Press
Is the UK doomed?
27 May 2025
The New European
Like some economic ice bucket challenge, a deluge of reality has brought me back to reality and reminded me what a complete mess Brexit has made of our lives. That ice-filled bucket comes in the form of a report by Anton Spisak for the Centre for European Reform (CER) called rather chillingly “A perfect storm”. Frankly the “reset” was nice but as Spisak explains in gory, relentless, detail, without much, much more of the same the UK is f****d.
The UK’s trade performance remains dire
26 May 2025
Financial Times
Any improvement in market access might seems a good thing. But it can easily not be good enough, because the deals themselves are too small or because the performance is too feeble. In “A perfect storm: Britain’s trade malaise, weak growth and a new geopolitical moment”, published by the Centre for European Reform last week, Anton Spisak lays out the latter story.
We’ve pressed the Brexit reset button. Now let’s reboot Britain
26 May 2025
The Observer
The Centre for European Reform finds that, since Brexit and the pandemic, UK trade performance has fallen way behind the G7 and EU average. This surely strengthens the case for the government to regard last week’s tentative but welcome easing of Brexit-induced bureaucratic restrictions on trade with, and travel to the EU, as merely the first step towards re-entry to the customs union and single market.
Trump reignites tensions with EU tariff threats
23 May 2025
BBC News
Trade expert Aslak Berg from the Centre for European Reform told the BBC that he thought Trump's post was intended to increase leverage ahead of the negotiations."But the fact of the matter is the EU is not going to budge. They are going to stay calm, carry on and it will be a very difficult discussion," he said.
Hungary’s frozen cohesion funds testing EU’s rule of law conditionality
23 May 2025
EurActiv
Zselyke Csaky, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, says the measures undertaken by the EU to counter violations of the rule of law have had mixed results, as observed in Hungary and Poland.
CER podcast: Unpacking Europe: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine
22 May 2025
Ian Bond, Mykola Bielieskov and Olesya Khromeychuk discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
L'impact réel du partenariat entre le Royaume-Uni et l'UE en débat
21 May 2025
La Tribune
«Le point crucial », à savoir l'inclusion du Royaume-Uni au programme de financement d'une base industrielle de défense, « reste à concrétiser », ajoute Ian Bond, directeur adjoint du Centre for European Reform.
Deal to let Brits skip EU passport queues would have happened without post-Brexit accord
20 May 2025
Financial Times
Anton Spisak, from the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “It’s important to remember that individual member-states have discretion over how they manage their borders, and this deal doesn’t alter that.”
Farmers set to see lower trading costs from closer EU-UK ties
20 May 2025
Euronews
“British exporters have been seriously hit by the bureaucracy they face trying to get food and plants and animals across the frontier into the EU,” Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.“So I think the deal on plant animal health is actually quite important. Not macroeconomically significant, but important for one sector of the British economy.”
‘A double whammy’: Strong euro compounds EU exporters’ tariff torment
20 May 2025
EurActiv
“It's a double whammy for European exporters to the United States, [in] that they get hit not only with tariffs, but that the normal offset of an appreciating dollar exchange rate to the euro is not kicking in – in fact, the opposite is happening,” said Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.
How much Starmer’s Brexit deal might cost you
19 May 2025
The Telegraph
Aslak Berg, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said: “Ten to 12 per cent of that is a reasonable estimate.”This would mean a rough contribution of around £15.7 million from Britain to the EU agency every year.
Five years after Brexit, UK and EU aim for a fresh start
19 May 2025
Le Monde
"The EU's efforts to increase its defense capabilities and rebuild its defense industry will be hampered if the UK is excluded [from SAFE], while the UK risks painfully slow economic growth during a trade war if it fails to lower trade barriers with the EU," warned Aslak Berg, Ian Bond and Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform.
Trumps unfreiwilliges Geschenk an Deutschland
19 May 2025
The Pioneer
Sander Tordoir, Chefökonom des Think Tanks Centre for European Reform, sagt zu The Pioneer: "Trumps chaotische Wirtschaftspolitik und internationale Politikist ein Geschenk für die neue deutsche Bundesregierung."Er glaube nicht, dass der US-Dollar seine Rolle als wichtigste Reservewährung von heute auf morgen verliere, so Tordoir. „Aber Deutschland bietet nun eine wesentliche Alternative.“
ITV News: Government says EU reset is a 'huge boost for growth' - does the claim stack up?
19 May 2025
“I think the price of goods will come down a bit, certainly in the food that we import from the EU and we might get a bit of a better range, but I don't think it's really going to make a really noticeable difference to people's shopping bills,” John Springford, an associate fellow at the CER told ITV News.
How has Britain’s economy fared since Brexit? The five charts underpinning the UK-EU summit
19 May 2025
The Guardian
According to estimates by John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, the demands of the UK and EU suggest the reset could boost Britain’s GDP by a limited amount, of between 0.3% and 0.7%. Far less than the OBR’s estimated 4% long-term reduction in GDP.
Reeves hopes hat-trick of deals shows Britain is open for business
19 May 2025
The Guardian
John Springford of the Centre for European Reform, whose analysis suggests the UK economy is approximately 5% smaller than it would otherwise have been as a result of Brexit, suggests that the government’s 0.3% estimate still looks relatively generous.He recently forecast that an SPS agreement would add less than 0.1%, for example, against the 0.2% upside modelled by the government.
EU certificates deal could boost UK exports by a quarter, study finds
18 May 2025
Financial Times
John Springford, of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said the decision was a question of “pure politics” rather than legal barriers, and that the potential benefits for both sides were significant. “It’s strange that the EU is willing to allow the US to judge the conformity of goods to EU standards, but not the UK, despite its continued alignment with EU rules in the goods sector,” he added.
'Our business needs Irish Sea border reset'
18 May 2025
BBC News
The Centre for European Reform (CER), a think tank, said that an agri-food deal would not be of "great macroeconomic significance" for the UK as a whole but that NI would be a "major beneficiary".It added: "The closer UK regulations come to those of the EU, the less is the need for border controls on goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Northern Ireland."
Zwingt Trump die Europäer zum nächsten grossen Integrationsschritt?
18 May 2025
Tagesanzeiger
Laut dem Ökonomen Sander Tordoir vom Thinktank Centre for European Reform sollten die EU-Länder ihre öffentlichen Ausschreibungen öfter so gestalten, dass gezielt europäische Firmen zum Zug kommen.
The £25bn-a-year prize at stake in Starmer’s Brexit reset talks with EU
18 May 2025
The Independent
The long-awaited youth mobility scheme alone could boost GDP by 0.45 per cent in the next decade, according to a separate study from the Centre for European Reform. On youth mobility, John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, noted: “The youth mobility scheme would raise GDP by bringing more young EU workers into the UK labour force – although the final numbers will depend on how many are allowed to come and how long they can stay for.”