Press
Europeans scramble to save Iran nuclear deal but face new concerns over US sanctions
09 May 2018
The Washington Post
“The EU can take steps to mitigate the impact of the sanctions,” said Luigi Scazzieri of the London-based Centre for European Reform. “But overall, companies will be scared. They will also prioritize their business with the US.”
Macron hailed as European unifier, but reality remains elusive
09 May 2018
Voice of America
“It’s easier for him to reform France because he’s in charge,” said Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform think tank, or CER, who believes Macron will ultimately succeed in implementing some but not many of his proposed EU changes. “The problem with Europe is he’s not in charge.”
CER podcast: The Customs Union debate
09 May 2018
Sophia Besch asks John Springford and Sam Lowe to lay out the arguments in favour and against a customs union between the UK and the EU after Brexit.
If women ruled: 10 women call for new voices in the European conversation
07 May 2018
Politico
A group of senior female experts based in Brussels got together to brainstorm Europe’s future and came up with radically different solutions. Here are our proposals.
I was a Remainer, but I'm sick of the economic doom and gloom – Brexit is an exciting opportunity to do things differently
06 May 2018
The Telegraph
After all, even after Brexit, Britain will remain “a European liberal democracy, with almost identical security interests to the remaining EU countries”, as Sophia Besch of the Centre for European Reform puts it – so it is odd to treat us as a strategic rival.
A hitchhiker's guide to Galileo and Brexit
04 May 2018
Financial Times
“The debate between the UK and the EU over British participation in the EU’s space programme ‘Galileo’ shows how difficult it will be to disentangle economic and security interests during Brexit negotiations.” (Sophia Besch at the Centre for European Reform)
Macron struts global stage, but is he influential?
03 May 2018
Yahoo News
Analysts are likewise sceptical that pleas from Macron and other European leaders will successfully stave off a trade war, despite a temporary EU reprieve from Trump's new steel and aluminium tariffs. "The things that Macron wants him to do are things that it would be pretty difficult for Trump to accept without losing credibility with his populist base," said John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform.
Wage spiral
03 May 2018
Financial Times
Germany is becoming dangerously Anglo Saxon. John Springford at the Centre for European Reform looks at how the traditional relationship between wage growth and unemployment has decoupled in Germany, mirroring developments in the UK.
A row over data privacy may upset Britain’s security relations with the EU
03 May 2018
The Economist
After Brexit, Britain faces exclusion from the most militarily sensitive encrypted part of Galileo. That reflects high-minded worries over data security, but also low-minded hopes of hoovering up lost British contracts. As Sophia Besch of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, notes, this shows how petty rivalries risk damaging broader co-operation in defence and security. The stakes could hardly be higher.
Parliament Live: Exiting the European Union Committee
02 May 2018
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska gave evidence to the Exiting the European Union Committee on: The progress of the UK’s negotiations on EU withdrawal (from 9:38 mins).
Parliamentary scrutiny and approval of the Withdrawal Agreement and negotiations on a future relationship
02 May 2018
House of Commons
Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska raised with us the example of the declaration the EU concluded with New Zealand in 2017 ahead of trade negotiations. A document of 14 pages, it mentions numerous areas of co-operation, from global and regional security to movement of people, development policy, fisheries, transport, and people-to-people contact, but it remains very general. She described it as “more an intention of both parties to say, “We share common values, this is the intention we have and these are the goals we want to achieve”,” adding that “it will be more binding when it comes to means than when it comes to results.”
House of Commons International Trade Committee - UK-US Trade Relations Second Report of Session 2017–19
01 May 2018
House of Commons International Trade Committee
Samuel Lowe, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform told us that “the guilty secret” of trade is that FTAs “do not deliver much aggregate growth”. According to Mr Lowe, “[a]nything over 1 per cent is massive in terms of long-run growth, and most trade agreements are little more than rounding errors in terms of your long-run impact”.
Tackling the unemployment devide
01 May 2018
Economica
The Centre for European Reform finds that this alone reduced the German unemployment rate by 1.5 percentage points. If these opportunities are not seized, there is a risk of political instability and economic growth failing to reach its potential.
Food fight in EU set to erupt as budget faces gaping Brexit hole
30 April 2018
Bloomberg
“The EU’s best bet is to spread the pain fairly with a balanced combination of spending cuts and increased contributions,” Noah Gordon from the London-based Centre for European Reform said in an April 24 report 'The EU budget after Brexit: Reform not revolution'.
EU firms shy away from Britain as Brexit looms
29 April 2018
The Sunday Times
“This issue is the one cost of Brexit that can’t be wished away by innovative thinking or technological solutions,” said Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. Navigating the rules, the CBI added, would be a “huge and unprecedented administrative challenge” for the 135,000 businesses that export to the EU.
Customs Union: The least bad Brexit compromise that nobody wants
26 April 2018
EurActiv
Customs Union membership is “a half-way house”, says Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform. “The idea (put about by ministers) is that being in the customs union would prevent Britain from having its own independent trade strategy, which isn’t exactly true. A customs union doesn’t cover a lot of areas,” says Lowe. He adds that it “isn’t an arrangement that is appealing to any other member-state”.
Can Macron's pitch to Trump save the Iran deal?
26 April 2018
Agence France Presse
Trump has not committed to anything, but he "signaled some openness on Macron's idea of keeping the (nuclear pact) while negotiating an additional deal," said Luigi Scazzieri, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.
CER podcast: Defence co-operation after Brexit: A positive sum game?
26 April 2018
Beth Oppenheim talks to Sophia Besch about the difficulties the UK and the EU face as they try to negotiate the conditions for European military co-operation and defence industrial policy after Brexit.
European Parliament: The UK's EU defence relationship post-Brexit
26 April 2018
The UK has often been an obstacle to EU defence integration, but it wants a closer defence relationship after Brexit, Ian Bond of the CER told the European Parliament, SEDE Committee Meeting (from 53.00 mins).
Customs union: The battleground set to decide the fate of Brexit
25 April 2018
Financial Times
John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, says the government could attempt two possible compromises to head off a rebellion but both have serious flaws. One, recently advocated by the Institute of Directors, would see the UK staying in a customs union for manufactured goods but not for most agricultural products.“Tariffs are high on agriculture so we can reduce our agricultural tariffs in future trade deals to help give us access on services,” Mr Springford says. “The trouble is this doesn’t tackle the Northern Ireland problem. There is a huge amount of agricultural trade between Northern Ireland and the republic, which means it would be impossible to maintain a frictionless border.”