Press
Swiss-style EU deal not on the table during Brexit negotiations, EU officials say
21 November 2022
iNews
John Springford, the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank, says Brussels has also grown frustrated with the Swiss system of translating EU legislation into its rulebook through and torturous parliamentary process that can end up changing the laws to bypass regulations. “This is very finicky and slow. And it runs up against the EU’s problem of cherry picking: they don’t want to give the UK partial access to the single market or part of partial participation in the single market,” he said.
CER podcast: Will the Commission's fiscal rules plan work?
18 November 2022
In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, John Springford, our deputy director, and Sander Tordoir, senior economist at the CER, discuss the EU’s fiscal rules.
Brussels just got a Hungarian think tank. Here's why it matters.
18 November 2022
Euronews
Neither is better than the other and both are needed but "the most important thing for think-tanks, in general, is to be transparent in the way they are financed and the way they are affiliated," Camino Mortera-Martinez, head of the Brussels Office of the Centre for European Reform (CER), another (private) think tank, told Euronews.
Energy carrots and sticks
18 November 2022
Financial Times
To meet EU-wide emergency targets for the reduction of electricity and gas demand, more actionable information campaigns are needed, writes the Centre for European Reform. Governments should also encourage utilities to set up incentive schemes to reward energy savings.
Derrière la récession britannique, l’effritement provoqué par le Brexit
18 November 2022
Le Monde
« Ce n’est effectivement pas le Brexit qui provoque la récession, qui est due à la guerre en Ukraine et à la hausse des prix, comme partout ailleurs, mais le Brexit a réduit la vitesse de croisière de l’économie britannique », explique John Springford, du Centre for European Reform, un groupe de réflexion.
UK autumn statement: How much is Brexit to blame for the budget 'black hole'?
17 November 2022
Euronews
"Around half of the fiscal hole, and the political instability that comes with that, is down to Brexit," John Springford of the Centre for European Reform said on Twitter in October, in an exchange on the relationship of the UK's EU membership to its economic performance.In a CER report in June, he commented on a £29 billion (€33.2 billion) package of tax rises announced earlier in the year by Rishi Sunak, then finance minister -- up "to their highest share of GDP since the 1960s", he said.
As Ukraine war hits pocketbooks, European discontent grows
17 November 2022
Voice of America
"People are pretty angry right now across Europe," said John Springford, deputy director of the London-based Center for European Reform, a policy institute. "There’s a general understanding I think that the high inflation we have been seeing is down to the war in Ukraine."
How the Poland missile strike could change Putin's war in Ukraine
16 November 2022
NBC News
“This is an awful thing that wouldn’t have happened if Russia hadn’t launched a war on Ukraine,” said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform think tank in London, and a former senior NATO diplomat. “There has been a war in Europe for the last eight years; it’s just that most of Europe was able to close its mind to it. We like to imagine that this is war in a faraway country, but it’s really not that far at all.”
Politico Pro Free FROM In the global chips race, EU’s cash engine sputters
15 November 2022
Politico
The Chips for Europe Initiative's €11 billion focused on commercializing research "would still punch below its weight" even if it all materializes, said Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at London-based think tank Centre for European Reform. Meyers estimates that the U.S.'s chips strategy promises $13.2 billion in research.
Migrants : une menace de tir de missiles, dernière violence derrière l’accord UE/Libye
14 November 2022
Middle East Eye
« Travailler avec les autorités des pays tiers pour empêcher les migrants d’arriver en Europe a été l’un des principaux axes de la politique européenne », relève Luigi Scazzieri, du groupe de réflexion Centre for European Reform.
France accepts migrant rescue ship rejected by Italy as tensions flare
11 November 2022
The Washington Post
But this week shifted “the trajectory in an almost dramatic way,” said Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, adding that an escalation of the current disagreements could throw relations back into “the darkest phase in Italian-French relations” in recent memory.
The race to disunion: Are Brexiteers or Republicans ahead?
09 November 2022
The Washington Post
In June 2022, the Centre for European Reform estimated that quitting the single market and customs union reduced UK goods trade by about 15%.
Why Brexit has been far less damaging than Mark Carney suggests
08 November 2022
The New Statesman
It would be very surprising if this reduction in trade hadn’t reduced growth, and indeed John Springford, of the Centre for European Reform, estimates that if you look at the UK’s performance compared to a basket of “similar” countries, our growth shortfall is about 5 per cent.
'Devastating' court loss cripples Vestager's corporate tax crusade
08 November 2022
Politico
Zach Meyers, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said that Tuesday’s ruling was “devastating for Vestager’s broader strategy of using state aid laws to tackle aggressive tax practices.”
US weapons sales in Europe are booming as Russia's war in Ukraine continues to rage
04 November 2022
Yahoo News
“This is certainly the biggest increase in defence spending in Europe since the end of the Cold War,” Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, told Yahoo News. Russia’s war in Ukraine has shaken countries and “people who got used to peace for a generation,” said Bond.
Here's how China could use its ownership of EU critical infrastructure to exert pressure
04 November 2022
Euronews
The real concern is over digital and Europe's dependency on Chinese technology. "I worry more about other kinds of vulnerabilities, such as in the case of 5G, the possibility that it could be used for espionage or the possibility that it could be just turned off altogether," Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank, told Euronews.
En defensa del endeudamiento por la acción climática
04 November 2022
ES Global
Los tipos de interés están subiendo a nivel mundial, pero, aun así, los gobiernos europeos deberían endeudarse por sumas importantes para financiar proyectos “verdes”. En algunos casos, la UE debería ayudar.
Here's what to expect from Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's first trip to Brussels
03 November 2022
Euronews
"From everything we've seen so far, Meloni will try to signal that she is going to be assertive but not disruptive and that she can build a constructive relationship with the EU institutions," Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) told Euronews.
CER podcast: Can Rishi Sunak reset the UK-EU relationship?
03 November 2022
Peter Foster joins Charles Grant to consider the prospects for repairing UK-EU relations under new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Where Britain went wrong
03 November 2022
Politico
The crisis was a “big shock to the UK’s broad economic model,” said John Springford, from the Centre for European Reform. Productivity took an immediate hit as exports of financial services plunged. It never fully recovered.