Press
Brexit: Experts divided over Irish border plan
08 October 2019
BBC News
Sam Lowe, from the pro-EU Centre for European Reform, said the plan was not appropriate for a post-conflict region. The experts were addressing MPs sitting on Westminster's Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Mr Lowe said he "admires the honesty" of the government finally admitting that Northern Ireland would have to continue to align with some EU rules to prevent a harder border.
Odds of a Brexit deal fade as Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel clash
08 October 2019
The New York Times
To Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute, it is all about constructing a narrative of “the people versus the elite.”“They understand theater in Downing Street,” Mr Grant said, “and the theater of ‘the people’s Boris’ being pushed around by out-of-touch judges and other European Council leaders, suits his narrative.”
There's no chance fibber Johnson will 'get Brexit done' by end of January
07 October 2019
The Times
Yet even if he [Johnson] agreed to a free trade agreement on these terms, it would still create a lot more trade friction than presently exists, warns Sam Lowe, a trade expert, in a new paper for the Centre for European Reform.
Border carbon adjustment: how to get it right
07 October 2019
Borderlex
The Centre for European Reform’s Sam Lowe explains how the European Union could go about making a border carbon tax compatible with multilateral trade rules while keeping costs under control.
Judy Asks: Is post-1989 Europe building walls?
07 October 2019
Carnegie Europe
Post-1989 Europe is building walls, but not of the Cold War kind. Then, repressive Communist regimes knew that if they gave their people a choice most would immediately move to the West, so they kept them in with walls.
Las cicatrices de la crisis amplían la brecha entre regiones ricas y pobres en España y la UE
07 October 2019
El Pais
Según un artículo del think tank independiente Centre for European Reform, las regiones más productivas ya no son exclusivamente aquellas donde la industria tiene mayor peso. La receta del éxito tiene otros ingredientes: una posición geográfica próxima a ciudades exitosas o un elevado porcentaje de trabajadores jóvenes y con estudios superiores.
Cuando Bruselas se cree Washington: los exámenes del Parlamento Europeo a la Comisión
06 October 2019
El Pais
Una vez cada cinco años, Bruselas se cree Washington y periodistas, asesores políticos y expertos de todo tipo dejan todo lo que están haciendo para seguir, con mayor o menor entusiasmo, las audiencias del Parlamento Europeo a los comisarios propuestos por los estados miembros.
The best and brightest? Not always for EU leadership jobs
06 October 2019
The New York Times
“Sometimes it is a way to reward an ally,” said Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, a senior researcher with the London-based organization Centre for European Reform. “Or it might be a way to send a competitor away for at least five years. Smaller states increasingly send real heavyweights, like former prime ministers.”
Battle to burst Boris Johnson's Brexit bubble
06 October 2019
The Sunday Times
Charles Grant, of the Centre for European Reform, said: “EU officials have looked ahead to see what damage an uncooperative UK could do. The answer: not much before June, when the EU must agree on the next seven years of budgets, which requires unanimity.”
Azarov, Shokin, Lutsenko: A trio that only certain foreign journalists find credible
04 October 2019
Kyiv Post
“If either Shokin or Lutsenko told me the sun was shining I would look out of the window to be sure,” Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, told the Kyiv Post. “Working for Yanukovych itself is a huge black mark against Azarov’s trustworthiness.”
EU elite stunned after bombshell French poll shows Macron losing to Le Pen for first time
04 October 2019
The Express
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: "The French think that they can act unilaterally without talking to everyone and get away with it, because they have a dynamic young leader with power and no one else does."
EU pledges restraint as US moves to add tariffs
03 October 2019
The Wall Street Journal
“I’m not convinced the U.S. is seeking an immediate settlement” on the WTO case, said Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, a think tank. “This dispute, despite being legal, will spill over into the politics of the trade war.”
Boris Johnson's Brexit plan hits a wall in Brussels
03 October 2019
The New York Times
“On the parliamentary side, it is plausible that Boris Johnson could scrape a majority together,” said Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a research organization. “But on the European Union side, it is not a workable deal.”
Sturgeon's EU experts warn of disastrous slump after no-deal
03 October 2019
The Times
Charles Grant, another standing council member, said that EU states would take their lead from Ireland, making a deal on Mr Johnson’s terms almost impossible.He said the EU was concerned a return to checks at the border would “endanger the peace process and possibly provoke terrorism, and also damage the integrity of the EU single market by encouraging fraud and smuggling”.
Customs (the one we knew about)
03 October 2019
Financial Times
The government's ideas for avoiding infrastructure by relying on yet-to-exist technology are still met with huge scepticism (Sam Lowe has done a brilliant mock-up of what it looks like, below). EU diplomats are quick to point out dangers of a porous border that will become a smuggler's paradise. Making it work means Brussels will have to effectively suspend its customs code. EU27 diplomats were told last night that the blueprint doesn't meet the three criteria needed to replace the backstop.
Asking Hansa for help
03 October 2019
Financial Times
Christian Odendahl at the Centre for European Reform thinks Christine Lagarde's first task at the ECB will be to convince hawkish eurozone governments to start spending and to get Ursula von der Leyen to revamp the bloc's spending rule book.
Radio 4 - Today Programme: Custom checks on the island of Ireland
02 October 2019
Charles Grant spoke to the Today Programme this morning about Boris Johnson's Brexit offer.
TOK FM: Dwóch kandydatów wykluczonych, kiepskie wystąpienie Wojciechowskiego - niefortunna Komisja Europejska
02 October 2019
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska talks to TOK FM about the commissioners’ hearings.
Boris Johnson's Brexit plan challenged in EU, Parliament
02 October 2019
Bloomberg
The compromise moves a step closer to a Northern Ireland-only backstop - something the European Union has long pushed for, said Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. “If the DUP and the Conservatives now accept the principle of some kind of border in the Irish Sea, it could be possible to get them to go the rest of the way,” he said.
Borrell's in-tray
02 October 2019
Financial Times
Ian Bond and Luigi Scazzieri at the Centre for European Reform advise the EU's incoming top diplomat, Josep Borrell, to ready his sharp elbows to fight off institutional rivalries over how to handle's the bloc's foreign policy: “If Borrell can see off attacks on his position and reinforce the institutional role of the HRVP, he can then turn to the difficult foreign policy dossiers that he will inherit. His two top, and interlinked, priorities should be the EU’s relations with the US and with China.”