Press

EU's vaccine fiasco to cause bitter 'election upheaval' in France, Germany and Netherlands

Christian Odendahl
01 February 2021
Express
Chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, Christian Odendahl wrote on Twitter, alongside a picture of a survey by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Approval rating of Merkel‘s government is in free fall, on the back of the vaccine disaster and mishandling of the second wave."

UK makes formal request to join trans-Pacific trade deal

Sam Lowe
01 February 2021
Reuters
Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said accession could be a useful counterpoint to those who thought Brexit was a nationalist policy and a retreat from the world stage.“Even signalling that the UK wants to join the CPTPP is a useful global signal that the UK is still interested in rules based trade, is still interested in working together with others,” he said.

A month on from Brexit, UK firms are being slowly ground down

Sam Lowe
30 January 2021
Bloomberg
“People refer to lots of the problems as teething problems,” said Sam Lowe, senior fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London. “But while businesses will learn how to fill in forms, we should acknowledge that new bureaucracy is the new reality and there’s a lot more to come.”

Europe's year zero after Merkel

Christian Odendahl
30 January 2021
FEPS
The German election in September 2021 marks a new beginning in European politics.

Breaking up is so hard to do

30 January 2021
The Australian Financial Review
There is pain on the European side too, of course, but it is less dependent overall on the Britain-EU trade relationship. And for Brusssels, says CER economist John Springford, Britain's pain is a necessary price. "The strategy of the EU has always been to play hardball because they need to show that Brexit hurts," he says. 

Britain has successfully rolled over the EU’s trade deals

Sam Lowe
29 January 2021
The Economist
Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, points out that doing deals is also harder when there is no deadline.

The EU-AstraZeneca vaccine fight, explained

Christian Odendahl
29 January 2021
Vox
But, initially, richer EU members like Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands began to negotiate deals with vaccine makers themselves, including with AstraZeneca.

BBC News: EU, Germany and the vaccines

Christian Odendahl
29 January 2021
"It's about boosting the supply of the vaccines, and quickly. [...] This is the richer countries' job, and I think that's where the EU's strategy fell short" Christian Odendal, chief economist of the Centre for European Reform told BBC News.

Majority of lorries crossing channel to France are empty as Brexit hits trade

Sam Lowe
28 January 2021
ITV News
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said the number of empty lorries is a cause or concern.“[They] suggest a substantial hit to the UK economy. And with new sanitary and photo sanitary controls still to be phased in by the British it is possible we will see increased disruption over the coming months,” he said.

Judy Asks: Is Germany damaging Europe's position on Ukraine?

27 January 2021
Carnegie Europe
Germany has made it harder to achieve a united European response to Russia’s threats to Ukraine. No one wants a war in Europe, and everyone would like to find a peaceful outcome.

Brexit Britain set for '50 years' of non-stop negotiations with EU to improve current deal

27 January 2021
Express
Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, fears the UK still has five key areas that will determine the future relationship between the country and the European Union. Mr Grant looked at European countries outside the EU, like Switzerland, who have been in a constant negotiation limbo with the bloc since the mid-seventies. The political expert forecast Brexit Britain may soon be entering a similar situation and face as much as 50 years of additional talks with Brussels.

Brexit negotiations could continue for '50 years' to improve deal

27 January 2021
The New European
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, told the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that the UK could end up like Switzerland - a country which has been in negiotiation limbo since the mid-seventies.Grant warned that very little had been settled with the Brexit deal that decides the UK's long-term relationship with the bloc.

Brexit leaves UK and EU diminished in fight against international crime

Camino Mortera-Martinez
26 January 2021
Financial Times
Camino Mortera-Martinez, an expert in EU justice and security at the Centre for European Reform, foresees difficulties in reconciling the EU’s perceived data protection “gold standard” with the UK becoming laxer to boost innovation. 

Britain joins US in attack on China’s trade subsidies

Sam Lowe
23 January 2021
The Telegraph
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said joining the tripartite group would be “a good way of building bridges with the US and the EU on trade”.He said: “It’s good for the UK to try and come to a consensus position on these issues; there’s no point in the UK taking its own approach. If the aim is actually to try and change Chinese behaviour and get new commitments from China in these areas, then you need to present a united front.

Biden y Europa: ¿la gran esperanza blanca?

Camino Mortera-Martinez
21 January 2021
El Periodico
El nuevo presidente de EEUU devolverá la calma a las relaciones con Europa, aunque esa no va a ser su prioridad.

Judy Asks: Is the EU too soft on Putin?

21 January 2021
Carnegie Europe
After more than twenty years, the EU has not found a successful strategy to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US President Biden's rocky road to rebuilding trust with Europe

21 January 2021
Forbes
“Trump literally thought that EU had been set up to cheat and take advantage of the US,” said Luigi Scazzieri, a researcher at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “Biden doesn’t, so this makes working together feasible in a huge range of areas,” he said. 

In a slight to EU, UK says not all Ambassadors are equal

21 January 2021
The New York Times
Ian Bond, the director of foreign policy for the Centre for European Reform in London, said Britain’s “attempt to downgrade the status of the EU delegation to the UK looks petty and guaranteed to cause ill-will, when the UK needs friends in Brussels.’’It was “worth noting Trump tried the same trick, but had to back down,’’ he said, referring to a similar effort to downgrade the status of the EU ambassador to Washington two years ago.

5 things to expect from Joe Biden on UK trade

Sam Lowe
20 January 2021
Politico
Yet dealing with the domestic economic aftermath of COVID-19 and all the other burning issues left by the Trump administration will cause the deal to “fall down the political agenda,” said Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, shortly after Biden’s election.

CER podcast: What next for post-Merkel Germany?

Sophia Besch, Christian Odendahl, Laura Krause
20 January 2021
Christian Odendahl spoke to Laura Krause and Sophia Besch about the election of the new CDU party leader Armin Laschet.