Press

The IMF should introduce a cap on its surging lending costs

The IMF should introduce a cap on its surging lending costs

18 October 2023
Devex
As the world’s finance ministers and central bankers gathered in Marrakech for the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund last week, they fretted that an already weak global economy might buckle further under ‘higher for longer’ interest rates.

Europe’s Gaza misinformation crackdown could set a dangerous precedent

18 October 2023
Fast Company
“They won’t be able to have an open and frank dialogue about what they think works and what doesn’t work and why,” says Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a European think-tank. “They’re going to be really nervous about the fact that certain commissioners think that they can score some political points by making it public and taking an aggressive approach.” 
Designing a US-EU industrial and trade policy

Designing a US-EU industrial and trade policy

Zach Meyers, Erik Brattberg, Frances Burwell, Jörn Fleck, Charles Lichfield, James Batchik and Emma Nix
18 October 2023
Atlantic Council
Washington and Brussels under the Joe Biden–Ursula von der Leyen presidencies have developed a strong working relationship on trade and industrial policy issues.

Réforme du marché de l'électricité : l’usine Europe marque des points précieux

18 October 2023
L'Agefi
«La réforme devrait directement aider à réduire la volatilité ayant caractérisé les prix de l’électricité, ce qui encouragera les investissements, tant dans les capacités industrielles que dans l’électricité bas-carbone, estime Elisabetta Cornago, chercheuse senior du Centre for European Reform.
Breton’s megaphone enforcement is no way to tackle disinformation

Breton's megaphone enforcement is no way to tackle disinformation

17 October 2023
EurActiv
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton is taking an aggressive public approach to social media platforms’ failure to tackle disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
CER Podcast: EU enlargement and reform, migration and the EPC summit

CER Podcast: EU enlargement and reform, migration and the EPC summit

Camino Mortera-Martinez, Luigi Scazzieri
16 October 2023
Camino Mortera-Martinez and Luigi Scazzieri discuss EU enlargement and reform, migration and the EPC summit.

Brandblusser IMF worstelt met nieuwe wereldorde

13 October 2023
Het Financieele Dagblad
Niet alleen de machtsverhoudingen in de wereld zijn veranderd sinds 1944, het jaar waarin het IMF en de Wereldbank werden opgericht. Volgens Tobias Krahnke en Sander Tordoir van denktank Centre for European Reform is ‘voor het eerst in de geschiedenis’ sprake van landencrises tegen de achtergrond van een wereldwijd gestegen rente. Ook het IMF is te duur geworden, schrijft het tweetal.
The CDU must not draw the wrong lessons from the Bavarian and Hessian elections

The CDU must not draw the wrong lessons from the Bavarian and Hessian elections

Christina Keßler
11 October 2023
LSE blog
The Alternative for Germany increased its vote share in two key state elections in Germany on 8 October. 

Ten years old, China's 'Belt and road' is losing allure in Europe

11 October 2023
Voice of America
"The increasing diplomatic costs associated with being perceived as being close to China, and at the same time the fact that the benefits – to the degree that they exist – are increasingly thin, given the broader trend towards de-risking between the West and China," said analyst Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform, in a recent interview with VOA.

The EU is stuck with its one-trick refugee policy

Camino Mortera-Martinez
09 October 2023
Reuters
Analysts such as Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform think-tank doubt this agreement will stick because Poland and Hungary opposed it. The EU’s first attempt at burden-sharing collapsed during the Syrian refugee crisis after several states boycotted it.

The IMF is under pressure but on a mission

09 October 2023
Financial Times
There’s a big and troubling issue here though, as well described in this recent Centre for European Reform paper on IMF lending by Sander Tordoir and Tobias Krahnke. Normally, high demand for IMF resources comes at a time of low or at least falling official interest rates, such as the 2008 global financial crisis. (Makes sense: low growth leads to both debt problems and central banks loosening.)
Charles Grant

The Spectator podcast: Has Brexit failed?

07 October 2023
Seven years after the Brexit vote, Katy Balls is joined for a fringe panel from the Conservative Party Conference to discuss if voting to leave the EU was worth it, where the wins are and if opportunities are being missed. Katy Balls in conversation with John Redwood MP, Theresa Villiers MP, Camilla Cavendish, Charles Grant, CER and Vote Leave founder Matthew Elliott.

La incendiaria retórica de Polonia y Hungría empaña la cita de Granada

Camino Mortera-Martinez
07 October 2023
La Vanguardia
El debate sobre la política europea de inmigración y asilo ha cobrado un cariz “tóxico”, afirma la analista Camino Mortera-Martínez, jefa de la oficina europea del Centre for European Reform (CER), un think tank con sedes en Londres, Bruselas y Berlín. 

World financiers gather to prevent ‘higher-for-longer’ rates breaking the system

06 October 2023
The Times
Sander Tordoir, from the Centre for European Reform, calculates that surging global interest rates mean that the IMF’s lending to debtor countries could be charged at rates as high as 8 per cent.“In some cases the burden of paying high interest rates to the IMF is worsening rather than alleviating countries’ budgetary woes and hampering their prospects of economic recovery,” Tordoir said. He thinks that the fund should introduce a temporary cap on its lending rates to avoid imposing punishing costs on the world’s poorest countries.

The EU says it must enlarge. But why did it stop in the first place?

05 October 2023
Euronews
Before the 2004 accessions, "everything seemed to be going in the direction of a more open global world. These countries were, most of them, transitioning from communism to democracy and the free market economy and so there was this great sense of hope and that we were returning these countries to Europe," Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.

As US support for Ukraine wobbles, EU takes up membership question

Camino Mortera-Martinez
05 October 2023
The Washington Post
“To me, it is not only a question of what to do about the people that want to come in,” said Camino Mortera Martinez, who leads the Brussels office of the Centre for European Reform. “It is also what to do about the people who are in and not necessarily complying with rules.”

The Conservative party's uneasy truce with Brussels

05 October 2023
Financial Times
That’s why longstanding Conservative Brexiter Andrea Leadsom and the EU ambassador to London Pedro Serrano were in surprising agreement at a Centre for European Reform fringe event this week when I shared a platform with them both. Serrano was only too happy to endorse Leadsom’s soothing line that the TCA was the “deepest trade deal the EU has ever done” — the same line, incidentally, that is used by Lord David Frost — while repeatedly reminding the audience there was no appetite to reopen it.
Sander Tordoir

BNR Radio: Nederland heeft geen last van 'zieke' Duitse economie

03 October 2023
Nederland hoeft zich geen zorgen te maken dat de slechte staat van de Duitse economie invloed gaat hebben op de Nederlandse economie. Dat zegt Sander Tordoir senior econoom van denktank Centre for European Reform in het economenvakblad ESB. 'Er zijn structureel diepere problemen in de Duitse economie die zich nu wreken.'

Keir Starmer’s trade trap

03 October 2023
The New European
As Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform points out, this sort of thing is not going to undo much, if any, of the economic damage of the TCA. But I think it is obvious that the first step back to a better relationship with the EU is to be nice, ask politely and show willing.

Dette publique : sur la scène européenne, la France voit ressurgir ses vieux démons

03 October 2023
L'Agefi
«La remise à plus tard de toute réduction de la dette, même modérée, est devenue une caractéristique permanente de la politique française : le déficit semble, en quelque sorte, être devenu le seul exutoire de la pression politique en France», juge pour sa part Sander Tordoir, économiste néerlandais du Centre for European Reform.