Research

The Briefing, Monocle: Ian Bond on the shooting in Turkey

20 December 2016
Ian Bond on the shooting in Russia, and how this will affect Russia Turkey relations.

Russia Today: Charles Grant warns that Nicola Sturgeon's single market plans are 'unrealistic'

20 December 2016
Charles Grant says independence is the more realistic way for Scotland to stay in the single market.

Sturgeon lays out Scotland plan to stay in single market after Brexit

19 December 2016
Financial Times
Charles Grant, a member of the Scottish government’s advisory Standing Council on Europe, said a special deal would be “extremely difficult” given the legal complexity and lack of support from the UK government. “It would be legally possible for Scotland to have control over immigration that would allow freedom of movement, but politically Mrs May would be highly unlikely to go for it,” said Mr Grant, the director of the CER.

Brexit Bulletin: Turkey for Brexit?

19 December 2016
Bloomberg
"Given the political difficulties, custom union membership seems an unlikely outcome in the long term," John Springford, director of research at the Centre for European Reform, said in a report last week. "But it would be a sensible arrangement for a transitional deal."

'Brutal' Commission insider deliberately derailing Brexit with 'ridiculous' €60 billion demand

19 December 2016
Breitbart News Network
Charles Grant, the director of the pro-EU Centre for European Reform think-tank, said if that was the kind of deal the government wanted, a showdown with hard-line Brexiteers was necessary. “There will have to be a transitional period in which we stay in the single market and the customs union, pay into the EU budget, accept ECJ rulings and, probably, accept free movement,” he said.

Nicola Sturgeon Brexit adviser pours cold water on her single market plans hours before they are unveiled

19 December 2016
The Telegraph
Charles Grant said it was “extremely difficult” to see how her plans were legally, politically or technically feasible.

Brexit briefing: Business leaders want a Brexit plan

16 December 2016
Financial Times
John Springford, director of research at the Centre for European Reform, writes that while remaining in the customs union may appear to the best way to minimise the economic costs of Brexit while ‘taking back control’, the customs union and the single market are not easy to disentangle, and the EU-27 would demand a high price for an arrangement that eliminates costly customs charges and checks.

Swiss and Danish travails show way ahead for Brexit talks

Camino Mortera-Martinez
16 December 2016
Financial Times
“The Danish deal is not a model for the Brits,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, an expert on EU justice and home affairs policy at the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

I Rusland kalder de det ’Aleppos befrielse’

16 December 2016
Information
Mens vestlige medier har forsøgt at sondre mellem etablerede terrorgrupper som Islamisk Stat eller det tidligere Jabhat al-Nusra, der har direkte links til al-Qaeda, og Syriens mange andre oprørsgrupper som Den Frie Syriske Hær, har russiske medier haft en tendens til at dele borgerkrigen op i to grupper: én for og én imod Assad-regeringen, siger Ruslandsekspert Ian Bond, udenrigsdirektør i tænketanken Centre for European Reform i London. »Det folkelige narrativ er, at det er en kamp imod terrorisme, og alle, der kæmper imod Assad, beskrives som terrorister,« siger han.

Eurointelligence newsbriefing

Sophia Besch
15 December 2016
Eurointelligence
Sophia Besch has an excellent analysis on the state of European defence and foreign policy coordination. Besch writes that the Europeans are underestimating the potential impact of Donald Trump, who has severely damaged the EU’s security by questioning Nato's security guarantee. And with Brexit the EU will lose one of its strongest European militaries, as well as a country in favour of more competition in defence procurement.

EU leaders hoping 2017 will offer respite should look away now

Camino Mortera-Martinez
15 December 2016
Bloomberg
“2016 has been a shock with Brexit, Trump, the Turkish coup and terrorist attacks,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a Brussels-based research fellow of the Centre for European Reform. “But 2017 will be the year when we start seeing what these shocks mean for Europe and the world.”

CER podcast series: The economics of populism, episode five

Sophia Besch, Martin Sandbu, Christian Dustmann
15 December 2016
In this episode, Martin Sandbu and Christian Dustmann discuss 'How should governments respond to migration fears?'

Judy Asks: Is the EU's architecture collapsing?

Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska
14 December 2016
Carnegie Europe
A selection of experts answer a new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign and security policy challenges shaping Europe’s role in the world.

Who benefits? Not Britain

Simon Tilford
14 December 2016
Financial Times
The Brexit vote did not have much to do with globalisation, argued economists attending a conference at the Centre for European Reform. Fascinating summary here. "The participants largely agreed that globalisation had not been the driving force behind the Brexit vote. Rising inequality and economic insecurity had been factors, but reflected the deregulation of labour and financial markets, technological change and tax and housing policies, more than globalisation itself."

European anxiety deepens over 'disruptive' Trump presidency

13 December 2016
Reuters
"The Europeans are in a state of shock," said Charles Grant, director of the CER, who was in Washington last week with Perthes to discuss a Trump presidency with US officials."If Trump were to support Marine Le Pen like he supported Farage that would be a revolutionary event in transatlantic relations".

Can we withdraw Article 50 once we trigger it? Probably (but it's complicated)

Camino Mortera-Martinez
12 December 2016
Politics.co.uk
Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, emphasises that the debate is not purely legal, it is "a combination of politics and the law". So while the article in itself is probably revocable, "the Supreme Court interpretation is likely to be that Article 50 is non-revocable, and therefore any case for revocability is going to be a lot harder to make".

The way forward for the west? Help China and wave the rulebook at Russia

08 December 2016
The Guardian
Russia and China are often bracketed together as the west’s most important adversaries. They have grown closer since Russia’s relations with the west soured after the annexation of Crimea.

Britain is heading for the hardest of hard Brexits, but Theresa May can limit the damage

08 December 2016
The Guardian
Theresa May's government is heading for the hardest of hard Brexits. That's what many European officials now believe.

CER podcast series: The economics of populism, episode four

Christian Odendahl, Marcel Fratzscher, Ryan Avent
07 December 2016
In this episode, Marcel Fratzscher and Ryan Avent discuss ‘Is inequality behind the rise in populism?’

Who is Pier Carlo Padoan? Could the technocrat replace Renzi after his referendum defeat?

07 December 2016
The Express
Luigi Scazzieri, a fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said that the President Sergio Mattarella will explore options for a new Government “based on the current composition of the Parliament”.