent history, highlighting the recurrent themes of economic imperative, internationalism, nationalism, and climate. He noted that the fluid, cast-changing nature of democratic government produces a lack of continuity in foreign policy which has been and is problematic, and the role that Europe could play in sustaining values and best practice within statecraft.

Romano Prodi delivering the 2024 Centre for Finance Annual Lecture in Logan Hall, IOE

Following this presentation, Prof Prodi fielded Q&A with the UCL Centre for Finance Director Prof Antonio Guarino for a lively engagement with the audience about America, Russia / Ukraine, Europe and much more. Many UK and Italian newspapers as well as Politico.EU picked up upon one striking prediction given by the Prof about the ‘disaster’ of Brexit:

“I used to say that the UK wouldn’t re-join the EU for twenty years, but given what’s happened, I’m (now) betting that in 15 years, the UK will come back.

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but the students, colleagues and visitors who met, listened and interacted with Prof Prodi were left better informed on why and how rational cooperation can be achieved or maintained in an unstable world.  Summing up the visit UCL Centre for Finance Director Antonio Guarino noted:

“I am very grateful to Professor Prodi for visiting us. His visit has offered many excellent learning opportunities to faculty and students and his thought-provoking lecture has been a great opportunity for everyone to reflect on the big themes of the current political and economic situation.

Links

• Find out more about the life and work of Prof Romano Prodi
• Find out more about the UCL Centre for Finance
• Apply to the MSc Finance programme, run by UCL Economics and the UCL School of Management
• Apply to the MSc Finance with Data Science programme, run by UCL Economics, the UCL School of Management
• Apply to the MSc Law with Finance programme, run by UCL Economics, the UCL School of Management and the UCL School of Laws