Press
TRT World: Russia-NATO tensions heat up
02 April 2021
Last week, NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels for the first time in over a year. The in-person summit featured Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying Moscow's 'pattern of repressive behaviour at home and aggressive behaviour abroad' required immediate, collective action. From Crimea to cyberattacks, diplomatic pressure seems to have achieved...
Brexit in numbers
01 April 2021
Financial Times
John Springford at the Centre for European Reform has done some fascinating modelling showing that UK trade was £16bn in January lower than a “synthetic” UK that remained in the single market and customs union. (This after Brexit had already led to a 10 per cent reduction in total UK goods trade since the referendum in 2016 to the end of last year).
Conference on Future of Europe must restore sense of purpose to EU post-Brexit, says former UK MEP
30 March 2021
The Parliament Magazine
Christian Odendahl, chief economist and John Springford, deputy director at the Centre for European Reform, say the scale of US President Joe Biden’s spending plans means the US economy will recover much faster than Europe’s.They said, “There are two reasons why the economic recovery in Europe will be slower. First, the rollout of vaccines in Europe is roughly six weeks behind the US. As of late March, the EU had administered 13 doses per 100 people, according to the ‘Our World In Data’ website. The US passed that mark on February 10.”
Joe Biden economic recovery puts Brussels to shame – Eurozone warning
29 March 2021
Express
Chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, Christian Odendhal argued the Brussels bloc could learn some lessons from the US model.He wrote: "In some ways, Europe is more in need of stimulus than the US, yet on current plans, its governments will do far less than the Biden administration."
Merkel’s party is polls apart from German electorate after vaccine botch
28 March 2021
The Telegraph
“The CDU never really ran on any ideas, it ran on the status quo and good management,” says Christian Odendahl, Centre for European Reform chief economist. “This is why this combination of the pandemic mismanagement and the PPE scandal is so terrible for the CDU… If you can’t manage this crisis well, then what’s the point of you?”
Wake-up call for Germany as Chinese affair sours
28 March 2021
The Sunday Times
According to Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, the row coincides with recent signs of a cooling of European attitudes towards China. “Even a year ago, it would have been hard to imagine the EU imposing sanctions on China,” he said.
CER podcast: Britain after the pandemic
25 March 2021
John Springford discussed the links between pre-COVID austerity and the UK's poor pandemic outcomes with Jonathan Portes.
Statement by European research institute directors
25 March 2021
Charles Grant is among many directors of European research institutions to express concern that Chinese sanctions against institutions and individuals in Europe will damage mutual understanding.
The role of differentiation in EU foreign, security and defence policy co-operation with neighbouring countries
25 March 2021
EUIDEA
The EU extensively practices differentiation in its foreign, security and defence policy, both internally and externally towards its neighbours.
Brexit has already been a disaster for British trade
23 March 2021
Encompass
No one has much interest in talking about Brexit in the UK at the moment. The pandemic means that voters have more important things on their mind.
Meet Richard Szostak: The EU’s new Brexit divorce mediator
19 March 2021
Politico
“It’s going to be all about damage limitation,” said Charles Grant, director at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. ...“The British thought that during the Brexit negotiations he sometimes took quite a hard line,” Grant said. “Nobody accused him of being too soft on the British.”
Boris Johnson's vaccine miracle
18 March 2021
The New Yorker
“That exports to the EU collapsed so badly, much worse than to everyone else, shows that, you know, quelle surprise, if you have some checks on the French side of the border, you’re going to have a lot less trade,” John Springford, the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank, told me.
How the UK government can solve the Brexit stand-off over Northern Ireland
18 March 2021
Financial Times
As Sam Lowe at the Centre for European Reform think-tank explains here, such a Swiss-style deal would leave the UK “permanently bound to EU food hygiene rules”, but in return there would be no more need for export health certificates and the reams of other red tape currently strangling UK businesses.
Europe's latest vaccine controversy risks being a crisis too far
17 March 2021
Bloomberg
“The EU’s vaccine rollout, or the lack thereof, will have long lasting effects on European politics, could see incumbent governments lose power, and could hinder economic recovery particularly in worst-hit countries,” said Camino Mortera, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.
What Switzerland can do about the US-China rivalry
16 March 2021
Swiss Info
“This is the rivalry that will shape the next decades,” said Bond, head of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, a pro-European think-tank.
Global Britain pivots to Asia
15 March 2021
Politico
“I wonder whether we will be able to keep doing that — it is a question worth asking,” said Ian Bond, foreign policy director at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “NATO has always assumed that Britain will make a significant contribution to any land defense of Europe. We have a relatively small number of troops in Estonia, but NATO has worked on the basis that we would also have a larger body of troops available to defend Europe.”
Despite new data showing huge UK-EU trade slump almost half of polled Britons would vote for Brexit
13 March 2021
Sputnik News
According to calculations carried out by John Springford at the Centre for European Reform, Britain’s withdrawal from the European bloc had slashed its total goods trade by £16 bln (22 per cent).
Voters worried that Brexit has been bad for economy, as official figures show massive slump in trade
13 March 2021
The Independent
John Springford at the Centre for European Reform calculated that Brexit had reduced Britain’s total goods trade by £16bn (22 per cent), on top of a 10 per cent reduction in volume in the years after the 2016 referendum.
UK's vaccine campaign fails, for now, to fire up EU 'exit' movements
13 March 2021
Voice of America
“Obviously, this comes as a big blow to those who have been saying for a long time that Britain was going to do much worse outside of the European Union,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, Brussels-based analyst for the Centre for European Reform policy institute.
Food and drink exports to EU fall 65% in post-Brexit slump
12 March 2021
The Grocer
“If you put up large barriers to international trade, the expected result is trading becomes more expensive and difficult, and therefore there is less trade than if the barriers were not there,” said Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform on Twitter.