Press
Italy to call for suspension of the EU Stability Pact as coronavirus stretches eurozone defences
06 March 2020
The Telegraph
“It would be very hard for the Northern Europeans to say no and be too ‘Hanseatic’ about this given the difficulties that Italy is in, and the fragility of the Italian government,” said Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform. “The EU thinks that this is the least bad government that is possible today in Italy and they don’t want it to collapse,” he said.
Ignore EU bluffing! Trade deal possible SOON - trade sources speak out
05 March 2020
The Express
Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said Britain accepts leaving the single market and customs union will give it more autonomy but also put up more barriers to trade. But he said there is no longer the “have your cake and eat it” attitude of Theresa May’s government which means both sides should be more willing to budge one certain issues.
The EU and UK can agree on the scope of a new trade deal, but the devil is in the detail
05 March 2020
Encompass
The EU and the UK have set out what they want their future partnership to look like and the horse trading has begun.
Now in EU interest to work with Turkey on migration
05 March 2020
EU Observer
The European Union is facing the prospect of renewed migration crisis after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared he would "open the gates" and allow the over four million refugees living in Turkey to freely travel to Europe.
¿Es el momento de que la UE reexamine sus relaciones con Bielorrusia?
05 March 2020
ESglobal
La política de la UE respecto a Bielorrusia no ha tenido ambición.
Putin CER
04 March 2020
Financial Times
Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform offers six pointers to western leaders on how to deal with Vladimir “master of gaslighting” Putin: “Western leaders should not forget history, ancient or recent, or ignore the reality of Putin’s Russia, but nor should they be its prisoners. The disappointed hopes of their predecessors may be buried all round the Kremlin; but the West’s relations with Russia do not always have to be as bad as they are now.”
Whisper it … an EU-UK deal is there to be done
04 March 2020
Politico
As Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, has pointed out, the UK accepts that leaving the EU’s single market and customs union means more autonomy but also more barriers to trade. There is none of the cognitive dissonance of the early May era, when the UK wanted to “have its cake and eat it.” “Beyond the headline issues the two parties aren’t so far apart,” Lowe said.
CER podcast: Are the Brexit negotiations doomed to fail?
04 March 2020
The EU and the UK have now published their objectives outlining what they want a future EU-UK partnership to look like. There is much headline disagreement, but is there a landing zone in sight? Charles Grant and Sam Lowe discuss.
We’ll ditch all EU rules, vows UK’s trade talks army
03 March 2020
The Express
Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform said: “A deal by the end of the year is still possible but it will require both parties to drift away from their opening positions. “In practice, it requires the UK to move a lot and the EU to move a little.”
UK eyes speedy banking deal with US in parallel trade talks
02 March 2020
Bloomberg
“The negotiating objectives show the UK is going to take a pretty firm stance,” said Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform. “This will make getting a comprehensive trade deal done in the immediate future pretty difficult.”
A migration crisis and disagreement with Turkey is the last thing Europe needs right now
02 March 2020
CNN
"2016 was in some ways a missed opportunity," says Luigi Scazzieri from the Centre for European Reform, based in Brussels. "After the agreement, steps were not taken to make the relationship sustainable over time. There was then not much effort made to stop the cause of these problems - the war in Syria."
Germany and Spain scramble to reverse the flight of youth
02 March 2020
The Guardian
“You have had a lot of out-migration from places that were less economically successful and a clustering of younger people … in more successful regions of Europe. And so that is going to exacerbate social divides and it’s going to show up politically,” said John Springford, from the Centre for European Reform, who co-authored the The Big European Sort?, a 2019 report.
Britain's and the EU's Brexit unreality
02 March 2020
The Atlantic
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the the Centre for European Reform think tank, told me that, at its core, the EU did not accept that its negotiation with Britain was one between equals. He said the EU was “trying to use its economic weight to impose conditions on the U.K. it wouldn't normally ask of others.”
The EU should step up engagement with Belarus
02 March 2020
Emerging Europe
The EU’s engagement with Belarus has been limited due to the country’s political oppression, human rights abuses, and close ties to Russia.
Londyn liczy na podziały w Unii Europejskiej. Jak dotąd ta strategia się nie sprawdziła
02 March 2020
Forbes
Twierdzenie, że Unia Europejska przystępuje do negocjacji z Wielką Brytanią osłabiona, należy traktować z przymrużeniem oka.
Britain's Brexit negotiator goes to work on an egg as first round of talks takes place in Brussels
02 March 2020
The Telegraph
"As we're going to have to budge with the US, I can't see it holding with the EU either," said Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform.
Boris Johnson is clearly in no rush to do a big US trade deal, as proven by his tough red lines
02 March 2020
The Telegraph
For those of us who assumed the UK would rush head first into trade talks with the United States, myself included, the last few months have come as somewhat of a surprise.
NHS is 'off the table' in US trade talks, says Government after fears of drug price rise
02 March 2020
The Telegraph
Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform think-ank, said the tight UK-US objectives suggested the government was "clearly in no rush" to conclude a deal with the US and would have to make concessions, probably on agriculture.
About that much vaunted US-UK trade deal? Maybe not now
02 March 2020
The New York Times
“This isn’t the No. 1 priority that people thought it was going to be,” said Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform. “From Johnson’s point of view, it makes more sense to focus on the domestic economy.”
Polskie Radio: Opublikowano mandaty negocjacyjne w sprawie umowy handlowej między Unią Europejską a Wielką Brytanią
29 February 2020
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform spoke to Polskie Radio about the EU and UK negotiating mandates.