Leaders and institutions: honouring Jean Pisani-Ferry and celebrating the birth of Bruegel

By Jeromin Zettelmeyer

On 17 January 2005, Bruegel held its first board meeting, chaired by Mario Monti. Among the agenda items was the adoption of the Bruegel name. This was Monti’s idea – a conflation of Brussels, European Global, Economic and Laboratory, and a nod to the great Flemish painter. It also appointed our first director, Jean Pisani- Ferry, who led Bruegel until handing over to Guntram Wolff in 2013.

On 17 January 2025 – last Friday – we celebrated Bruegel’s 20th birthday as think tankers would: with a conference on global policymaking in the Trump-Xi era, focused on the seismic changes in global economics and politics in recent years, and the question – answered in a new book by Jean with George Papaconstantinou – of whether and how this new environment allows for global cooperation.

Apart from helping us to get our heads around this question, Friday’s event served three purposes. It was a reunion, bringing back early staff members including all of the original research team – Alan Ahearne, Juan Delgado, André Sapir, Jakob von Weizs?cker and of course Nicolas Véron, Bruegel’s co-creator – and many of the policymakers and civil servants who were instrumental in Bruegel’s creation. It celebrated the institution. And it honoured the original leader, Jean.

Economists tend to believe that institutions, rather than leaders, matter. They exaggerate their point. Leaders can matter independently of institutions. Leaders can degrade and even destroy institutions – as may be happening today in the world’s most-powerful democracy. But the most meaningful, impactful way in which leaders matter is through their creation of successful institutions. Jean is such a leader.

In a speech at the National Bank of Belgium on the eve of our anniversary, Jean described why, in his view, Bruegel has succeeded as an institution. He mentioned five factors: ambition, audacity, integrity, quality and luck. Of these, integrity is surely the most important. Luck cannot be counted on; ambition and audacity can have ups and downs; quality is hugely important, but there will be the occasional lapse. Integrity is the one area where we can never afford to underperform. It is the source of our independence, which is in turn the source of our credibility. This is why Bruegel’s governance focuses on securing integrity.

As Bruegel’s current director, I am grateful to Jean for the institution I have inherited. All I need to do is ensure that we continue to meet the standard of ambition, audacity, integrity and quality set in Bruegel’s first years. Then, the luck will follow.