Research
Doubts emerge over Macron's proposal for new EU 'community' of aspiring states
10 May 2022
France 24
"But what do we mean by political cooperation? And how will we make it work?" said Camino Mortera of the think-tank Centre for European Reform.
« Communauté politique européenne » : comment Macron s’est inspiré d’une idée de Mitterrand
10 May 2022
Le Telegramme
« Qu’est-ce qu’on entend par coopération politique ? Et comment on va la faire fonctionner ? », s’interroge également Camino Mortera, du think tank Centre for European Reform. « Certains pays qui sont bloqués à la porte de l’UE depuis des années pourraient peut-être voir dans cette annonce un progrès mais il faut voir ce qu’il y a derrière ».
UK to reform data protection, throwing EU adequacy ruling into doubt
10 May 2022
EurActiv
“The Commission’s original decision to grant the UK data adequacy was already legally questionable because the UK was repeatedly found to have breached EU law because of how British national security agencies collect personal data,” Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told EURACTIV.
“If the UK diverges further away from the GDPR, then the Commission may feel it has no choice but to withdraw adequacy”, he said.
“If the UK diverges further away from the GDPR, then the Commission may feel it has no choice but to withdraw adequacy”, he said.
Sinn Fein's historic win in Northern Ireland may not change anything for the Brexit negotiations
09 May 2022
Euro News
According to Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform (CER) think tank, the win by Sinn Fein, which seeks unification with the Republic of Ireland, may turn out to have strengthened the British government's position in the negotiations. This is because it makes it less likely that the DUP will take part in a government, which in turn will lead to a crisis that in the long run could endanger the Good Friday Agreement.
Why can’t we talk about Brexit?
08 May 2022
The Sunday Times
The Centre for European Reform think-tank claimed in March that leaving the single market and customs union had cut the UK’s overall goods trade by about 15 per cent — including with non-EU countries. It argued that this was because 65 per cent of British exports were used as inputs for production processes in the EU and elsewhere, and it was “therefore likely that barriers to trade with the EU are damaging UK exports to the rest of the world”.
Britain has become unexpectedly European
06 May 2022
The Economist
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform (CER), a think-tank, recalls that Germany and France seriously feared that post-Brexit Britain would move towards a low-tax, low-regulation version of “Singapore-on-Thames”, which is why they insisted on strong level-playing-field conditions in the trade deal. But in practice there has been little sign of such a shift.
Can the EU or Ukraine ever use Russia's frozen assets?
06 May 2022
Euronews
"We are into kind of unprecedented territory here," Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre of European Reform (CER), a think-tank, stressed to Euronews.
Yet, he added, "there are some prospects that eventually Ukraine might be able to extract some money from these frozen assets. But it would be really, really complicated and probably take a very long time."
Yet, he added, "there are some prospects that eventually Ukraine might be able to extract some money from these frozen assets. But it would be really, really complicated and probably take a very long time."
Nine out of ten countries developing central bank digital currencies
06 May 2022
Tech Monitor
Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank, told Tech Monitor in January that he believes much of the interest in CBDCs is driven by fear of missing out, particularly since China became the first major economy to trial a digital currency, the e-CNY, in April 2020. "None of [the central banks] want to be seen as falling behind," Meyers said "They look at what's happening in China and think 'we need to have that as well'."
Deutsche Welle - Inside Europe podcast: 05.05.2022
05 May 2022
Elisabetta Cornago spoke on Deutsche Welle's 'Inside Europe' podcast about the EU's plans to phase out Russian oil, the consequences of this and the bigger picture of Europe's energy security.
BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room: How has the war in Ukraine changed German politics?
05 May 2022
Sophia Besch joined others to discuss the biggest shift in German foreign policy since the Cold War (from 15:30 mins).
LBC: Tonight with Andrew Marr
04 May 2022
Charles Grant, director of the CER spoke to Andrew Marr about the break down in relations between Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron (from 36.30 mins).
EU immigration is broken. Brussels is unlikely to be able to fix it
04 May 2022
Euro News
"I am sceptical that the Commission's proposals will reduce illegal migration, at least in the short term. There will always be people who don't neatly fit into a skill category but still want to migrate, or who are in the EU already but with an expiring visa and wish to stay but have no legal way to do so," Luigi Scazzieri, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) told Euronews.
Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron continue ‘entente uncordial’ and ignore each other
04 May 2022
The Times
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said those in London who hoped the French presidential election would precipitate a move by Macron to improve relations were likely to be disappointed. “From the French perspective there is little desire for a reset while Johnson remains in Downing Street,” he said.
Can the European Political Community bring the UK and EU closer?
01 May 2022
Encompass
The European Political Community (EPC) is Europe’s newest political forum. The EPC is the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron. It was born in October 2022 in Prague, with forty-three European leaders taking part in its inaugural summit.
Emmanuel Macron is now Europe’s standard-bearer
30 April 2022
The Economist
“We live in a French EU at the moment,” says Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank based in London.
Elon Musk's Twitter test
29 April 2022
Project Syndicate
The world’s richest person will be free to emasculate Twitter's content restrictions in the name of free speech if that is what he wishes to do. But he may reconsider once he realizes the great responsibility that digital freedom now implies.
TRT World: Russia attacks Ukraine - Three explosions reported on Monday and Tuesday in Transnistria
28 April 2022
Ian Bond tells TRT World that whilst it is Putin's interests to keep Transnistria destabilised, (region in Moldova that Russia uses as a base for some intelligence operations), with just 1,500 Russian troops there, it's unlikely he'd launch a full-scale attack on Ukraine from that side.
Judy Asks: Is Finnish and Swedish NATO membership useful for European security?
28 April 2022
Carnegie Europe
Russia’s renewed attack on Ukraine has forced European countries to think about their own safety rather than grand designs for pan-European security architecture.
Reelection bolsters France's Macron as powerful player in EU
27 April 2022
The Independent
“Macron won’t have everything his own way,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. “Some Central and Eastern European member-states will oppose French policies, the British will remain a headache and the Germans may thwart some French ideas.”
EU regulator cautions Twitter on content moderation
26 April 2022
The Wall Street Journal
The EU’s new legislation won’t prevent Mr. Musk from taking a more free-speech-oriented approach, said Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow with the Centre for European Reform think-tank. However, he said Twitter will still need to comply with rules on the removal of illegal content, which would likely require hiring more people to deal with content moderation and complaints.