In May 2022, the Transatlantic Institute (TI) hosted the second Virtual Spring School in cooperation with the University of West Florida (UWF) and was again able to hold the first face-to-face lectures for German MBA students on its own premises.
For the US students of the MBA program "General and International Management" at the College of Business in Florida, who attend the lecture "Advanced Managerial Economics" with Professor Richard Hawkins (UWF) (just like the German MBA students), there was a trip to Germany in the past as part of the Spring School.
Since travel was not yet possible for this year's Spring School, topics were chosen for a virtual event format explaining the European Union as an economic and monetary area and also showing the regional characteristics of Rhineland-Palatinate.
European Parliament
On the first day of the virtual Spring School, Janez Vouk from the Visitor Center of the European Parliament in Brussels presented the interplay between the EU Parliament, EU Commission and EU Council when it comes to legislation in the European Union.
The topic of Brexit was also addressed and how this changed the distribution of parliamentary seats. Not all vacated mandates were distributed among the remaining countries, but also reserved for future EU enlargements. Candidate countries undergo a multi-year review process that assesses both economic development and democratic structures. The share of seats in the parliament is based on the size of the population in each country. Even very small EU countries get at least six seats so that their MEPs can be distributed among the political groups.
The European Parliament is also characterized by the fascinating interaction of interpreters who simultaneously translate into 24 languages during sessions, with English, French and German serving as "relay languages." During the debates on the bills, speakers have the freedom to use their native language in addition to the reference languages, with clear rules of language and style; after all, puns or jokes do not work in every language.
Business of Wine with wine tasting
Professor Dr. Richard Hawkins (UWF) was able to open the hybrid part of the Spring School at the Wine Campus in Neustadt with a lecture on the "Business of Wine" and explain what role the reputation of wines plays in marketing. On hand were MBA students from TI's graduating class and those who started their studies in Pensacola in January 2022, as well as staff from the Transatlantic Institute and the Neustadt Wine Campus. The MBA students and UWF staff were joined by Zoom.
Afterwards, Professor Dr. Dominik Durner from the Neustadt Wine Campus began the guided wine tasting under the motto "from traditional to modern white wine styles - a journey through the German Pfalz region". It was shown how the wine styles in demand are changing in Germany and worldwide and how consumers are particularly demanding the delivery of "young wines". In addition, all participants learned to train their own sensory perception, to discover flavors and to give ratings. With wonderful temperatures, the event was able to wind down on the grounds of the wine campus, with the next day's lecture in the back of their minds.
European Central Bank
For the third Spring School day, Dieter Gerdesmeier, Nicola Hopkins and Julika Wolf hosted the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. Economist Dieter Gerdesmeier gave an overview of bodies, tasks and future topics.
One of the ECB's main tasks is monetary policy, which aims to avoid inflation or deflation by maintaining price stability. Here, the differences to the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) of the USA were particularly discussed, as the Federal Reserve Act also stipulates the maximum employment of the population and moderate long-term interest rates.
Especially with regard to the increased key interest rates in the U.S., the rising inflation in the European economic area as well as the costs of coping with climate change and pandemics, the audience had questions about which instruments the ECB could use and which scenarios are expected.
According to speaker Dieter Gerdesmeier, the ECB has the option of refinancing banks and adjusting key interest rates in small steps. In this context, the measures are strongly dependent on how wages and salaries develop in the European economic area.
We would like to thank all participants of the event series for the informative and entertaining presentations and look forward to the next Spring School together with the University of West Florida in spring 2023.
The next start of the MBA program of the Transatlantic Institute in cooperation with the University of West Florida is in January 2023. Applications are accepted until the end of September 2022. If you are interested, please contact Ms. Kathrin Paul directly (kathrin.paul@hwg-lu.de, 0621-5203-440).