Daniel Coronel Crespo

Please tell us about your research project.

My research revolves around sustainable finance policies at the EU level. I seek to understand how this fringe, novel approach to finance became a central part of the European Commission's strategy to reform the economic system after the 2008 financial crisis. I then examine how it was later integrated into what would become the European Green Deal, and finally, how these policies are being dismantled in real-time during the new executive term.

Since my project sits at the crossroads of policy analysis and the political economy of the European economy, I am at Oxford—one of the birthplaces of critical political economy—to exchange ideas with world-class academics and, I hope, to reorient my work.

Furthermore, during my stay at the Maison Française d'Oxford (MFO), I intend to explore a dimension of these policies that has received little attention in my work so far. Between 2015 and 2016, the Paris Agreement placed the climate issue at the heart of international debate, and continental Europe seemed to embrace this dynamic. Leaders like Emmanuel Macron adopted the slogan "Make Our Planet Great Again," and the foundations of the future European Green Deal were being laid under the impetus of climate negotiations led by the Spanish Commissioner, Mr. Arias Cañete. The trajectory of the English-speaking world, however, took a very different direction, gripped by a powerful conservative wave. This wave materialized in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump in the United States and the rise of Brexit forces in the United Kingdom. From that point on, an apparent political rift emerged between continental Europe and the Anglosphere.

The primary output of my stay at the MFO will be to explain why the EU's historical partners embarked on trajectories so radically opposed to the one that characterized the end of the Juncker Commission and the beginning of the von der Leyen Commission.

A potential line of inquiry, advanced by T. Bourgeon and M. Benquet [Raisons d’agir, 2021], helps to shed light on this divergence in the values championed by conservative political movements in the Anglosphere. It is in the wake of this research that my stay at the Maison Française d'Oxford could illuminate a still under-explored part of my thesis: the role of private equity and non-European financial institutions (particularly American and British ones) in both the construction and the recent destabilization of European sustainable finance policies. Benquet and Benquet describe the emergence of an "authoritarian finance", a politicized and ideological faction that, according to my hypothesis, stands in opposition to another faction of the financial sector. This second faction, also politicized, promotes "responsible and long term" investment (incorporating environmental and social issues) through actors within the European politico-administrative sphere.

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?

I am here thanks to a scholarship granted by the scientific commission of Sciences Po Lyon, my alma mater and home institution. I will be staying here until the end of the Hilary term.

First impressions of Oxford/the University?

It's a vibrant city with a lot of young energy in the streets. The libraries are perfect for working, and the cultural scene is very active. The resources available to students are remarkable, be it the IT facilities, the architecture, or the cultural offerings.