Press

Fixing the protocol

Hilary Benn
09 September 2022
Financial Times
Even if relations between the UK and the EU are in a pretty bad place, it is possible to find a way forward, provided both sides are prepared to move and then engage in hard, detailed negotiation, writes the Centre for European Reform in this policy brief.

Europe's energy crisis: How will EU ministers address rising prices?

09 September 2022
Euronews
Elisabetta Cornago, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, explained that the way the EU energy market is designed, demand is met by the cheapest power plants up until the most expensive power plants.The most expensive power plant then determines the price for the entire market.

Liz Truss: What will the UK's new prime minister mean for Europe?

05 September 2022
Euronews
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, reported in June after a visit to Paris speaking to officials that "British-French relations are still dire"."All French fed up that Johnson, Truss and their briefers keep saying 'French soft on Ukraine' when in substance UK and France have [the] same position," he tweeted.

Liz Truss’s blustery style triggers EU eye rolls, but a trade misjudgement could prove serious

04 September 2022
iNews
“She [Ms Truss] treats the EU as a Tory Party conference, playing to the gallery,” says Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. “If she sticks to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, that guarantees bad relations and possibly a trade war.”

How to spend Europe’s defense bonanza intelligently

02 September 2022
Politico
“The basic issue remains that European countries still lack a truly cooperative mindset when it comes to developing, acquiring and operating defense capabilities together,” wrote Ian Bond and Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform.

Liz Truss is about to get her hands on Brexit dynamite

02 September 2022
The Washington Post
There’s an appreciation in Europe that the British have some good points on problems with the Protocol, notes Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. But there has to be a basis of trust on which to reach an agreement. “If Truss wants to surprise and make a trip to Dublin, a deal is doable,” Grant says. “But she has to focus on the practical problem of trade friction, not more ideological things.”

BBC Radio 4: The Briefing Room Can we keep the lights on this winter?

01 September 2022
Elisabetta Cornago a senior research fellow at the CER, joined other experts to speak with David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room (from 09:28 mins) to speak abour soaring energy costs.

Metina Lista: Evropska četrt 102: Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform

30 August 2022
Charles Grant, director of the CER spoke on the Metina Lista podcast about the many futures for the European Union, the state of a relationship between the EU and the UK, is Macron the leader that the Europe needs and what should be a path forward for Western Balkans.

The nightmare in-tray facing Britain’s next prime minister

30 August 2022
Financial Times
Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, is pessimistic: “So long as the British persist with the Northern Ireland bill — and I fear Truss will — it will be impossible to have a better relationship with the EU,” he said.

Macron's plan to turn Brexit Britain into ‘satellite of Brussels’ slammed by UK

28 August 2022
The Express
Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform also said that Mr Macron's idea has the backing of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The expert added: “The move is highly significant. There is a strong desire for a rapprochement with the UK, and they might even be willing to rewrite the Protocol, if there is a different prime minister. Relations with Boris Johnson are now too toxic."

Brexit's unavoidable gravity squeezes UK scientists

23 August 2022
Blomberg
As Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform notes, a lot of the damage has already been done. While both sides suffer from this dispute being dragged out, it’s the UK, as with most Brexit matters, that has more to lose. ...Meyers notes that while the UK was getting more out of Horizon in financial terms than it was putting in, it’s the qualitative elements that signify the bigger loss.

How to boost NATO-EU co-operation

19 August 2022
Project Syndicate
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that Europe can no longer afford to treat quasi-theological arguments over EU and NATO primacy as more important than its own security.

The war that changed the world: Six months in, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed a global order in transition

17 August 2022
The New Statesman
As John Springford of the Centre for European Reform noted in a recent article for the think-tank, Covid-19 has caused services trade to rise and goods trade to fall but recover relatively quickly, while foreign direct investment and migration flows have continued to surge. 

Brexit is Boris Johnson’s singular achievement. How well is it working?

15 August 2022
The Washington Post
John Springford at the Centre for European Reform say their economic models have found that Britain’s GDP is 5 percent lower because of Brexit.
CER podcast: The Tory leadership contest and what it means for Europe

CER podcast: The Tory leadership contest and what it means for Europe

Charles Grant, Isabel Hardman
10 August 2022
Charles Grant and Isabel Hardman consider the UK Conservative party leadership contest.

Estados Unidos podría arreglárselas con una desglobalización. Europa no

09 August 2022
ES Global
La verdadera “desglobalización” —la desintegración de la economía global— se desencadenaría por un acontecimiento político, por ejemplo, que China invadiera Taiwán.

Facebook’s unlikely new public face: How Nick Clegg went from political wipeout in London to Mark Zuckerberg’s inner circle at Meta

04 August 2022
Fortune
“It will not work,” Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, says of Clegg’s efforts to kick responsibility back to governments. Content moderation is a “hot potato,” he notes - governments don’t want to be responsible for policing speech, either.

Brexit is a flop, and the voters know it. So why can't Labour call for a closer bond with Europe?

31 July 2022
The Observer
Yet three weeks before the Liverpool speech, Sir Keir used an address to the Centre for European Reform to reject categorically the suggestion that a Labour government should attempt to negotiate some form of customs union with the single market – a prospect of economic expansion so exciting that even the announcement that talks were being considered would stimulate a sudden surge in capital investment.

Tú no eres alemán, pero también te van a cortar el gas

Camino Mortera-Martinez
31 July 2022
EL Confidencial
Yo no sé qué más emergencias necesitamos para quitarnos todos del gas, como buenamente podamos. Que sí, los alemanes los que más. Pero eso no nos da derecho a castigarlos.