Research

Both Mr. Stefanini and Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Center for European Reform, are struck by the complacency in Brussels, with rhetoric about the possibility of a multitier Europe lagging far behind the reality of division and competition.
“In Brussels, they see a couple of quarters of economic growth as a sign that everything is well,” Mr. Tilford said. “The first sign of relative improvement is an excuse to sound defensive and complacent.”

But as Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform points out, non-EU countries cannot participate in the European Arrest Warrant. 

 Two publications will help readers to form an idea of Germany's attitude to Brexit. One is “Berlin to the Rescue?”, a paper written by Sophia Besch and Christian Odendahl for the Centre for European Reform think-tank. The other is “Berlin Rules”, a book by Sir Paul Lever, Britain’s ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2003. ...Ms Besch and Mr Odendahl make the point: “Germany will be neither a hardliner nor particularly accommodating in the Brexit talks ...Berlin wants to preserve the EU and make sure that the EU-27 stick to a unified position; it considers disintegration of the EU the biggest Brexit risk.

"Sie verlässt sich sehr auf ihre Berater, doch die wissen über die EU nicht viel", ergänzt Charles Grant, Direktor des europafreundlichen Centre for European Reform.

“What you have now is Sturgeon maneuvering to get May to offend as many Scots as possible and May trying to maneuver to offend as few as possible,” said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the London-based Centre For European Reform.

Rem Korteweg, a senior research fellow at the think-tank Centre for European Reform (CER), says the French and Dutch political systems aren’t really comparable. “If you want to talk about the populist tide, the tide is still there,” he says, but “there are definitely breakwaters you need to take into account,” including how “the Dutch political system works.”

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based research organization, said the “Trump factor” had played a role in “making people think twice about voting for a populist, as people have seen that if you elect a populist you can get all kinds of wacky policies.” “At the same time,” he added, “we have seen a drop in populism in Europe since Brexit, as citizens have realized that, while a protest vote is fun, it can lead to the uncertainties of Brexit, which are not funny at all. That helped shift the mood in the Netherlands.”

"Los apoyos de los socialistas se han fragmentado. Muchos han ido a GroenLinks y su carismático nuevo líder", explica a EL ESPAÑOL el investigador holandés Rem Korteweg, del think tank Centre for European Reform.