Press

Losing the UK wouldn't be so bad for Europe

22 April 2016
Bloomberg
The London-based Centre for European Reform, has just published a report identifying more specific effects that a British exit, or Brexit, might have on the EU. It didn't find too many of them. The UK's departure might actually be beneficial to the bloc's cohesion, though it'll lose an important voice on policy matters.

The Guardian view on a key week in the EU debate

22 April 2016
The Guardian
In the second half of the week, the focus has shifted to global stability. First, eight former US treasury secretaries weighed in to warn that Brexit represents a critical threat to the global economy. Plenty of home-grown economists [listen here to the CER's debate at their 'Economists on Brexit' conference] also agree.

What would a post-Brexit EU be like?

21 April 2016
Prospect
If the UK voted to leave the European Union, Britain would certainly change - for better or worse, depending on your point of view. But the rest of the EU would change too.

Highlights of Gordon Brown's speech at the 'Economists on Brexit conference'

Gordon Brown
21 April 2016
In a speech to the CER, Gordon Brown demanded a positive, principled, patriotic case "with all the passion we can bring to bear" to show the future benefits membership of the EU can bring to our children and grandchildren.

Preparations for a Brexit: Views from Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain

Rem Korteweg, Henrik Larsen, Eleonora Poli, Marko Lovec, Laia Mestres
21 April 2016
LSE blog
If Britain votes to leave the EU it will have to negotiate its exit and a new post-withdrawal relationship with the EU, one that will have to be agreed by the remaining 27 EU member-states and the European Parliament.

Gordon Brown calls for more positive Remain campaign

21 April 2016
The Telegraph
"In this debate, those of us who are supporting remaining in Europe have first of all got to be positive," he told a meeting of 100 leading economists held by the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU think-tank, "we have got to put forward the positive arguments," he said.

Video of CER/Real Instituto Elcano seminar on 'The geopolitics of TTIP', Madrid

21 April 2016
With a keynote speech by Jaime Garcia Legaz, Deputy Minister for International Trade, Spain

Gordon Brown calls for a more positive case to be made for staying in EU

21 April 2016
The Guardian
Gordon Brown said Britain should be leading in Europem not leaving it, and added that his intervention at a Centre for European Reform event in London on Thursday evening would be the first of a series over the coming weeks. ..."I intend to make the positive, principled, patriotic case with all the passion I can for Britain being part of the European Union," Brown said. "This is particularly important to win over the Labour and non-Conservative vote who are unhappy with the status quo."

Comercio dice que el TTIP elevará el peso del Atlántico en la economía global

21 April 2016
Expansion
El secretario de Estado de Comercio, Jaime García-Legaz, ha subrayado hoy que el objetivo del Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Estados Unidos y Europa (TTIP) es cambiar los patrones del comercio internacional y convertir el Atlántico en la "columna vertebral" de la economía mundial.Durante un acto sobre geopolítica del TTIP organizado por el Real Instituto Elcano y el Centre for European Reform, García-Legaz ha asegurado que el peso de la Unión Europea (UE) y Estados Unidos ha disminuido debido a que las exportaciones de los países del Pacífico están creciendo a un ritmo mayor.

Judy Asks: Will the eurozone crisis come back?

Simon Tilford
20 April 2016
Carnegie Europe
A selection of experts answer a new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign and security policy challenges shaping Europe’s role in the world.

The EU will play hardball with post-Brexit Britain

John Springford, Simon Tilford
19 April 2016
The Telegraph
Post Brexit Britain will look back ruefully at its past privileges – inside the single market, but outside the eurozone – and wonder what possessed it to give them up.

Voting on European integration: A long history of skepticism

Simon Tilford
19 April 2016
The New York Times
Simon Tilford, deputy director of the CER in London, noted that referendums in Europe had often fallen prey to oversimplification, base appeals to emotions and scaremongering on both sides. “Lots of people will not consider the issues carefully, but will instead allow their frustrations with immigration and globalization, or fears over loss of sovereignty, to influence how they vote,” he said.

Fact, fiction and Brexit: Truth-squadding the arguments

19 April 2016
Bloomberg
When Cameron gave a speech at Bloomberg LP’s London headquarters in 2013 he said the EU needed "fundamental, far-reaching change." What he got, according to Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London, was "a collection of modest reforms" and it "will be hard for Cameron to claim that this is transformational."

BHP boss warns Brexit will plunge UK into "lost decade"

Andrew MacKenzie
18 April 2016
City A.M
Struggling miner BHP Billton's chief executive, Andrew MacKenzie, will warn Britain risks plunging into a "lost decade" if it votes to leave the EU. ..."On trade, the EU has negotiated broadly effective deals for Europe and the UK. Restoring these agreements after Brexit would take years, perhaps a decade, of negotiation," he's due to tell an audience at the Centre for European Reform today.

Debate over British EU exit heats up

Simon Tilford
15 April 2016
Voice of America
The "In" campaign - full title "Britain Stronger in Europe" - was seemingly given an early boost by a warning from the International Monetary Fund of "severe regional and global damage" if Britain voted to leave. The threat is real, argues Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform, a broadly pro-European analyst group.

Who'd have thought it? Jeremy Corbyn could shape Britain's destiny in Europe

15 April 2016
The Guardian
Charles Grant, who heads the Centre for European Reform and is one of remain's best-informed advocates, says that, as things stand, Britain is "probably heading for Brexit", estimating leave's chances at between 55% and 60%.

PiS pokazał Unii "gest Kozakiewicza"? Odpowiedź Brukseli może być bolesna

Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska
15 April 2016
Wiadomosci
Jak tłumaczy w rozmowie z WP Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska z Centre for European Reform w Londynie, KE jest w trudnej sytuacji, bo z jednej strony nie chce interweniować, ale wobec braku kroków pojednawczych z Warszawy nie może się ze wszczętej procedury wycofać.

Draghi's German baggage follows him to Washington after ECB spat

Christian Odendahl
14 April 2016
Bloomberg
“The climate in Germany is anti-ECB,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank. “There is a danger that German criticism of the ECB undermines the confidence of investors and businesses abroad that the euro zone can solve its still substantial economic and institutional problems.”

Tok FM: Jakie mogą być konsekwencje afery Panama Papers dla brytyjskiego premiera?

Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska
12 April 2016
Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska talks to Jakub Janiszewski of Tok FM about the potential consequences of the Panama Papers for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

German attacks on ECB intensify but government unlikely to curb independence

Christian Odendahl
12 April 2016
Euro Insight
"There is not much deep resentment in the German government against the ECB or its policies" Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the think-tank Centre for European Reform, told Euro Insight. "The unfavourable comments about the ECB and Draghi are mostly political, in order not to leave the anti-ECB sentiment to the populists on the right."...