Press
EU pays tribute to Starmer and waits for Burnham, the unknown quantity
23 June 2026
RTE
"[YouGov]’s latest survey, a decade later, records the lowest level of support for Brexit so far," said pollster Peter Kellner in a Centre for European Reform essay."Just 29% of Britain’s electors say that Britain was right to vote to leave the EU - the first time the figure has dipped below 30%. 58% say it was wrong to do so - the joint highest figure so far.
Ten years on, Brexit disputes still hold back Britain's reconciliation with EU
23 June 2026
Reuters
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank in London, said progress had been "slow and painful", reflecting the broader mistrust that still exists.
An absent friend
23 June 2026
Emerging Europe
Last December Charles Grant, who runs the Centre for European Reform, gave the absence a name: the “paradox of French power”. With Britain gone, he argued, the Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has slid towards the industrial interventionism that Paris always favoured.
Ten years after Brexit, British political instability puts brakes on EU-UK “reset”
23 June 2026
The Parliament Magazine
For John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, the most worrying finding from recent studies is that Brexit's economic impact may not be a one-off shock.
10 ans après le Brexit, l'heure des mécontents
23 June 2026
Deutsche Welle
Anton Spisak, économiste au Centre for European Reform, souligne que le Brexit « a eu un impact considérable sur les investissements ». Selon lui, « cela a eu un impact sur le climat général des affaires et a suscité beaucoup d'incertitude. Les entreprises, elles aiment la certitude, elles aiment les règles stables, elles aiment la prévisibilité » mais le Brexit a été tout le contraire de cela.
Der zerlegte Mann
23 June 2026
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Eine neue Studie der Ökonomen Sander Tordoir und Brad Setser prognostiziert Deutschland sogar einen „China-Schock 2.0“, weil man immer noch glaube, nach einigen Strukturreformen wieder mithalten zu können. China aber spiele nicht nach den Regeln. So drohe Deutschland ganze Schlüsselbranchen wie die Automobilindustrie zu verlieren.
Britain is still deep in the shadow of Brexit
23 June 2026
The New York Times
Trade with Europe has continued but at a lower level, with British exports to the bloc down about 12 per cent, according to the Centre for European Reform, a research group.
A free trade zone stretching from Iceland to Turkey
23 June 2026
The Guardian
Gove used a speech at Vote Leave headquarters on the south bank of the Thames to promise that the UK could leave the EU, but remain in “a free trade zone stretching from Iceland to Turkey”.I asked John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, if that has proved to be true. “I remember that statement,” he says. “I saw that as veiled language. Because the whole strategy in the campaign was to avoid giving any kind of specificity about what sort of relationship they really wanted … a free trade area can mean all sorts of things.”
A decade on from Brexit, the new PM has big calls to make on Europe
22 June 2026
BBC News
Armida van Rij from the Centre for European Reform points to re-invigorated efforts by a long list of European countries clamouring to join the EU's ranks - none more insistently than Ukraine.
Brexit : dix ans après, des dégâts désormais incontestés sur l'économie du Royaume-Uni
22 June 2026
Les Echos
Le Centre for European Reform replace les choses dans leur contexte, celui d'un pays qui met, avec le Brexit, des barrières avec son principal partenaire commercial. Dans une étude publiée vendredi, il constate que les pertes en matière d'importations et d'exportations dues au Brexit sont « importantes » non seulement dans les biens mais, plus contre-intuitivement dans les services.
EU-Gipfel: „Europa schießt mit einer Luftpistole auf einen Elefanten"
21 June 2026
Table Briefings
Der zweite China-Schock trifft Europa hart – doch Brüssel zögert. Ökonom Sander Tordoir erklärt, warum die Zeit drängt.
Diez años después del Brexit, la Unión Europea aprende a convivir con el divorcio
21 June 2026
El Pais
Pero en cierto sentido, Vladimir Putin y Donald Trump han hecho más por acercar al Reino Unido y a la Unión Europea que años de negociaciones sobre el Brexit. Porque pese a todo, señala Ian Bond, subdirector del Centre for European Reform, Londres y Bruselas comparten los mismos riesgos estratégicos.
Rejoining the EU is no panacea
21 June 2026
Financial Times
Defining “rejoin” would be tortuous. Research by John Springford and Anton Spisak at the Centre for European Reform finds that returning to just the customs union would only undo a fraction of the economic damage caused by exiting. But returning to the single market would involve difficult political trade-offs, such as accepting free movement, paying money to the bloc and rule-taking.
How Brexit ghosts will stop the UK from quickly rejoining the EU
21 June 2026
Financial Times
Sander Tordoir, chief economist of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU British think-tank, said “You don’t want to get married to someone who you don’t know is committed to the relationship.”
Chinese export flood tests Europe’s stomach for trade war with Beijing
19 June 2026
The Wall Street Journal
Germany “has to decide whether they are going to let a couple of multinationals’ incentives to squeeze a few more quarters or years of profits out of China” override evidence of economic harm, said Sander Tordoir, chief economist with the Centre for European Reform.
Rejoining customs union would not fix damage caused by Brexit, research finds
18 June 2026
The Guardian
Exclusive: Economists find Brexit caused 12% depression in UK exports, most of which is due to leaving single market
Brexit helps send UK plummeting down list of world’s strongest economies
18 June 2026
The Independent
Research seen by The Guardian has found goods exports to the bloc are 16 per cent lower than they would have been, while services sector exports are 7 per cent lower. John Springford and Anton Spisak, of the Centre for European Reform, said the data shows the “overwhelming majority” has been caused by leaving the single market.
Brexit has depressed UK exports to the EU by 12%
18 June 2026
The Guardian
Brexit has depressed UK exports to the EU by 12%, and rejoining the customs union would undo only a fraction of the damage, research shared with the Guardian shows. With the UK’s future relationship with the bloc likely to feature prominently in a potential Labour leadership contest, the economists John Springford and Anton Spisak, of the Centre for European Reform, provide fresh evidence of the damage caused by exiting.
Bailey: A decade of Brexit has been bad for the economy
18 June 2026
The Telegraph
Analysis by the Centre for European Reform (CER) showed the UK’s travel sector saw the biggest drop in services exports, which slumped by 39%, while the UK’s agricultural and food goods exports plunged by 29%. The think-tank warned that Sir Keir’s EU reset would do little to reverse this economic damage. The Prime Minister’s reset is focused on a series of targeted agreements that should ease frictions in sectors such as agriculture and food but will leave the vast majority of the Brexit trade losses unaddressed, CER said.
Ten years on, how the Brexit vote changed Britain
18 June 2026
The Economist
Brexit also triggered what John Springford, another economist, calls “an investment strike”. For decades, Britain has nearly always had the lowest capital investment in the G7. Brexit uncertainty compounded this, causing investment to flatline for six years.