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Olli Rehn
European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Joaquín Almunia (Economic and Monetary Affairs)
European Commissioner for Enlargement
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Günter Verheugen Janez Potočnik
Succeeded by	Štefan Füle (Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy)
European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society
In office 12 July 2004 – 11 November 2004 Serving with Ján Figeľ
President	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Erkki Liikanen
Succeeded by	Günter Verheugen (Enterprise and Industry) Viviane Reding (Information Society and Media)
Personal details
Born	(1962-03-31) 31 March 1962 (age 50) Mikkeli, Finland
Political party	Centre Party
Alma mater	Macalester College University of Helsinki St Antony's College, Oxford

Olli Ilmari Rehn ( pronunciation (help·info); born 31 March 1962 in Mikkeli, Finland) is a Finnish politician, currently serving as European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro and vice-president of the EC.^[1] He had previously served as Commissioner for Enlargement. He has held a variety of political positions in European institutions as well as in Finland.

Early career[link]

Born in Mikkeli in Eastern Finland, Rehn studied economics, international relations and journalism at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. He gained a master's degree in political science from the University of Helsinki in 1989, and a PhD from the University of Oxford in 1996 on the subject of "Corporatism and Industrial Competitiveness in Small European States".^[2]

Rehn also played football for his hometown club Mikkelin Palloilijat in Finland's top division Mestaruussarja (now Veikkausliiga) in his youth.

He began his political career already in youth politics as a regular member of the Finnish Centre Youth and soon became the Secretary General of the Nordic Centre Youth. In 1987 he was elected as the president of the Finnish Centre Youth. That position can be seen as predicting high political responsibilities in Finnish politics.^[3]

In 1988 Rehn was elected as a city councillor in Helsinki. He was vice-president of the Centre Party from 1988 to 1994, having been president of its youth wing from 1987. Elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1991, Rehn led the Finnish delegation to the Council of Europe, and was a special adviser to the Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho from 1992 to 1993. He left the Finnish Parliament in 1995 to become an MEP, aligned to the liberal group.

He was briefly the chairman of Veikkausliiga from 1996 to 1997. From 1998 to 2002 Rehn ran the office of Erkki Liikanen, Finland's representative on the Prodi Commission. Rehn would later succeed Liikanen in the role of Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society. In 2002 he left European politics for the University of Helsinki, where he led the Centre for European Studies. In 2003 he became an adviser to the Prime Minister on economic policy, a position he held until his appointment to the European Commission the following year.

Rehn is married with one child. He was the youngest member of the first Barroso Commission. In addition to his native Finnish he speaks English, French, Swedish, and some German.^[4]

European Commission[link]

Rehn served briefly on the Prodi Commission. He was appointed European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society on 12 July 2004, taking over the role from the previous Finnish Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, who left his post the same day to become Governor of the Bank of Finland. The Finnish government nominated Rehn for the incoming Barroso Commission, which took office on 22 November 2004.

Rehn's appointment to the enlargement post was seen as a slight disappointment for Finland, who had hoped for their nominee to be given a portfolio relating to economic issues. Enlargement was a central issue for the EU in the run-up to the landmark accession of ten countries on 1 May 2004, but has since declined in importance, if only slightly. Rehn presided over the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, as well as continuing negotiations with Croatia and opening them with Turkey, the latter being perhaps the most significant and the most hotly debated future accession.

Rehn favours Turkish membership but has controversially suggested permanent restrictions on the free movement of workers from Turkey, "in case serious disturbances occur in the labour market within the EU as a result of Turkey’s accession,"^[5] an attitude seen by some as running counter to the whole purpose and spirit of the EU. He has stressed the importance of greater respect for human rights and civil liberties as preconditions for Turkey's entry, while acknowledging the advances it had already made in this respect.

Selection hearing[link]

Questioned by the European Parliament, Rehn offered his thoughts on the prospects for accession of each of the countries highest on the enlargement agenda.

He praised Turkey for the human rights advances it had made but said he would advocate stronger monitoring if the decision was taken to open accession talks by the European Council when it considered the question in December.

