Forged in Fire: The European Union in a World of Permacrisis

This event featured a lecture by Luxembourg's first female finance minister Yuriko Backes. As a member of the Eurogroup, which coordinates Euro area economic policies, and the influential Economic and Financial Council (ECOFIN), bringing together the economy and finance ministers of EU member states, Ms. Backes will provide first-hand insights into the European Union’s response to the key challenges of our time. These include a range of issues from the war in Ukraine and the related energy crisis to climate change and rising geopolitical tensions, all of which are fundamentally (re-)shaping the EU and its policies. As the finance minister of one of Europe’s largest financial centres, Ms. Backes will especially focus on the economic impact of today’s permacrisis and the role of the European Union in an emerging bipolar era.   

 

 

Yuriko Backes joined the coalition government between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng) as Minister of Finance in January 2022. As a career diplomat, she held several high-level positions with Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including a post as the representative of the European Commission in Luxembourg.