Leszek Balcerowicz: The Future of the Eurozone

27 January 2016, 6:00pm

Old Divinity School, St John's College, Cambridge

Professor Leszek Balcerowicz - Former Polish Finance Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the National Bank of Poland - shared his perspectives on the future of the Eurozone and on Poland's potential entry to the monetary union.

Discussant: Professor Kenneth Armstrong, Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.

> Click here to watch a video of the event on YouTube

Leszek Balcerowicz is a key architect of Poland's post-1989 economic success. As Finance Minister in the first elected government of the new democratic era, Balcerowicz authored and introduced a bold set of reforms to facilitate the country's rapid transition from centrally planned to free market economy. The "Balcerowicz Plan" - or "Shock Therapy" - has been praised by economists across the world as a farsighted strategy and a crucial step on the path towards Poland's current growing prosperity.

Professor Balcerowicz is currently a Distinguished Associate of the International Atlantic Economic Society. He is the founder and director of the Civic Development Forum (FOR), an independent think tank based in Poland. In 2014, he won the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.

Professor Balcerowicz's lecture on the challenges facing the Eurozone and on Poland's economic future was be followed by responses by Professor Kenneth Armstrong, Professor of European Law. Questions and further discussion were then be hosted by Dr Stanley Bill, Lecturer in Polish Studies.

This event was organized by Cambridge Polish Studies in partnership with the Forum on Geopolitics at the Department of Politics and International Studies.

Photos from the event (for more photos, click here)