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Analyst Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre For European Reform says while there is opposition to the CFA franc in some African countries, Di Maio’s accusations are misleading. “Now there’s two reasons for that. One of them being that at the moment the latest data suggests they (migrants) are not from countries using the CFA franc. And the second point is that in any case, if countries remain poor, migration is actually lower,” Scazzieri told VOA.

The influential Centre for European Reform argues that the only option for the prime minister in getting a withdrawal agreement through the Commons will be to further blur her red lines, so pushing Britain towards a softer Brexit.

„Es war klar, dass es hart werden würde, über 40 Handelsverträge bis März fertig zu haben“, twitterte Sam Lowe vom Centre for European Reform. 

"In some of the key member states, senior officials believe that if the European Council wants to give the British an extension beyond July 1, the election issue could be solved in a one-page protocol that could be ratified relatively quickly,” said Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. “This would mean the British would not have to hold elections themselves.”

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told Yahoo Finance UK it was helpful “from a political signalling point of view” that there was a will to stop a no-deal Brexit. But he said he was concerned it might not be enough. “There’s a question of how you take no-deal off the table,” he said, noting that extending the Brexit deadline in March “still requires EU consent.” “You’re still just pushing back the deadline,” he said.

A stellar list of top economists and EMU specialists discuss the politics of slow growth in this series of podcasts from the Centre for European Reform’s annual Ditchley conference. 

“Most probably, May will attempt to amend the withdrawal agreement and political declaration and then push the subsequent parliamentary vote to the wire. To pass her deal, the threat of no deal will need to be tangible, and for that to happen the March 29 deadline will need to loom large.” (Sam Lowe, senior research fellow, and John Springford, deputy director, of the Centre for European Reform)

As Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, notes, it would also stop the reallocation of the 27 British seats, screwing up other countries’ polls.