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Ian Bond, of the Centre for European Reform, told me in an interview, “The paradox of Georgia is that it has the most pro-EU population in the former Soviet space, and has come further than any other Eastern European country in tackling corruption, but it now has one of the most anti-EU governments, controlled from behind the scenes by an oligarch who made his money in Russia in the 1990s. The EU has to find a way to help those who want Georgia to become a modern European democracy, not an authoritarian satellite of Russia.”

"Tradicionalmente, a cooperação é difícil para a extrema-direita, precisamente porque estes partidos priorizam interesses de âmbito nacional. Há certos tópicos com os quais [quase todos] concordam, como cortar no investimento e com o poder que as instituições da UE têm", disse à Lusa Zselyke Csaky, investigador do Centre for European Reform. No entanto, "há muito que os divide", sustentou Csaky, "desde a política externa a alguns aspetos das migrações".

“The US shutting China out already will undoubtedly benefit the EU, as long as the US remains open to European imports,” said Sander Tordoir at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “The EU is ahead of the US on green tech manufacturing and exports.”

Euroalueen talouteen erikoistunut Centre fo European Reform -ajatuspajan ekonomisti Sander Tordoir pitää sen sijaan huolestuttavana sitä, että Hollannin uusi hallitus linjaa olevansa “erittäin kriittinen” EU:n laajentumisen suhteen.Tordoir ennakoi, että linjaus voi aiheuttaa kitkaa Euroopan komission kanssa. Lisäksi hän arvioi, että komissio saattaa puuttua maahanmuuttopolitiikan tiukennuksiin.

In a recent analysis of EU policy-making, Zach Meyers, assistant director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, says the European Commission, in its attempts to deal with crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, “has become a more political body”.  This means, he argues, that the EU “has lost one of its strengths: having a technocratic lawmaking body focused on designing laws based on evidence and good practice, and which is less beholden to short-term politics than the European parliament and European Council”.

Sander Tordoir and Zach Meyers of the Centre for European Reform suggest more targeted support for areas of dominance like ASML's tech, a more pan-European approach to industrial policy and the creation of alliances with like-minded partners on chip supplychains.

Europe is back to having a trade surplus and a fiscal deficit that looks a lot better than America’s these days, points out Sander Tordoir of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank. 

First, said Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform (CER) think-tank, the parties that make up the current “grand coalition” of conservatives, socialists and liberals “are likely to lose a substantial number of seats, but maintain their overall majority”.