Asked about free movement of Turkish labour after the country's accession, Rehn expressed the view that there should be "considerable transitional periods as well as a permanent safeguard clause." He was cautious on the question of the inevitability of Turkish membership, stating that he did not "believe in historic determinism," but that if negotiations were begun, "underpinned by the commitment that [Turkey] will be able to join [the EU] once it fulfils all conditions, it will join as soon as it does meet the conditions."

He insisted that Bulgaria and Romania would be judged on their merits and that he would not hesitate to delay accession by a year if the EU's requirements were not met on time. He considered the establishment of a pre-accession strategy for the Western Balkans one of his prime tasks.

[edit] European sovereign debt crisis

In late June 2011, Rehn spoke out on austerity measures being considered by the Greek parliament, saying, "The only way to avoid immediate default is for parliament to endorse the revised economic program .... The program includes both the medium-term fiscal strategy and the privatization program. They must be approved if the next tranche of financial assistance [a 12 billion euro aid payment] is to be released .... To those who speculate about other options, let me say this clearly: there is no Plan B to avoid default."^[6]

In late May 2012, coincident with warnings from Mario Draghi of the ECB, Rehn said that even if Eurobonds "were ever approved, it would still not be sufficient to save the euro. The single currency’s members needed 'a genuine stability culture and a much upgraded common capacity to contain common contagion .... This is the case, at least if we want to avoid a disintegration of the eurozone and if we want it to survive,'" said Rehn.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Olli Rehn

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Olli Rehn

• Olli Rehn Official Media Gallery
• Official EC website with speech links
• Interview with Olli Rehn, 26 February 2003, part of the Conversations with History series from the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

v t e Barroso Commission I (2004–2009) Joaquín Almunia · Catherine Ashton6 · José Manuel Barroso1 · Jacques Barrot2 · Joe Borg · Karel De Gucht9 · Stavros Dimas · Benita Ferrero-Waldner · Ján Figeľ10 · Franco Frattini2, 5 · Mariann Fischer Boel · Dalia Grybauskaitė7 · Danuta Hübner8 · Siim Kallas2 · László Kovács · Neelie Kroes · Meglena Kuneva3 · Markos Kyprianou4 · Peter Mandelson6 · Charlie McCreevy · Louis Michel9 · Leonard Orban3 · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding · Olli Rehn · Paweł Samecki8 · Maroš Šefčovič10 · Algirdas Šemeta7 · Vladimír Špidla · Antonio Tajani2, 5 · Androulla Vassiliou4 · Günter Verheugen2 · Margot Wallström2 1 = President. 2 = Vice President. 3 = Served from 1 January 2007. 4 = Vassiliou replaced Kyprianou on 3 March 2008. 5 = Tajani replaced Frattini on 18 June 2008. 6 = Ashton replaced Mandelson on 3 October 2008. 7 = Šemeta replaced Grybauskaitė on 1 July 2009. 8 = Samecki replaced Hübner on 4 July 2009. 9 = De Gucht replaced Michel on 17 July 2009. 10 = Šefčovič replaced Figeľ on 1 October 2009.

v t e Barroso Commission II (since 2010) Joaquín Almunia2 · László Andor · Catherine Ashton2 · Michel Barnier · José Manuel Barroso1 · Dacian Cioloş · John Dalli · Maria Damanaki · Štefan Füle · Máire Geoghegan-Quinn · Kristalina Georgieva · Karel De Gucht · Johannes Hahn · Connie Hedegaard · Siim Kallas2 · Neelie Kroes2 · Janusz Lewandowski · Cecilia Malmström · Günther Oettinger · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding2 · Olli Rehn · Antonio Tajani2 · Androulla Vassiliou · Maroš Šefčovič2 · Algirdas Šemeta 1 = President. 2 = Vice President.

Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf at Horasis Global China Business Meeting 2007[1]
Born	1946 London
Occupation	Journalist
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Subjects	Economics
Spouse(s)	Alison Wolf

Martin Wolf, CBE (born 1946) is a British journalist, widely considered to be one of the world's most influential writers on economics. He is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.

