Press
The cause of our food and petrol shortages is Brexit – yet no one dares name it
24 September 2021
The Guardian
As Sam Lowe, trade sage at the Centre for European Reform, puts it drily: “We did make a big decision to differentiate ourselves from our neighbours.”
Boris Johnson cuts a colorful swath in US, but to what end?
23 September 2021
The New York Times
“Everything that makes a bilateral agreement difficult makes U.S.M.C.A. difficult,” said Sam Lowe, an expert on trade at the Centre for European Reform, a research institute in London. “We’d still be talking about chlorinated chicken,” he added, referring to disputes over access for chemically treated American food.
There’s one big problem for Britain-Germany relations … Northern Ireland
23 September 2021
Politico
“Every German chancellor of any coalition would say, ‘let’s fix this Brexit and trade issue and come to a stable and trustworthy relationship and then we can talk,’" said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think tank. "So the best the UK can do to improve the relationship with Germany is to fix the conflict with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol.”“If anything, Brexit has reinforced the tendency of German parties to agree on the EU, because Britain’s exit has meant that Germany is even more in the position of compromise seeker,” he added.
‘Lots to offer’ Brexit Britain holds trump card over Germany in key leverage power play
23 September 2021
The Express
Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think tank, said Britain can offer Germany security from neighbouring threats. He believes the increasing assertiveness of Russia, China and Turkey offers an opportunity for an improved relationship between Britain and Germany.
UK pins hope on joining US, Mexico and Canada trade pact
22 September 2021
Financial Times
Sam Lowe, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said that it would be “quite an occasion” if Britain were to join USMCA, even though he was sceptical that it would happen. “You would have all the issues with a bilateral US relationship — they don’t go away,” he said. “But from an economic point of view a deal would not be negligible.”
What Germany’s election means for the country’s debt debate
21 September 2021
Financial Times
“The perception that public debt is an issue has changed quite a bit in the past five years,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in Berlin. “The orthodox view of the eurozone debt crisis is shifting and now there is a more progressive approach to climate change.”
The Merkel era in charts: What changed in Germany?
20 September 2021
Financial Times
Germany’s second economic miracle happened “without Merkel’s government doing . . . anything”, added Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.
EU partly to blame for UK’s hardline tactics, says former May aide
20 September 2021
The Guardian
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said he was baffled as to why people in the government thought they were winning concessions through hardball tactics. “I find that a really fascinating argument because I know that trade and cooperation agreement quite well, and the UK did not get much of what it wanted at all,” he said
German dithering means it’ll be a long wait for Merkel’s heir
19 September 2021
The Sunday Times
“Nobody in Germany has been thinking about Britain or Brexit. It just hasn’t been a feature of the campaign. It isn’t anybody’s priority,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. Underpinning this is a dwindling of our economic ties with Germany: in 2016 the UK was Germany’s fifth-largest trade partner; this year it is set to slip to 11th, behind the Czech Republic.
Deutsche boss says sorry for report criticising German government
17 September 2021
The Telegraph
Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: "He’s [Scholz] easily the most experienced, sober and Merkel-like candidate."
UK pledges to restore pounds and ounces as Brexit benefit
16 September 2021
Financial Times
Sam Lowe, a trade specialist at the Centre for European Reform, said the list contained a mix of “things that don’t matter at all, things that might matter, and things that do matter”. But, he added, the test would be whether “divergence from EU rules delivers material economic benefits or just divergence for divergence’s sake”.
Judy Asks: Will the Afghanistan debacle change your country’s foreign and security policy?
16 September 2021
Carnegie Europe
The UK entered the war in Afghanistan confident that it knew how to defeat insurgencies. After more than four hundred and fifty British deaths, it has left, chastened and with less appetite for involvement in distant conflicts.
Why Britain has been eager to join the US deal with Australia — and France hasn't
16 September 2021
NPR
I was talking to a guy named Ian Bond. He's a foreign policy analyst with the Centre for European Reform. This is how he put it. "Potentially, this is a very big, very lucrative contract of great interest to the UK as a country, which has a long history of building nuclear submarines".
Afghan refugee tensions set to cool EU-Turkey relations
15 September 2021
The National
Luigi Scazzieri, a European security expert at the Centre for European Reform, said that any co-operation between Brussels and Ankara would be tense. He said Turkey may try to push migrants towards the EU to satisfy domestic calls for a tough line on refugees.
Basking in vaccine success, EU promises to donate more Covid shots
15 September 2021
The New York Times
“Last year, she was in a crisis mode,” said Camino Mortera-Martínez, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank in Brussels. “This year, she said we need to look forward.”
There’s a chance German SPD only needs Greens to rule: Odendahl
14 September 2021
Bloomberg
Germany’s Social Democrats may not need a three-way coalition to oust Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc from power in the Sept. 26 federal election, according to Christian Odendahl, chief economist at independent think-tank Centre for European Reform.
Tensions over Afghan refugees will lead to ever more transactional EU-Turkey ties
14 September 2021
LSE blog
The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has raised fears in both the EU and Turkey of a new refugee crisis emerging.
UK trade deals should prioritise economic growth over environmental protections - leaked govt document
14 September 2021
Sky News
Sam Lowe, trade expert from the Centre for European Reform, added: "While there have been increased calls for the UK to make its foreign trade agreements (FTAs) conditional on partner countries meeting stringent environmental and climate targets, this confirms that such an approach has been deemed too tricky by DIT.
"It also clarifies that the UK is willing to liberalise trade in environmentally questionable goods if necessary to get an FTA over the line.
"It also clarifies that the UK is willing to liberalise trade in environmentally questionable goods if necessary to get an FTA over the line.
An era ends: How will Germany and the world remember the Merkel years?
13 September 2021
The Local
For Christian Odendahl, the Berlin-based chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, Covid-19 also showed how Merkel’s crisis management evolved over time, learning from past mistakes. “She misunderstood the euro crisis as a debt crisis when it was so much more than that,” he says. “The difference in how she reacted to the euro crisis and how she reacted to the pandemic is, I think, quite telling.”
Merkel "falhou" em preparar Europa para desafios do século XXI, diz Christian Odendahl
12 September 2021
Observdaor
Christian Odendahl, economista-chefe do “Centre for European Reform” (CER), acredita que Angela Merkel, vai “deixar um vazio”, mas admite que a chanceler falhou na preparação da Europa para “algumas das principais questões do século XXI”.