France, home of the 35-hour workweek, begs to differ. Indeed, Paris has asked French Treasury adviser Jean Pisani-Ferry to create an economic think tank dedicated to, as he puts it, “bringing a credible European perspective to international economics in everything from trade to development.”
The 52-year-old bureaucrat and academic, who was head of France’s Economic Advisory Council under former prime minister Lionel Jospin, is quick to warn that viewing the tentatively titled European Center of International Economics “as anything other than independent is a mistake.”
Although ECIE will be based in Brussels, its provenance is distinctly French. Pisani-Ferry, who has a Ph.D. from the Centre d’Etudes des Programmes Economiques in Paris, started hatching plans for a research group two years ago while advising the prime minister and teaching at Université Paris Dauphine. The project took a big step forward in March when Pisani-Ferry was able to secure commitments to help fund ECIE from 12 of the European Union’s now-25 members.
How can a think tank that plans to rely on EU members for much of its E3.5 million ($4.2 million) budget purport to maintain its objectivity? Pisani-Ferry says ECIE’s “innovative” governance system walls off political interference. To top up its coffers, the think tank plans to court a half dozen corporate donors, which will in turn select three of the ECIE’s 11 board members; EU sponsors will choose another three. Other research organizations from around the world will be consulted in picking the seventh board member. Then those seven will choose four more.
“By balancing the board between the states and the corporations and ensuring that neither one is in the majority,” says Pisani-Ferry, “we can have the same level of independence as any privately funded think tank.” But, he hopes, more influence.