Early life[link]

Wolf was born in London, 1946. His father Edmund was an Austrian Jewish playwright who escaped from Vienna to England before World War II.^[2] In London, Edmund met Wolf's mother, a Dutch Jew who had lost nearly thirty close relatives in the Holocaust.^[3] Wolf recalls that his background left him wary of political extremes and encouraged his interest in economics, as he felt economic policy mistakes were one of the root causes of WWII.^[2] Wolf was educated at University College School and in 1967 entered Corpus Christi College at Oxford University for his undergraduate studies. He initially studied Classics before starting the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Course^[4] As a graduate student Wolf moved on to Nuffield College, also at Oxford, which he left with a master of philosophy degree in economics in 1971. Wolf has said that he never pursued a PhD because he "didn't want to become an academic". Wolf was an active supporter of the Labour Party (UK) until the early 1970s.^[3]

Career[link]

In 1971, Wolf joined the World Bank's young professionals programme, becoming a senior economist in 1974. By the start of the eighties, Wolf was deeply disillusioned with the Bank's policies undertaken under the direction of Robert McNamara - the Bank had been strongly pushing for increased capital flows to developing countries, which had resulted in many of them suffering debt crises by the early 1980s. Seeing the results of misjudged intervention by global authorities and also influenced from the early 1970s by various works critical of government intervention, such as Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, Wolf shifted his views towards the right and the free market.^[2][3] Wolf left the World Bank in 1981, to become Director of Studies at the Trade Policy Research Centre, in London. He joined the Financial Times in 1987, where he has been associate editor since 1990 and chief economics commentator since 1996. Up until the late 2000s, Wolf was an influential advocate of globalization and the free market.

In addition to his journalism and participation in various international forums, Wolf had also attempted to influence opinion with his books; he has stated his 2004 book Why Globalization Works was intended to be a persuasive work rather than an academic study.^[3] By 2008 Wolf had become disillusioned with theories promoting what he came to see as excessive reliance on the private sector. While remaining a pragmatist free of binding commitments to any one ideology, Wolf's views partially shifted away from free market thinking back to the Keynesian ideas he had been taught as a youth. He became one of the more influential drivers of the 2008–2009 Keynesian resurgence, where in late 2008 and early 2009 he used his platform on the Financial Times to advocate a massive fiscal and monetary response to the financial crisis of 2007–2010. According to Julia Loffe writing in 2009 for The New Republic, he was "arguably the most widely trusted pundit" of the crisis.^[2] Wolf is a supporter of a land value tax.^[5]

Awards and recognition[link]

Wolf was joint winner of the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism in both 1989 and 1997. He won the RTZ David Watt memorial prize in 1994. In 2000. Wolf was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire). He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by the University of Nottingham in 2006, and was made Doctor of Science (Economics) of University of London, honoris causa, by the London School of Economics in the same year.

Wolf is a regular participant in the annual Bilderberg meetings of politicians and bankers. He is visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, a Special Professor at the University of Nottingham and an honorary fellow of the Oxford Institute for Economic Policy. He has been a forum fellow at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1999.^[6] Wolf has been named in the top 100 lists of global thinkers by Prospect ^[7] and by Foreign Policy magazine. ^[8]

Wolf is regarded as "staggeringly well connected" within elite financial circles.^[2] His friends include leading financiers such as Mohamed A. El-Erian; politicians such as Manmohan Singh, Timothy Geithner and Ed Balls; many leading economists; central bankers such as Mervyn King: according to Wolf, he knows all significant central bankers.^[2] Despite Wolf's close connections with the powerful, he is trusted for his independence and is known to criticise initiatives promoted by his friends when he considers it to be in the public's interests.^[2] Wolf is widely regarded as one of the most influential economics journalists in the world. Lawrence H. Summers has called him "the world's preeminent financial journalist"^[9] Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO of the world's largest bond investor, said Wolf is "by far, the most influential economic columnist out there".^[2] Prospect magazine described him as "the Anglosphere's most influential finance journalist" ^[7], while economist Kenneth Rogoff has said, "He really is the premier financial and economics writer in the world".^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• The Resistible Appeal of Fortress Europe (AEI Press 1994) ISBN 978-0-8447-3871-0
• Why Globalization Works (Yale University Press 2004) ISBN 978-0-300-10252-9
• Fixing Global Finance (The Johns Hopkins University Press 2008) ISBN 978-0-8018-9048-2

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wolf's column at the Financial Times
• Video: UC Berkeley Events, Conversations with History - Martin Wolf, February 2009