Press

“The EU has always wanted close post-Brexit security co-operation with the British,” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, told iNews. “In these uncertain times, the more that Britain can contribute to European security, the more goodwill that creates among former EU partners.”

Charles Grant, director of the respected Centre for European Reform, suggested that the Prime Minister may nevertheless have to negotiate on youth mobility to achieve his aim to make trade easier, including by signing a veterinary agreement on food imports and exports.Grant said some in the EU would respond to Starmer’s demands on trade by saying there can be “no cherry picking” of its single market.

“Germany is desperately looking for friends. The National Rally is a Germanophobic party, and [Jean-Luc] Mélenchon on the Left has a history of anti-German outbursts,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.“But if you go behind the door of the EU and try to do bilateral deals, it always backfires. The Commission is too powerful to ignore,” he said.

“It is a shocking result, and I can't recall anything so similar in British history that one party does so well in terms of seats having not won very many votes,” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.
Labour's majority is built on very shallow foundations as a result, according to Grant and “can easily be washed away by the next storm that hits the UK”.

Un point de vue partagé par Zach Meyers, du Centre for European Reform : « Parvenir à une intégration économique bien plus poussée sera en tout cas difficile, compte tenu des lignes rouges du parti travailliste - pas de marché unique, pas d’union douanière et pas de liberté de circulation », estime ce chercheur britannique.

Concern is voiced by Zselyke Csaky, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a leading think-tank. Csaky said, “The Hungarian presidency will have limited impact on EU policies – but the hit to the Union’s reputation could be significant. “The Council of the EU’s rotating presidency is often described as ‘responsibility without power’. Whichever member-state is at the helm drives the EU’s legislative agenda and represents the Council in negotiations with the EU’s other law-making institutions.