Press
Piqd: Armes Deutschland – 15 Jahre Hartz IV
13 October 2017
Christian Odendahl ist Chefökonom des Londoner Centre for European Reform (CER) und als solcher schreibt und denkt er zu europäischen Wirtschaftsfragen: Eurokrise, Banken, Wachstum, Handel, politische Ökonomie. In seinem Policy Brief “The Hartz Myth: A closer look at Germany’s labour market reforms” hat er untersucht, was die ökonomischen Umstände der Reformen waren.
Spain considers change to constitution as way out of crisis
13 October 2017
Financial Times
“As much as Spaniards cherish their hard-fought for constitution, it’s time to change it,” says Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. Like other specialists, she thinks the fundamental need is to update the constitution so that it gives more formal recognition to Spain’s rich regional diversity.
Brexit talks are set to miss their first big deadline
12 October 2017
CNBC
"I fear all this is too little for Michel Barnier (the European negotiator) to ask the EU leaders to give him a green light to open up negotiations about the future," Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told CNBC via email. "He is a serious statesman — he will not make any recommendations concerning sufficient progress until he is perfectly certain that he has found common ground with the UK," she added.
CER podcast: Peacekeepers for Ukraine?
11 October 2017
Sophia Besch talks to Luigi Scazzieri about Russian President Putin’s proposal to send a UN peacekeeping force to eastern Ukraine.
Brexit nemeses mapped: Member-states hold all the cards and this is who really hates UK
10 October 2017
The Express
Charles Grant, director for think-tank the Centre for European Reform, tweeted: “I understand Michel Barnier wanted to close chapter on citizens rights - UK had ceded on 95% but member-states wouldn’t let him.”
'Berlin is being quite German' Merkel's businesses won't budge on Brexit deal with UK
10 October 2017
The Express
Sophie Besch claimed “Berlin is being quite German” about the whole Brexit process and argued that the UK’s exit from the bloc was not at the “top of the list” for Angela Merkel. Speaking to the World at One, Ms Besch rejected suggestions that German car manufacturers and business leaders would fight to protect trade with the UK. She said: “Berlin is really being quite German about the negotiations so far which means it is prioritising the rules of the EU and of the EU’s negotiating team under Barnier.
The EU has 36 free trade deals with non-EU countries - will they roll over to Britain after Brexit?
10 October 2017
Prospect
For the past 44 years, the UK has relied upon the European Union, formerly the European Economic Community, to negotiate trade deals.
Spanish constitution needs overhaul to avert Catalonia crisis
09 October 2017
EU Observer
Television footage of Guardia Civil officers in riot gear manhandling Catalonian citizens as they tried to vote in Sunday's independence referendum has shocked Europe.
BBC World at One: Germany has economic interests in Brexit
09 October 2017
Sophia Besch speaks to the BBC World at One about the Brexit negotiations (from 12.00 mins).
Will Merkel go along with Macron's EU reform plan
09 October 2017
Marketplace
Christian Odendahl of the Centre for European Reform in Berlin said the new coalition government will tread carefully and try not to upset the new French president. "Germany does know, and I think the FDP also knows, that Macron and France are incredibly important to Germany and the stability of the European Union, now with Britain out," Odendahl said.
Marketplace: Will Merkel go along with Macron's EU reform plan?
09 October 2017
Christian Odendahl of the Centre for European Reform in Berlin said the new coalition government will tread carefully and try not to upset the new French president.
The plan to save Europe
07 October 2017
The Atlantic
Emmanuel Macron’s dream of rescuing the EU isn’t going anywhere without Angela Merkel.
Tok FM: Po "kaszlącym" przemówieniu Theresy May
06 October 2017
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska talks to Tok FM about Theresa May's ‘coughing’ speech at the Conservative party annual conference.
Meanwhile in Catalonia
05 October 2017
Politico London Playbook
Writing for the Centre for European Reform, Camino Mortera-Martinez says much of Catalonia does not want independence. She urges Rajoy to consider radical constitutional change, giving more devolved power to every region of Spain.
Catalan crisis
05 October 2017
Politico Brussels Playbook
Why Spain needs a constitutional overhaul: Camino Mortera-Martinez for the Centre for European Reform writes that the only way for Madrid to resolve the fragility of the Spanish state without giving into the demands of the Catalan government is to urgently revise the country’s model of regional government.
A compromised king
05 October 2017
Financial Times
Camino Mortera-Martinez, at the Centre for European Reform, says the time has come for a major constitutional overhaul in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy:“What is happening in Catalonia is not a case of a state denying the democratic rights of its people. It is the product of increasingly radical separatism and a constitutional framework that is too rigid to accommodate those demands.”
Catalonia is a huge problem for the European Union because silence won't be enough
04 October 2017
iNews
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont also wants the EU to trigger a mechanism known as Article 7 which would suspend the membership rights of Spain on the grounds that it has breached EU values like the respect for human rights or the rule of law. But there is little chance the EU will use this ‘nuclear option’, according to Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank.
As Brexit transition tears Tories, one deal maybe not enough
02 October 2017
Bloomberg
Britain will have to ask the European Union for two back-to-back transition deals to ease its exit in 2019, according to Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform research institute. The influential think-tank believes Britain will need years to prepare for Brexit and the two-year transition proposal that Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives are still fighting over won’t be nearly enough to protect businesses from a cliff-edge.
Boris Johnson is 'fantastic', says Andrea Leadsom, amid Tory leadership unrest
02 October 2017
The Independent
Ms Leadsom, an ardent Brexiteer, told the Centre for European Reform (CER) fringe event she would remain in the cabinet “as long as the Prime Minister wants” after she diverged from Tory policy by saying the UK would take back control of its “money, borders, laws” by its official exit from the bloc in 2019.
Bombardier row is a cautionary lesson in the folly of Brexit
02 October 2017
The Irish Times
Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, believes the EU will wait until the US Trade Commission rules on last week’s decision, probably early next year, before showing its hand: “But the EU will also have a choice. It could see this as an opportunity to step in and demonstrate to the British the benefits of being members of a big market and a strong trade policy, and to expose the Brexiteers and their inability to act. On the other hand, they might decide this is a good opportunity to hang the British out to dry and teach them a lesson, exposing how vulnerable Britain is going to be in a post-Brexit world.”