Britain & the EU
Britain’s eurosceptics need to come clean
25 June 2009
Britain’s media and political class have a right to be sceptical about the EU, even hostile to it. But they also have an obligation to be honest about the economic implications of a retreat from full membership of the Union. Their failure to do so is dishonest and poses a serious risk to Britain’s prosperity.
Are the British the new French?
05 May 2009
The British tend to deride France as a hopelessly statist, anti-entrepreneurial country full of bolshie workers intent on extracting disproportionate rewards for their labour and a state too weak to resist them. This characterisation is not wholly inaccurate.
Britain's Schengen dilemma
10 February 2009
Britain supports more EU co-operation against terrorism, crime and illegal immigration and has done so for over a decade. This is because effective justice co-operation has clearly been in the national interest (as with the speedy capture and extradition of one of the 2005 London bombers from Italy to Britain).
The French, the European Commission and the Tories
29 January 2009
One Frenchman, Jean Monnet, invented the European Commission, and another, Jacques Delors, was its greatest president. Yet the French are increasingly hostile to this Brussels institution.
Why is Britain eurosceptic?
19 December 2008
The British are more hostile to the EU than any other European people. But why? Charles Grant looks at the role of geography, history and economics in nurturing euroscepticism.
In defence of Anglo-Saxon capitalism
29 September 2008
Those who never liked ‘Anglo-Saxon’ capitalism are feeling smug. Marxists, fans of ‘Rhineland’ capitalism and those who simply cannot stand American power are crowing.
The CER guide to the French presidency
04 July 2008
France's EU presidency was always going to be ambitious, with wideranging plans for climate change, immigration and defence. Now, however, France will have to focus on resolving the legal and institutional mess created by the Irish No to the EU's Lisbon treaty. President Nicolas Sarkozy will struggle to save the...
Issue 58 - 2008
25 January 2008
- My five ideas for Europe's future, Nick Butler
- Bad omens loom over Irish referendum, Hugo Brady
- Poland’s bold new foreign policy, Charles Grant
Yes to a referendum, but not on this treaty
01 October 2007
Britain is divided over the EU’s new Reform Treaty. The eurosceptic lobby is ratcheting up a well-funded, media-savvy campaign to pressure the government into holding a referendum on the treaty.
Europe in the US-UK special relationship
02 August 2007
Gordon Brown scarcely mentioned Europe during his visit to the United States, certainly much less than Tony Blair used to. That is understandable.
Of mice, men and the language of EU reform
18 July 2007
Beware the humourless, especially in politics. At a CER/Clifford Chance conference last week, Guiliano Amato, Italy’s interior minister, pronounced that the Reform Treaty was a return to familiar territory for the EU: an unreadable treaty.
European choices for Gordon Brown
01 June 2007
Gordon Brown becomes prime minister at a pivotal moment for the European Union. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have emerged as powerful European leaders.
Britain and Europe: A City minister's perspective
18 May 2007
Britain's membership of the EU strengthens London as a global financial centre, argues City Minister, Ed Balls. The UK should engage actively with the EU, to ensure that its financial regulation is proportionate, flexible, and implemented effectively.
If Nixon could go to China, Brown can go to Brussels
17 May 2007
W.B. Yeats lamented a Europe where, in politics at least, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. As Tony Blair bows out as UK prime minister, British pro-Europeans will identify with his sentiments.
Britain and the EU: a crisis looms
02 April 2007
British politicians are too complacent about Germany’s plan to salvage large parts of the EU constitutional treaty. They assume that other countries will reject the German presidency’s scheme, so sparing Britain from isolation. Indeed, there is now a consensus that stretches from UK treasury officials to Conservative leaders to The...
Issue 53 - 2007
30 March 2007
- Britain and the EU: a crisis looms, Charles Grant
- We are all Nordic now, or are we?, Katinka Barysch
- Ukraine’s real problem, Tomas Valasek
The view from 2027
22 March 2007
Given how much respect and esteem most Europeans feel for the EU today, one can easily forget that when it celebrated its 50th birthday, in 2007, it was widely disliked and mistrusted.
The Tories and human trafficking: Don’t play politics
09 January 2007
The British Conservative party kicked off the New Year saying they wanted to sign Britain up to a 2005 European convention that grants rights to the victims of human trafficking. Odd that the Conservatives should suddenly develop such a concern for humanity: only a few months before they wanted to scrap UK legislation giving effect to a related European convention on human rights for all British citizens.
The bulletin at fifty
02 October 2006
The CER opened its office in January 1998. Soon afterwards we established the bulletin as a forum for debate on European reform – both for our staff, and for external contributors.
Britain and France must pool parts of their defence
01 August 2006
In European Union defence, Britain and France spend the most money (45 per cent of the total), maintain the largest and most effective expeditionary forces, run the biggest defence industries and manage the most important research facilities.