Research
NATO summit 2025: Time to build a proper European pillar?
02 June 2025
Neither an ‘EU-plus’ nor a ‘NATO-minus’ could fill all the gaps that would be left in European security if the US radically reduced its commitment to NATO.
A perfect storm: Britain's trade malaise, weak growth and a new geopolitical moment
21 May 2025
The UK is facing its most severe trade challenge in decades – and at the worst possible time.
On Europe, Labour should reconsider its 'red chains'
16 May 2025
Labour’s reset with the EU will fail to deliver a significant boost to economic growth. A fundamental refashioning of the EU-UK relationship would require Labour to think again about freedom of movement.
Not a summit of ambition
12 May 2025
The EU-UK summit should enable leaders to respond to the threatening global situation by putting past differences behind them. However, backward-looking dogma and unnecessary red lines may result in the summit under-achieving.
Does EU enlargement require voting reform?
09 May 2025
Moving away from unanimity is complex and faces much resistance. But it is a question that EU leaders will not be able to avoid in the long run.
Ditchley conference report: A European path to higher economic growth
07 May 2025
In November 2024, at its annual Ditchley economics conference, the CER gathered leading politicians, officials, academics, journalists and thinkers to discuss the causes of Europe’s slow economic growth and what the continent should do about them.
Power losses: What's holding back European electricity trade?
29 April 2025
The EU is falling behind in its push to create a European power market. This analysis sets out a five-point plan for the EU and national governments to hasten integration.
France and Romania: Should far-right candidates be banned from running for the presidency?
25 April 2025
Excluding candidates from standing in elections may be a legally sound option to protect democracy from anti-democratic forces.
Will EU enlargement create new models for the EU-UK relationship?
15 April 2025
Enlargement is pushing the EU to think creatively about how to work more closely with candidate countries before accession. The consequences for EU-UK relations could be significant.
Access denied: The EU's discriminatory visa regime is undermining its reputation in Africa
02 April 2025
EU leaders claim people-to-people links between Europe and Africa are a strength, but the EU’s visa policy tells a different story.
Articles
Political bans may be legal, but they are unlikely to save democracy
12 May 2025
Encompass
In recent months, several far-right politicians have been banned from political competition. The courts in Romania banned two extremist candidates from running in presidential elections.
The Iberian grid meltdown imperils electricity trade
03 May 2025
EurActiv
Linking up electricity grids exposes European countries to each other's energy policy decisions. But the meltdown of Spain and Portugal's grids on Tuesday, which spread to France, will lead to renewed scrutiny on interconnectors being a potential way for troubles in one country to spread to another.
Taking the Pulse: In light of Trump’s tariffs, should Europe get closer to China?
17 April 2025
Carnegie Europe
The EU and China are both trade-surplus blocs: They rely on external demand and need buyers, not sellers, as the United States reduces its demand.
Econoom Sander Tordoir over de Trump-tarieven: “Xi Jinping zal zich in de handen wrijven om dit geschenk”
04 April 2025
De Standaard
Na Vietnam en Mexico zijn de VS het grootste slachtoffer van de handelstarieven van Donald Trump, zegt econoom Sander Tordoir.
Wcale nie Trump. Głównym przeciwnikiem gospodarczym UE są Chiny
28 March 2025
Oko Press
„Chiny są egzystencjalnym zagrożeniem dla europejskiej branży motoryzacyjnej” – mówi nam holenderski ekonomista Sander Tordoir.
Experts: What do Trump’s tariffs mean for global climate action?
27 March 2025
Carbon Brief
The Trump administration is walking back on US climate commitments, both domestically by threatening to cut back Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) support for clean-tech industries and internationally, [by] withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
Press
EU officially retires its ‘no cherry-picking’ Brexit line
29 May 2025
Politico
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said the cherry-picking line had been “a product of the strained relationship that followed the referendum, and the EU’s concern that other countries should not follow the UK’s example.”“The truth is that where there is mutual interest in the two sides moving closer — as there is on [sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agri-food rules] and energy trading — the EU is happy for the British to pick a cherry.
Is the UK doomed?
27 May 2025
The New European
Like some economic ice bucket challenge, a deluge of reality has brought me back to reality and reminded me what a complete mess Brexit has made of our lives. That ice-filled bucket comes in the form of a report by Anton Spisak for the Centre for European Reform (CER) called rather chillingly “A perfect storm”. Frankly the “reset” was nice but as Spisak explains in gory, relentless, detail, without much, much more of the same the UK is f****d.
