Press

“These are dangerous times for Ukraine,” said Ian Bond, a former UK defence planner and ambassador to the Baltics. “It is increasingly clear that Ukraine cannot achieve a quick victory. But is it at risk of a quick defeat?” he asked in a lacerating report for the Centre for European Reform.

Geert Wilders dispose à n’en pas douter de vraies chances de décrocher la tête de l’exécutif, conviennent les différents experts. «Sa victoire est si large qu’il va être politiquement difficile pour les autres partis de l’ignorer pour la formation d’un gouvernement », explique Sander Tordoir, chercheur néerlandais du Center for European Reform.

Aspects of Britain’s relationship with the EU, including co-operation on justice and policing and the Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland, are predicated on British membership of the convention, said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. “It’s not just an emotional thing, it really matters to the EU,” he said.

Attitudes on migration are hardening in the bloc, said Camino Mortera-Martinez, head of the Brussels office of the Centre for European Reform.“The political consensus has been for a long time on the issues of increasing returns [of failed asylum-seekers] — which is one of the most tricky parts of any migration policy, and also border controls and the fight against irregular migration — ironically enough, the kinds of things that the U.K. government had been asking for for a long time when it was inside of the European Union,” she told VOA.