Research
Sweden set to be world’s first country to target consumption-based emission cuts
08 April 2022
Climate Change News
Elisabetta Cornago, a climate expert at the Centre for European Reform, agreed: “Because it increases ambition in climate action, it may nudge other countries that want to cast themselves as climate leaders to follow through.”
However, she added that although “the discussion will have to go there eventually, I am not sure many other countries in the EU are ready to change their approach to national target setting right now.”
However, she added that although “the discussion will have to go there eventually, I am not sure many other countries in the EU are ready to change their approach to national target setting right now.”
Analysis-Italy's politics, public opinion, could weaken West's anti-Putin front
07 April 2022
US News
"Raising military spending is not a vote winner in Italy," said Luigi Scazzieri, an analyst at the London-based Centre for European Reform.
"There has been little success in communicating to the public that we are facing a more dangerous world, especially in regard to Russian aggression. There is still not the perception of real danger to Italy's security."
"There has been little success in communicating to the public that we are facing a more dangerous world, especially in regard to Russian aggression. There is still not the perception of real danger to Italy's security."
Are Microsoft’s days as the ‘friendly’ tech giant over?
06 April 2022
Politico
“Microsoft also engages in many of the same practices in the few areas where it has an entrenched position — in particular, how it uses Windows’ dominant position in PC operating systems to leverage into other markets,” said Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.
Russia may be committing war crimes, but money keeps flowing in
06 April 2022
.coda
“European policy-makers should use this crisis to secure the triple dividend that green investment can bring: make Europe less dependent on Russian energy, help fight inflation and reduce Europe’s carbon emissions.
Viktor Orban’s victory is a disaster for Brussels – and helps Vladimir Putin
05 April 2022
The Telegraph
Camino Mortera-Martinez at the Centre for European Reform says that the refusal of countries such as Germany to consider an oil embargo is shielding Orban.“But if, or rather when, public pressure becomes unsustainable for the German Government in particular and there is a move towards a partial embargo of some sort … Orban will have to stick his neck out,” she says.
With Putin's invasion, the EU has a golden opportunity to reinforce the rule of law to member-states
04 April 2022
The Political Quarterly
On 16 February 2022, roughly a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, the attention of the ‘EU bubble’ was elsewhere – in Luxembourg, to be precise.
Can the EU’s Strategic Compass guide EU security policy?
04 April 2022
Encompass
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine marks the start of a more dangerous era in European security. The more threatening international environment created by Russia’s invasion gives the EU’s newly-released Strategic Compass additional significance, as the Compass sets out the EU’s ambitions in security and defence for the next decade.
Las elecciones en Hungría y Serbia consolidan a los aliados de Putin en Europa pese a la guerra
04 April 2022
El Pais
Orbán pertenece a la “escuela de Putin” en la UE, según Camino Mortera, responsable de la oficina en Bruselas del Centre for European Reform. “Ambos usan el mismo juego: la desinformación, la corrupción, los sistemas de oligarcas que están dentro del Gobierno, y el toque nacional conservador identitario”.
UK has 'ankles tied together' thanks to Brexit
04 April 2022
LBC Radio
According to Centre for European Reform calculations, Britain's trade in goods was 15.7% lower in October 2021 than it would have been without Brexit.
Emmanuel Macron’s scorecard: has the French president rescued a faltering economy?
03 April 2022
The Sunday Times
“There are going to be some difficult decisions made in his second term about reducing the budget deficit,” said John Springford at the Centre for European Reform....“It has been OK overall when compared to growth in other countries in the eurozone,” said John Springford of the Centre for European Reform. “But growth rates don’t really indicate much because we are all bouncing back from a sharp shock. Most economies had very high growth rates in 2021.”
Will western leaders cut and run as the costs of the Ukraine war mount?
03 April 2022
The Guardian
Europe should stop spending up to €800m per day on purchasing Russian gas,” a new paper from the Centre for European Reform argues. “In 2021 … Russia exported more than 49% of its oil and 74% of its gas to Europe.” Halting all such purchases voluntarily, it said, might be the most effective sanction Europe could impose. “The political will to take such a radical step is still absent.” And, sadly, likely to remain so.
The EU must triple down on green investment
31 March 2022
EurActiv
Christian Odendahl and John Springford from the Centre for European Reform argue for more public investment in climate-friendly technologies. “Climate investment has always been a matter of national security. Russia’s war on Ukraine has simply brought this to everyone’s attention,” they write, arguing for more taxes on polluters and on windfall profits, as well as for national and European borrowing.
Peace talks may be little more than Russian tactics, analysts say
30 March 2022
Today Online
Russia did not stop fighting after the annexation of Crimea in 2015, but actively supported the separatists in the Donbas, said Mr Ian Bond, a former British diplomat in Russia and head of foreign policy for the Center for European Reform. “I’m a skeptic about the Russians giving up on the war,” he said. “We’ve seen this movie before in 2014 and 2015. I view this as only a pause.”
This crisis could be the making of Europe's carbon market
30 March 2022
Financial Times
Elisabetta Cornago at the Centre for European Reform advocates bringing forward a centralised social aid fund proposed in a future ETS on heating and road transport.
Why leaders won't tell Europeans to put on a sweater to beat Putin
30 March 2022
Politico
Avoiding the issue of reducing consumption is doing Europeans a disservice, said Elisabetta Cornago, an energy policy researcher at the Centre for European Reform. “It's failing to actually help consumers make the link between their energy bills, the energy insecurity that we are potentially facing and the war in Ukraine.”
A mix of clear messaging and financial incentives could make voluntary energy-saving “palatable” to consumers, she added. “It might be better to do this than reach a point where you need to actually restrain consumption.”
A mix of clear messaging and financial incentives could make voluntary energy-saving “palatable” to consumers, she added. “It might be better to do this than reach a point where you need to actually restrain consumption.”
Why Russia's invasion of Ukraine could spark a NATO defense spending spree
30 March 2022
CNBC
"The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for a lot of Germans, for politicians, and for voters, who previously I think, would have been skeptical that military power could still be an important tool of influence in Europe today," said Sophia Besch, senior research fellow at the Centre for European reform, in an interview with CNBC.
Ask CER - Episode 4: Phasing out Russian gas, UK-EU relations and Hungary's response to the war
30 March 2022
You asked, we answered: the fourth episode of our ‘Ask CER’ podcast series.
Poland embraces West amid Ukraine crisis after years of drifting away
26 March 2022
The Washington Post
Camino Mortera-Martinez, head of the Brussels office of the Center for European Reform, said she worries that the Ukraine crisis will effectively grant Poland a “get out of jail free pass.”She believes the European Commission will unfreeze the money “not because Poland needs it, but because it does not want to risk the unity of the bloc at this moment.”
Tripling down on green
25 March 2022
Financial Times
The Centre for European Reform argues not for a doubling but a tripling down on green investments in Europe, including by fresh joint borrowing modelled on the Recovery and Resilience Facility “to focus on energy that is green and secure, that is on projects that can rapidly reduce the need for imported fossil fuels.
Necesitamos balas. Y un plan para no usarlas
24 March 2022
El Periodico
A medida que la guerra se alarga, nosotros, los europeos, vamos entendiendo cada vez menos. Sin apoyo social, no hay unidad europea.