Press

As Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, puts it. “The EU-27 do not take the threat of a UK walk out very seriously, believing that the consequences of no deal, while bad for the EU economy, would be catastrophic for the UK economy".

Orbán viackrát zopakoval, že európska migračná politika zlyhala a krajiny Visegrádu mali vo svojom prístupe pravdu. „Keď odborníci priznali, že myšlienka kvót má svoje muchy, krajiny V4 mali možnosť zapojiť sa do tejto debaty. No namiesto toho si vybrali vzdorovitý protimigračný naratív, ktorý viac uškodil ich medzinárodnej reputácii a oslabil ich vplyv pri vyjednávaní,“ hovorí pre SME analytička Centra pre európsku reformu Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska.

Steve Baker, a Brexit minister, refused to dismiss a claim that civil servants were rigging their Brexit analyses to show that the UK should stay in the customs union. The claim was made by the Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg. He asked Baker if he had heard the claim from Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, that “officials in the Treasury have deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad and that officials intended to use this to influence policy”.

“I cannot think of another country which is so sceptical about its own armed forces as Germany,” says Sophia Besch, a European defence expert at the Centre for European Reform in London. “As an institution,” she adds, “the Bundeswehr is incredibly insecure.” Forthright attempts after the war to ensure Germany’s newly formed armed forces did not forget the Nazi era are embodied in the concept of a soldier as a “citizen in uniform”. Besch says German soldiers are not allowed to dress up like their British and American counterparts. “It is no accident that they resemble bus drivers,” she adds.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said in November that if the UK leaves the single market then financial firms will lose their EU passporting rights. He claimed the UK cannot “cherry pick” at aspects of the single market and it will lose the benefits of the single market when it leaves the European Union. Speaking at a conference by the Centre for European Reform, Mr Barnier said: “On financial services, UK voices suggest that Brexit does not mean Brexit. Brexit means Brexit, everywhere.

John Springford, director of research at the Centre for European Reform, said he had reviewed the 'aerospace' analysis and concluded: 'It's entirely descriptive. Zero analysis of Brexit impact.'