Irish expert to discuss Eurozone crisis in March 21 talk

"Whither the Euro? A View from Ireland" is the title of a presentation by Professor Brigid Laffan of Ireland, a leading scholar on the European Union, who will speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at Skidmore College. Free and open to the public, the talk will be in the Pohndorff Room of Lucy Scribner Library. A reception will follow. 

Laffan will discuss the Eurozone crisis in general and Ireland in particular, with an update on likely scenarios as the EU and Ireland grapple with debt and how to respond to it. In an article published Feb. 15 in the Irish Times, Laffan wrote, "The worsening crisis in Greece has led to a level of political toxicity never before seen in the history of the European Union?. The situation is damaging both for Greece and the EU." Noting that membership in the EU requires "a strong and adaptive state capacity," Laffan asserts, "A robust capacity for reform and adaptation is one of the features that distinguishes well-governed European states from the others."

Laffan is principal of the College of Human Sciences and professor of European politics at University College Dublin. She currently is a visiting fellow at the Centre for European Studies at Harvard. Her teaching specialities include European integration, international relations, comparative politics, and Irish public policy.

Laffan is co-author of the 2008 book titled Ireland and the European Union. She is writing a book on the future of the Eurozone from the Irish perspective.

Her Skidmore visit is sponsored by the European Commission and Skidmore's departments of Government, Management and Business, and Foreign Languages and Literatures, as well as the International Affairs Program. The Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration Studies at Skidmore also is a sponsor.