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Photo of Clément Fontan

Clément Fontan

Professeur

SSH/ESPO Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Communication (ESPO)

SSH/ESPO/EURO Ecole interfacultaire en études européennes (EURO)

SSH/SPLE Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE)

I am a Professor of European Economic Policy at UcLouvain since 2018 and I was the co-editor of the journal Politique Européenne between 2018 and 2024. My fields of specialisation are political economy, European studies, financial ethics, central banks and financial crises. 

I received my PhD in political science from Sciences-Po in Grenoble in December 2012 on how the ECB extended its political influence and competences during the eurozone crisis. After my PhD, I taught at Sciences Po Lille and did post-doctoral research stays at the Centre de Recherche en Éthique of the University of Montreal, at the PACTE/CNRS laboratory for the H2020 project EmuChoices and for the Financial Ethics research group at the University of Gothenburg.


I am involved as a collaborator or principal investigator in research projects on the history of macroeconomic models at the Bank of England (collaborator), the EU just transtion (co-PI) and on the EU Green taxonomy (PI).

I am the author of numerous publications in scientific journals in French and English (see publication tab) and I am co-author of the book "Do Central Banks serve the People" (Polity, 2018), translated into French (ed. Raisons d'agir, 2019). I regularly disseminate the results of my research in English speaking media such as Social Europe or Euractiv.

I am currently promoting or co-promoting the following research:

- Antoine de Cabanes' thesis (FNRS candidate) comparing the political work done on the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank

- Tanguy Brun's thesis (FNRS candidate) on the strategies of financial firms towards regulatory projects of greening finance

- Zsuzsanna Szeredi thesis (Teaching assistant, UcLouvain) on the evolution of the Financial Regulation (EU budget rule)

- Aurélien Goutsmedt's post-doctoral thesis (FNRS Research Fellow) comparing the ECB and European Commission's macroeconomic forecasting models

- Francisco Padilla Olivares  thesis (personnal funds, UcLouvain) on the ECB's role in the EU financial supervision and regulation systems

- Tiago Moreira Ramalho's post-doctorate (Research Project, UCLouvain) analysing the ideas and instruments of the European "just transition" (co promotion with Amandine Crespy)

Learning units for 2025

Label Code
Economic History of the EU BEUA1002
The economic basis of European Integration BEUSL2702
European political economy LEUSL2031
Economic and Monetary Union LEUSL2112
European Public Affairs LLSMS2064