Contributor(s): Dr Wolfgang Schäuble | Wolfgang Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has served as Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance in the second and third Merkel cabinets since 2009. Involved at the centre of the crisis management efforts to save the euro, the Wall Street Journal called Schäuble “Germany’s second most powerful person after Chancellor Merkel”. Between 1998 to 2000 he was CDU party chairman, and served again as Federal Minister of the Interior in the first Merkel cabinet from 2005 to 2009. Kevin Featherstone is Head of the European Institute, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Director of the Hellenic Observatory at LSE. This event is part of the LSESU German Society’s (@SuSocGerman) Annual German Symposium which takes place from 29 February to 4 March. Details about all of the events which make up this year’s Symposium can be found at German Symposium 2016. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is celebrating its Twenty Fifth Anniversary in 2016. It is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.