Press
Brexit: Theresa May secures assurances from EU but may not be able to pass her deal in Parliament
11 March 2019
The Washington Post
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said the outcome of this week’s votes could play into May’s political future. “Can she remain as prime minister if Parliament is taking control and guiding the Brexit process?” he said. “It’s not entirely clear.”
Wetherspoon’s chief punches above his weight on a no-deal Brexit
10 March 2019
The Observer
Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, says: “While there is an assumption that removing tariffs means lower prices for consumers, the evidence is far from conclusive. When tariffs go up the extra cost is usually passed on to consumers, but when they go down this is rarely the case.”
Brexit will cost Britons these rights and protections
09 March 2019
NBC News
“Brexit is not driven by economics. It’s a political project driven by an ideological idea of what the UK is and what it could be,” Sam Lowe, a senior researcher at the Centre for European Reform, said.
If Brexit hadn't happened in Britain, it would have happened in another country, says think-tank head
07 March 2019
Yahoo News
If Brexit hadn’t happened, another country would have left Europe by now anyway, a leading commentator has said.Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said while some in Europe have dismissed Britain as ‘the pebble in the shoe’, there are plenty of other ‘pebbles’ who could take the same course.Mr Grant was speaking at the Belvedere Forum in Warsaw – a two-day event discussing bilateral relations between Poland and Britain after the UK leaves the European Union.
Macron's European plans: Old and new ideas to start EU campaign
05 March 2019
The Financial Times
Camino Mortera-Martinez, of the Centre for European Reform think-tank in Brussels, calls the idea of a Schengen revamp “a good one”. “It is like the euro: You can’t have a system of open borders without some kind of supervisory mechanism,” she added.
Deadline looming, Britain tries again to sway Brussels on 'Irish backstop'
05 March 2019
The New York Times
Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, who follows the Brexit saga closely, said in a Twitter message that “I don’t think Cox will come back with anything substantially different — just fig leaves.”
Brexit podcast fest
05 March 2019
The Financial Times
The CER's latest podcast features Charles Grant laying out the Brexit scenarios with another round of meaningful UK parliamentary votes coming.
CER podcast: What next for Brexit?
04 March 2019
Beth Oppenheim asks Charles Grant to weigh up the possible Brexit scenarios: will Theresa May's deal make it through parliament, or will the UK end up with no deal, a general election, or a referendum?
FIIA Day: Transforming the political landscape of the EU in 2019
04 March 2019
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska is a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, joined other speakers to discuss: the European elections of 2019 and how they will be a test case for the mainstream European parties and their legitimacy. Having faced serious challenges in national elections due to changing political cleavages and emergence of new political movements, their European postures will now be put into test. A lot depends on how the agenda for the elections will look like.
Theresa May's Brexit 'bribes' will not be enough
04 March 2019
The Financial Times
As Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform said in a valuable Twitter thread at the weekend, the chances of Mrs May getting her deal over the line next week are rising.“This is because hard-Brexiteers are finally realising that [the] Commons can probably prevent No Deal — and if they destroy May’s deal, Article 50 will be extended, perhaps endangering Brexit,” he wrote.
Germany’s moral qualms about arms sales infuriate its allies
02 March 2019
The Economist
Yet Sophia Besch at the Centre for European Reform says German sceptics are more likely to be convinced by arguments couched in European terms. Cross-border co-operation on defence and security offers the best chance to kick-start Europe’s stalled integration.
Britain will follow all EU food and farming regulations for nine months in a 'no deal' Brexit
01 March 2019
The Telegraph
“The imperative for UK food exports in the event of no deal is ensuring that they can still access their most important market, the EU,” said Sam Lowe, the trade policy expert at the Centre for European Reform think-tank.“While the temptation to fiddle with domestic regulations will certainly be there, dynamic alignment in the short to medium term is just common sense.”
BBC Newsnight: Will a UK-US trade deal lower food standards in the UK?
01 March 2019
Sam Lowe, as senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform spoke to Ben Chu for Newsnight, on the US opening position for US-UK trade deal negotiations.
We now know the great prize of Brexit: Becoming Trump's prey
01 March 2019
The Guardian
As Sam Lowe, trade analyst at the Centre for European Reform, puts it: “It’s a laughably one-sided demand.”
Back to the basic question about Brexit: Is Theresa May’s deal truly in the UK’s economic interest?
01 March 2019
The Financial Times
But as Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform says: “It’s right that politicians should return one more time to the basic question confronting us and ask whether we really want to go through with this deal on its economic merits.”
Brexiteers’ bid for no-deal free trade is a unicorn that belongs on a red bus
28 February 2019
Evening Standard
Brexiteers have seized on this as the ultimate in cake-ism. Who needs a deal? We can trade with the EU tariff free for a decade! What’s not to like about that? Except it’s “complete nonsense”, according to trade expert Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform. “It sounds tech-y and convincing and it’s being used by the Brexiteers to try to sanitise a no-deal,” he says.
All hands on deck
27 February 2019
Berlin Policy Journal
Concerns about fragmentation shape Berlin’s understanding of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy. That carries risks, especially with Brexit approaching.
CER podcast: Brexit and services
27 February 2019
Sophia Besch asks Sam Lowe how Brexit will affect trade in services between the UK and the EU, and why services have been sidelined in the debate.
Politicians must stand up for the City of London after Brexit
20 February 2019
The Financial Times
For financial services, in which the UK has a large surplus, this is bleak, with the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, reckoning that a free trade agreement would shrink exports to the EU by almost 60 per cent.
Polityka Insight: Ryzyka i Trendy: Czy można uratować umowę brexitową
20 February 2019
In today's Insight Polityka podcast, Marek Świerczyński talks to Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska from the Centre for European Reform think-tank. Gostyńska-Jakubowska wonders how to overcome the Brexit deadlock.