Press

John Springford of the Centre for European Reform argues today that this upbeat economic data are allowing the Brexiters to brush aside for now arguments about economic risks. But he warns: "Brexit is not an event but a process of disintegration." He cites evidence suggesting that if the UK ends up with a free-trade agreement with the EU rather than single market membership, the cost could be between 0.75 per cent and 3 per cent of gross domestic product.

"You have some governments, particularly in Central European countries like Hungary, who are really trying to take advantage of Brexit to say the EU really needs to get out of our business, or we'll go the same way as the British," says Ian Bond, foreign policy director of the London-based Centre for European Reform. "And I think that's quite dangerous."

Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow specialising in justice and home affairs at the Centre for European Reform, quoted in the [Guardian] newspaper, said: 'In theory UK citizens, as third-country nationals, would certainly be subject to the obligations (of such a scheme),' adding: 'This will have to be part of the Brexit talks. It will all have to be negotiated.'

The UK government's unwillingness or inability to explain its "Brexit" strategy came under withering criticism this week from Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister, and Peter Sutherland, the World Trade Organisation’s first director-general. The pair shared their extensive experience of EU and global trade issues at an event in London held by the Centre for European Reform.