Press
Barnier rejects Brexit extension without 'concrete' proposals
12 September 2019
City A.M
The Centre for European Reform’s director Charles Grant has tweeted a lengthy thread suggesting that EU officials are onboard with this in theory.“France, Germany, Commission could go along with this, but only if UK produces serious proposals, which it has not yet done. It would have to accept role for ECJ,” he wrote. “The other member-states do not want to put pressure on Ireland. But if the UK gets serious about a deal and shows flexibility, there would be gentle encouragement for Dublin to accept something almost equivalent to backstop.”
The 'Boris Bridge'? PM puts price tag on 'very good' idea
12 September 2019
City A.M
A 22-mile bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland would not be impossible – the longest bridge in the world, the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, is over 102 miles long.But trade expert and senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank Sam Lowe told City A.M. it was unlikely to solve any Brexit-related issues.“It remains unclear why putting a customs border in the middle of a bridge running over the Irish Sea is more palatable to the DUP than a customs border in it,” he said.
Brexit deal is possible, says Centre for European Reform's Grant
12 September 2019
Reuters
A Brexit deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom is possible, the head of the Centre for European Reform think tank, Charles Grant, said on Thursday. “A deal between EU and UK is more likely than I had thought - my conclusion,” Grant said on Twitter.
UK 'Ireland-specific' Brexit plan meets Brussels skepticism
12 September 2019
Politico
Sam Lowe, a trade expert with the Centre for European Reform think tank, warned that moving customs checks was not a magic solution. "You have to police businesses that don’t play by the rules. That’s still quite disruptive and risks to undermine the peace process and disrupt the all-Ireland economy," he said.
New Commission bows to the populists
12 September 2019
Politico
New power structure shows populist rhetoric has infiltrated EU executive.
This is an arms race
11 September 2019
Financial Times
A new report from the Centre for European Reform says the EU’s uncoordinated arms exports are undermining the bloc’s attempts to unite on foreign policy.
Ursulas udfordringer: Er Europas nye topchef i gang med at love for meget?
11 September 2019
Altinget
”Hun er åbenlyst meget ambitiøs på EU’s vegne. Måske for ambitiøs til, at hun kan få alle medlemslandene med,” siger seniorforsker Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, der er ekspert i de europæiske institutioner ved tænketanken Centre for European Reform (CER):
CER podcast: Negotiations after no-deal Brexit
11 September 2019
John Springford deciphers what has been happening in Westminster over the past week, and talks to Beth Oppenheim about what this means for the chances of a no-deal Brexit.
WDR: Schwarze Null schadet international
10 September 2019
Nicht nur der Investitionsbedarf in Deutschland spricht für einen Abschied von der „schwarzen Null“ meint Christian Odendahl vom Centre for European Reform: Auch die Weltwirtschaft und Deutschlands Ansehen könnten profitieren.
Want to see the economic damage already done by Brexit? Look to lost business investment
10 September 2019
Prospect
The Centre for European Reform, the Bank of England and others have estimated that by late 2018 the economy had already suffered lost growth of over 2 per cent compared to how it would have performed.
There's too much negativity about negative rates
10 September 2019
The Wall Street Journal
“It’s a general problem of bank profitability, and now they [the banks] can find someone — the ECB — to blame,” says Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.
Brussels braced for EU trade and tech battles with US
10 September 2019
Financial Times
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, of the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, said: “The role of the executive vice-president gives Vestager extra clout in tough conversations with the US and in China but also with EU’s own member-states, which failed so far to speak with one voice on what Europe’s strategy should be.”
Zusammen raufen
10 September 2019
DGAP - IP-Die Zeitschrift
Ursula von der Leyen will „energisch auf eine Verteidigungsunion hinarbeiten“. Ohne eine europäische Waffenexportpolitik wird das schwierig
Silicon Valley's worst nightmare? Vestager is back as EC competition chief and more powerful than ever
10 September 2019
The Telegraph
Camino Mortera-Martinez, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, says the decision to couple competition law and digital issues for the first time is important. "Digital stands for everything, from security, to jobs, to the economy and civil rights," she explains. "By tying it to competition law, which has been used as a geopolitical tool, you risk alienating the partners that you need to work closely together with you.”
Salvini is gone for now, but the EU needs to act fast to ensure he doesn't come back
08 September 2019
The Independent
The birth of the new coalition government between the populist Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party marks the end of the latest Italian political crisis – for now.
A long, agonising divorce
08 September 2019
The Business Post
“Boris Johnson has been trying to convince his Tory colleagues that negotiations have advanced in the last week or so and that there’s a possible breakthrough on the way, but it seems to me that very few if anyone believes that this is the case,” Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow at think-tank the Centre for European Reform. “What you hear in Brussels and in the European capitals is quite a lot of frustration.”
Rome presses reset
06 September 2019
Financial Times
Luigi Scazzieri at the Centre for European Reform makes a compelling case for the EU to afford Rome more leeway on the budget to ward off Salvini and help engineer a more moderate Five Star Movement.
La UE se resigna a una tercera prórroga del 'brexit' por el caos en Londres
06 September 2019
El Espanol
"Lo que siempre se ha asumido en los círculos de Bruselas es que sólo se concederá otra prórroga, que sería ya la tercera, si hay un cambio en la situación de Reino Unido. Un cambio en la posición negociadora o bien un cambio electoral. Las elecciones serían una justificación muy importante para conceder esa prórroga", relata a EL ESPAÑOL Camino Mortera, investigadora del Centre for European Reform (CER).
Boris Johnson's running out of Brexit options and the EU is getting impatient
06 September 2019
Forbes
John Springford, Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said a deal appears less likely now after Johnson lost dozens of lawmakers and because the party which props up the government, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, will not accept the backstop. “The general sense of proroguing parliament makes Johnson seem an unpredictable actor,” Springford added.
Italy-EU honeymoon has just started, but needs to last
06 September 2019
The Washington Post
“The new government is likely to be more responsible in economic terms than either the previous one, or a cabinet led by the League,” said Luigi Scazzieri, researcher for think-thank Centre for European Reform.“While it has no appetite for fiscal tightening, and wants to change eurozone fiscal rules, it will be much less willing to pick a fight with the EU,” he added.