The UK’s trade performance remains dire
26 May 2025
Financial Times
Any improvement in market access might seems a good thing. But it can easily not be good enough, because the deals themselves are too small or because the performance is too feeble. In “A perfect storm: Britain’s trade malaise, weak growth and a new geopolitical moment”, published by the Centre for European Reform last week, Anton Spisak lays out the latter story.
We’ve pressed the Brexit reset button. Now let’s reboot Britain
26 May 2025
The Observer
The Centre for European Reform finds that, since Brexit and the pandemic, UK trade performance has fallen way behind the G7 and EU average. This surely strengthens the case for the government to regard last week’s tentative but welcome easing of Brexit-induced bureaucratic restrictions on trade with, and travel to the EU, as merely the first step towards re-entry to the customs union and single market.
Trump reignites tensions with EU tariff threats
23 May 2025
BBC News
Trade expert Aslak Berg from the Centre for European Reform told the BBC that he thought Trump's post was intended to increase leverage ahead of the negotiations."But the fact of the matter is the EU is not going to budge. They are going to stay calm, carry on and it will be a very difficult discussion," he said.
L'impact réel du partenariat entre le Royaume-Uni et l'UE en débat
21 May 2025
La Tribune
«Le point crucial », à savoir l'inclusion du Royaume-Uni au programme de financement d'une base industrielle de défense, « reste à concrétiser », ajoute Ian Bond, directeur adjoint du Centre for European Reform.
Deal to let Brits skip EU passport queues would have happened without post-Brexit accord
20 May 2025
Financial Times
Anton Spisak, from the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “It’s important to remember that individual member-states have discretion over how they manage their borders, and this deal doesn’t alter that.”
‘A double whammy’: Strong euro compounds EU exporters’ tariff torment
20 May 2025
EurActiv
“It's a double whammy for European exporters to the United States, [in] that they get hit not only with tariffs, but that the normal offset of an appreciating dollar exchange rate to the euro is not kicking in – in fact, the opposite is happening,” said Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.
Farmers set to see lower trading costs from closer EU-UK ties
20 May 2025
Euronews
“British exporters have been seriously hit by the bureaucracy they face trying to get food and plants and animals across the frontier into the EU,” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.“So I think the deal on plant animal health is actually quite important. Not macroeconomically significant, but important for one sector of the British economy.”
Five years after Brexit, UK and EU aim for a fresh start
19 May 2025
Le Monde
"The EU's efforts to increase its defense capabilities and rebuild its defense industry will be hampered if the UK is excluded [from SAFE], while the UK risks painfully slow economic growth during a trade war if it fails to lower trade barriers with the EU," warned Aslak Berg, Ian Bond and Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform.
Podcasts
CER podcast: Unpacking Europe: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine
22 May 2025
Ian Bond, Mykola Bielieskov and Olesya Khromeychuk discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
CER Podcast: Unpacking Europe: Will the UK-EU summit reset relations?
08 May 2025
Charles Grant and Sophia Gaston discuss the UK-EU summit.
CER Podcast: Unpacking Europe: The implications of Trump's tariffs
16 April 2025
Aslak Berg and Meredith Crowley discuss President Trump's tariffs.
CER Podcast: Unpacking Europe: The future of EU-India relations
02 April 2025
Anunita Chandrasekar, Tara Varma and Amaia Sánchez-Cacicedo consider the trajectory of EU-India relations.
CER Podcast: Unpacking Europe: Can Europe still rely on the United States?
11 March 2025
Charles Grant and Kori Schake discuss what America’s hostility to the rules-based international order means for transatlantic relations.
Events
CER/Clifford Chance hybrid discussion on 'Can the EU reconcile regulation and growth?'
21 May 2025
Hybrid Brussels
With Mirzha De Manuel Aramendía, Daniel Friedlaender and Ursula Woodburn
Discussion on 'What future for the transatlantic relationship?'
08 May 2025
London
With Kim Darroch and Rachel Ellehuus
CER/HSF hybrid discussion on 'The Weimar Triangle and Weimar Plus'
03 April 2025
Hybrid London/Zoom
With Michał Kamiński, Joséphine Staron, Nicolai von Ondarza and Peter Watkins. Watch the video of the event here.
CER/Delegation of the EU to the UK discussion on 'Can Europe become a tech power house?'
17 March 2025
London
with Priit Alamäe, Katherine Bennett, Gaelle Drory-Liaudet and Roberto Viola
27th birthday party, London
26 February 2025
London
With a keynote speech by the Rt Hon David Lidington CBE, former Minister for the Cabinet Office & Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster & Chair, RUSI. Listen to the audio of the speeches here.
Hosted by Inigo Lambertini, Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom.
Hosted by Inigo Lambertini, Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom.