Press

The biggest problem with the euro is that it hasn’t delivered the economic convergence voters expected when it was launched; in fact, it has led to divergence. In 1999, living standards in Germany, France and Italy measured by gross domestic product per capita were broadly the same. Today Germany is significantly richer than France, while Italy has seen its GDP per capita slump from 119% of the EU average in 1999 to below 90% today.

Rem Korteweg is quite right to argue in a new and important paper, published by the Centre for European Reform, that Europe should push to revive and complete the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The main prize here is not primarily more trade, but for trade to be shaped in ways that spread the benefits equitably — including in such important areas as workers’ rights, consumer rights and environmental protection. In this regard, Korteweg is exactly right that a system of investment courts is unattractive and the EU should just drop its pursuit of them.

Wiceminister spraw zagranicznych ds. europejskich Konrad Szymański przekonywał w czwartek wieczorem w prestiżowym Królewskim Instytucie Spraw Międzynarodowych Chatham House w Londynie, że "Brexit to nie szansa, ale wyzwanie". Chodzi o to, by ograniczyć szkody. Szymański przedstawił swe stanowisko podczas debaty o przyszłej roli Grupy Wyszehradzkiej w Unii Europejskiej, występując obok swoich odpowiedników z Czech, Słowacji i Węgier. Debata była moderowana przez Agatę Gostyńską-Jakubowską z londyńskiego ośrodka analitycznego Centre for European Reform.

John Springford of the Centre for European Reform also strikes a note of caution in his latest analysis. It cannot be excluded, he says, that Mrs May will “walk away from the negotiating table, and hope to manage the economic fallout by wrapping herself in the flag, accusing the 27 of ‘ganging up’ on Britain, and deeply wounding the UK’s important alliances with France, Germany and the rest of Europe in the process”.

Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform says Mr Macron’s strategic gamble is to restore French credibility, and then to lever this to extract a “new concordat on the euro” from Germany.

"The surge of support for Emmanuel Macron shows that liberal, pro-EU centrists may yet have a future in European politics. This would be good for the EU," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank.

"A Macron victory would break the political mould of the Fifth Republic. Since 1958 France has been ruled by presidents who hail from the mainstream parties of left or right," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank.