Press
Why Britain should remain European
31 March 2016
Project Syndicate
The CER report is strongest on the real (nonfinancial) economic issues. The most contentious point here is whether the British economy is held back in some way by red tape imposed by Brussels or by European treaty obligations.It is very hard to find any such stifling effect in the data. The CER points out that product- and labor-market regulation in the UK are closer to that of the United States than to Western Europe, and the same broad pattern emerges from the OECD’s assessment of barriers to entrepreneurship.
In Europe, states challenge austerity but lack cash to spend
28 March 2016
The Daily Mail
"What has changed is that over the past year, eurozone governments have started to openly question" the wisdom of Brussels and Berlin's policy strictures, said Simon Tilford of the CER. In Portugal, Finance Minister Mario Centeno, who has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, is introducing income tax and sales tax cuts, tax rebates, new subsidies for household energy bills and restoring government workers' pay that was cut. Those steps, he says, will stimulate consumption.
Frauke Petry: Meet the smiling new face of Germany's far-right
26 March 2016
The Telegraph
“Do you compromise and have a chauffeur-driven car, or remain true to your values in opposition? That’s the dilemma faced by all these parties, and we’ve seen in the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland that being in government does not help them in the polls,” says Mr Grant.
Refugee crisis: Hope turns to despair as Lesbos camp becomes open-air prison
25 March 2016
The Independent
“Greece has effectively been asked to build an asylum system in two weeks,” says Camino Mortera, a research fellow for the Centre for European Reform and a specialist in EU law. “The EU claims there won’t be returns en masse but if you are not able to process people in a regulated fashion, how else are they going to deal with this?”
Brexit supporters and Scottish independence advocates believe in a 'false freedom', says David Mundell
22 March 2016
The Independent
In a speech at the CER he will also question how supporters of Scottish independence can be comfortable campaigning for Britain to stay in Europe, suggesting that both the Union and the EU carry similar benefits such as trade and security.“If Scotland had voted to leave the United Kingdom, those who supported that outcome would have argued that we had achieved ‘freedom’ from the UK,” he will say.
Brussels attacks fuel debate over migrants in a fractured Europe
22 March 2016
The New York Times
"In the public eye everything gets connected: the mass abuse in Cologne on New Year’s Eve and the attacks today," said Rem Korteweg, a security analyst at the Centre for European Reform in London, referring to the sexual abuse and robberies in Cologne on New Year’s Eve that were linked to migrants. “However different, in the public mind and for the euroskeptic populace, they’re all the same thing."
BBC World News: EU-Turkey migrant deal
17 March 2016
Clara Marina O'Donnell fellow Sophia Besch talks to BBC World News on the EU-Turkey deal negotiations at the European Council summit yesterday.
EU referendum threatens to expose fissures across Britain
17 March 2016
The New York Times
But as the Centre for European Reform, a research organisation that broadly supports European integration, said in a study last year, "The regions that have most to lose tend to be the most euroskeptic." In the northeast, it said, exports to Continental Europe "are far higher than other regions — yet its residents consistently favour withdrawal."
Doubts grow as EU leaders meet on migrant deal with Turkey
16 March 2016
Voice of America
European Union leaders begin talks Thursday to work out a migrant deal with Turkey... But prospects of finalizing an agreement appear to be fading. Analyst Camino Mortera-Martinez is betting against it. "I think the opposition among member states is growing, and it's going to be very difficult to justify and craft a deal in such a short time frame," says Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the CER. Even if a deal is reached, she added, "there are many practical problems in implementing it."
Migrant crisis: EU-Turkey deal on the rocks
15 March 2016
The Telegraph
Camino Mortera-Martinez with the CER, said that legal challenges to the deal were inevitable unless it was substantially revised, or "decaffeinated". "This deal hasn’t been thought through and they are having to think though the implications after having already announced it," she said, "From political and practical point of view there is a lot to resolve in a very short period."
ABC Rear Vision: Brexit and the referendum on EU membership
13 March 2016
Ian Bond talks to with Annabelle Quince and Keri Phillips of ABC Rear Vision about Brexit and the referendum on EU membership.
Mario Draghi liebäugelt mit dem nächsten Tabu-Bruch
13 March 2016
Die Welt
Der deutsche Ökonom Christian Odendahl wiederum will nicht den Staaten das Geld geben, sondern den Geschäftsbanken. Die EZB soll deren Schuldverschreibungen aufkaufen.
La pregunta es qué obtiene el Reino Unido alejándose de Europa
13 March 2016
La Voz de Galicia
Simon Tilford es subdirector del Centro para la Reforma Europea en Londres. Al reflexionar sobre el referendo de permanencia del Reino Unido en la Unión Europea pone énfasis en la importancia de que el 23 de junio vayan a votar los jóvenes, más favorables a Bruselas.
A deal with Turkey to stanch the flow of refugees may be the European Union's last hope to find a solution
12 March 2016
The Economist
Many are shocked that the EU has made such a lavish offer when Mr Erdogan has nothing but contempt for Europe's values and is undermining the independence of Turkey's courts and media. Some EU members, particularly those with strong right-wing parties, regard visa-free travel as "very sensitive and problematic", says Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank.
CER podcast: Emergency EU Turkey summit
09 March 2016
Sophia Besch talks to the CER's JHA expert Camino Mortera-Martinez about the details of this week's migration summit deal and broader implications for the sustainability of Schengen.
Why Draghi's Words May Matter Too If ECB Fires Stimulus Salvo
08 March 2016
Bloomberg Business
Christian Odendahl of the CER said, “what markets need to know is that the ECB is willing to let inflation overshoot for a while until the recovery is completed, before it starts normalizing rates. More of the same in terms of forward guidance is not going to achieve that.”
Ukraine er taget som gidsel af hollandske EU-skeptikere
06 March 2016
Berlinske
Folkeafstemningen er kommet i stand, efter at flere end 400.000 skrev under på et ønske om den som led i en kampagne, som det satiriske og EU-skeptiske medie Geenpeil stod bag sidste år. Og den handler i høj grad om den hollandske EU-skepsis, bekræfter Rem Korteweg fra CER. "Det begyndte med, at associeringsaftalen bare var en undskyldning for at få en folkeafstemning, hvor den hollandske offentlighed kunne få en mulighed for at udtrykke sin utilfredshed og frustration over EU.
In, out, find a fib to shout
05 March 2016
The Economist
But John Springford of the CER, a think-tank, points out that, in trade negotiations, individual countries, not the EU as a whole, decide what to accept. Britain’s share of all other EU countries’ exports is only around 8%, he says (our chart, using IMF figures, puts it even lower), and in many individual cases a lot less, leaving it in a weaker bargaining position.
Euranet: Threat of exits from EU
05 March 2016
If Brussels does not agree to pass on to France more sovereignty in border protection or budget policy, the FN is likely to organize a referendum on leaving the EU. This kind of political blackmail may even be effective and Brussels’ influence on member-states is limited, comments Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, an expert of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank devoted to improving the quality of the debate on the EU. (audio in Polish)
EU chief warns economic migrants not to travel to Europe
03 March 2016
Voice of America
The process of making that distinction is burdening resources, said Ian Bond of the London-based Centre for European Reform. "It's the sheer effort of trying to separate the legitimate refugees from those who are just economic migrants, which I think is really overwhelming the resources that Greece and its EU partners have been able to put into the problem at the moment," Bond said.