There is strength in numbers, and the idea of European integration through a single market was to capitalize on the EU as a whole. However, the single market is a product of the early 90s, and EU member states now appear reticent to pool sovereignty to the degree required to counter the geopolitical challenges of today’s world. Enrico Letta is President of the Jacques Delors Institute and a champion of Delors’ vision of creating a fully integrated European economic space. Letta’s 2024 report, Much More than a Market, argues that adaptation of the single market should include all sectors rather than a select few and that fragmentation is holding Europe back.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Enrico_Letta-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

The last few months have witnessed tensions in Europe's housing markets as the cost-of-living crisis has eroded real incomes and the surge in interest rates has made borrowers more vulnerable to financial distress. Laura Valderrama is a macro-financial expert and coauthor of new research that suggests house prices across Europe are overvalued, and housing markets are at risk of a price correction that could undermine the region's economic recovery.  

Transcript: https://bit.ly/42Dm33U

Read the research paper at: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP