From 8 to 10 September 2026, Radovan Ďurana attended the 35th Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland. It is one of the largest events of its kind in Central Europe. In fact, seven conferences covering a wide range of topics take place simultaneously, bringing together around 6,500 participants.
Radovan took part in the panel “Public Debt in the 21st Century – Risk, Necessity, Potential”, where he discussed the issue alongside Dr Matthias Bauer from ECIPE, Prof. Dr Monika Köppl-Turyna from Austria’s ECO Austria, and Arkadiusz Babczuk, State Secretary at Poland’s Ministry of Finance. The panel was moderated by Dr Tobias Hentzefrom the German Economic Institute (Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln).
While each speaker offered a different perspective on the continuously rising debt levels of EU countries, the panellists agreed on two points: fiscal rules in the EU are currently largely ineffective (with Switzerland being a notable exception), and higher debt will not lead to stronger economic growth.
The trend of increasing indebtedness is unlikely to reverse anytime soon, and weak economic growth will ultimately become the real constraint on further borrowing. The idea that countries can simply “grow their way out of debt” will cease to hold, while high interest costs will eventually force fiscally irresponsible governments to make genuine spending cuts.
Radovan Ďurana also expressed scepticism about issuing debt at the EU level. We see it primarily as an attempt by highly indebted countries to gain access to cheaper financing, which will ultimately be used to fund political – and often populist – priorities rather than genuine EU-wide public goods.
