Press
Customs Union: The least bad Brexit compromise that nobody wants
26 April 2018
EurActiv
Customs Union membership is “a half-way house”, says Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform. “The idea (put about by ministers) is that being in the customs union would prevent Britain from having its own independent trade strategy, which isn’t exactly true. A customs union doesn’t cover a lot of areas,” says Lowe. He adds that it “isn’t an arrangement that is appealing to any other member-state”.
CER podcast: Defence co-operation after Brexit: A positive sum game?
26 April 2018
Beth Oppenheim talks to Sophia Besch about the difficulties the UK and the EU face as they try to negotiate the conditions for European military co-operation and defence industrial policy after Brexit.
Can Macron's pitch to Trump save the Iran deal?
26 April 2018
Agence France Presse
Trump has not committed to anything, but he "signaled some openness on Macron's idea of keeping the (nuclear pact) while negotiating an additional deal," said Luigi Scazzieri, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.
Voice of America: Macron, Merkel US visits highlight policy tensions with Trump
25 April 2018
Sophia Besch a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform spoke to Voice of America about German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Washington later this week.
Customs union: The battleground set to decide the fate of Brexit
25 April 2018
Financial Times
John Springford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, says the government could attempt two possible compromises to head off a rebellion but both have serious flaws. One, recently advocated by the Institute of Directors, would see the UK staying in a customs union for manufactured goods but not for most agricultural products.“Tariffs are high on agriculture so we can reduce our agricultural tariffs in future trade deals to help give us access on services,” Mr Springford says. “The trouble is this doesn’t tackle the Northern Ireland problem. There is a huge amount of agricultural trade between Northern Ireland and the republic, which means it would be impossible to maintain a frictionless border.”
The EU is no protectionist racket
24 April 2018
Financial Times
The Trump administration does not hide its view that, if London wants a far-reaching trade deal, it will have to depart from its present regulatory alignment with the EU. That would gravely complicate the search for a solution to the Irish border problem, and it would deny the UK unfettered access to EU markets, as explained in this useful article for the Centre for European Reform think-tank.
ORF TV THEK: Doing business with the UK post-Brexit
24 April 2018
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform speaks to OFR TV THEK (from 02.25 mins) about his expectations for a Brexit deal and the impact Britain’s withdrawal from the EU will have on Austrian and other European companies doing business with the UK.
Post-Brexit hygiene checks will leave British fishermen all at sea
23 April 2018
The Times
On the March 19th the UK and EU agreed, in principle, on a post-Brexit transition period. While this was welcomed by the vast majority of British business, one group felt they had been sold down the river: fishermen.
Bruksela chce się dogadać z Warszawą, ale cena dla PiS jest wysoka. Sąd Najwyższy ma pozostać niezależny i w obecnym składzie
23 April 2018
Oko Press
Już 14 maja rada ds. ogólnych, czyli ministrowie ds. europejskich, może "wygasić" procedurę art. 7 wobec Polski. "Ani Brukseli, ani Warszawie, ani państwom członkowskim nie zależy na eskalacji konfliktu o praworządność w Polsce" - uważa ekspertka polityki europejskiej Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska. Ale rząd PiS musi znacząco ustąpić. Czy jest na to gotowy?
Post-Brexit hygiene checks will leave British fishermen all at sea
23 April 2018
Financial Times
“Neither Calais nor the Eurotunnel — two of our main routes into Europe — have the facilities required to accept fish imports from non-EU countries. The nearest port with the required facilities is Dunkirk, but it only has the capacity for a paltry 15 inspections a day.” (Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform, in The Times).
Brexit could yet be stopped at customs
23 April 2018
Financial Times
Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, reckons the chances of stopping Brexit are now less than 5 per cent. A couple of prominent Remainer MPs with whom I’ve discussed the issue put the odds of stopping Brexit at between 20 per cent and 40 per cent. With so many informed people arriving at such wildly divergent conclusions, my own conclusion is that nobody really knows. There are just too many uncertainties.
Złe wieści dla Polski. Mniej unijnych pieniędzy dla Wschodu, więcej dla krajów Południa
23 April 2018
Wiadomosci
Komisja chciałaby przekierunkować część środków, które do tej pory szły do państw Europy Środkowej na rzecz państw Południa, tj. Państw strefy euro. Wydaje się, że jest to konsekwencja dyskusji na temat strefy euro i apelu prezydenta Francji Macrona, że UE powinna skupić się na wyciągnięciu strefy euro z kryzysu - mówi WP Agata Gostyńska, analityk Centre for European Reform - Zwolennicy tego podejścia twierdzą, że to konieczne, by poprawić zaufanie obywateli do UE i strefy euro. Chodzi o to, by na poważnie zająć się problemami, które bezpośrednio trapią obywateli. A najbardziej namacalnym problemem jest tu problem bezrobocia - dodaje.
How the Brexit vote is changing the EU: Eurozone and EU reform
20 April 2018
Financial Times
National leaders want to roll back integration on other fronts — for example, by regaining full control over the appointment of the next European Commission president. Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska says these efforts suggest that “the irony of Brexit is that the EU is becoming more British, just as the UK is leaving the EU”.
Germany's arms exports have spiked, despite domestic opposition and public scrutiny
19 April 2018
World Politics Review
Between 2014 and 2017, Germany’s government approved some $31 billion in weapons sales, including almost $18 billion to countries outside the European Union and the NATO alliance.
LBC: How will Russia react to allied strike on Syria
14 April 2018
Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform speaks to LBC about how Russia will react or retaliate to the allied strikes on Syria.
Custom made
13 April 2018
Financial Times
Samuel Lowe at the Centre for European Reform makes the case for the UK to stay in a customs union with the EU after Brexit. It'll be much better than Turkey's current customs deal, he writes: "Being a in a customs union, and in particular one with the EU, would constrain the UK’s ability to sign new trade agreements. From a macroeconomic perspective, this is of little relevance: even the government’s own analysis find new FTAs will be of small benefit to the UK’s economy, compared to the cost of Brexit."
Don't be a stranger! EU-UK foreign policy co-operation after Brexit
13 April 2018
E!Sharp
The world feels a dangerous place at present. Relations between the West and Russia are at their most confrontational since the Cold War.
Is Labour selling the UK a turkey?
13 April 2018
Financial Times
"The EU could use its best endeavour to ensure the UK is party to its future FTAs. While the UK would remain responsible for negotiating its own market access, both the EU and UK negotiators could sit on the same side of the table in some parts of the negotiations," wrote Sam Lowe, from the Centre for European Reform.
Could Theresa May get away with a customs union climbdown?
12 April 2018
The Telegraph
Sam Lowe, from the Centre for European Reform, has highlighted a number of ways the UK-EU customs union could be markedly better than what Turkey has. For example, there could be a mechanism by which the UK is "substantively consulted" before the EU enters trade talks, which he acknowledges is possible given the "heft" Brussels would get from having Brexit Britain "on its team in future FTA talks".
David Davis wins battle over Brexit negotiations
11 April 2018
The Times
Sam Lowe, from the Centre for European Reform, said Mr Davis’s plan may well fail. “The fact David Davis thinks we can substantively negotiate on the future relationship is slightly odd, as the EU vision and UK’s still seem a long way apart,” he said.