Centre For European Reform

In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, John Springford, our deputy director, and Sander Tordoir, senior economist at the CER, discuss the EU’s fiscal rules. They consider why the rules matter, what their shortcomings are, and weigh up the European Commission’s proposal for tweaking the current fiscal rulebook. Produced by Helmi Pillai and Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, Peter Foster, public policy editor at the Financial Times and author of the FT ‘Britain after Brexit’ newsletter, joins our director Charles Grant to consider the prospects for repairing UK-EU relations under new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. They consider the scope for compromise on both sides, particularly on the Northern Ireland Protocol, and examine two major pieces of UK legislation, the Retained EU Law Bill and the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, whose outcome will affect the relationship — for better or worse. Produced by Rosie Giorgi and Helmi Pillai Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week's Centre for European Reform podcast, CER media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi puts our listeners' questions to senior research fellows, Elisabetta Cornago and Zach Meyers, and head of our Brussels office, Camino Mortera-Martínez. They discuss how EU policy-makers are responding to the energy crisis, why the UK should tread carefully in burning the EU rulebook, and who the most powerful European leader is right now. [01:30] Energy crisis measures: what are the measures agreed upon so far? [08:58] What were this week's new emergency proposals on natural gas? [12:59] Does the UK have a strategy for divergence from EU financial services regulation? [18:53] How will the EU tackle online abuse? [23:50] Which European leader is making the biggest mark on the EU's economic and political development?

Emmanuel Macron set out his vision for a 'European Political Community' in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on May 9th. In this Centre for European Reform podcast, head of our Brussels office, Camino Mortera-Martinez, speaks to our director, Charles Grant, about the potential shape of this new European organisation, the purpose it would serve, and which countries might be involved. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, Hilary Benn, Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central and Co-Convenor of the UK Trade and Business Commission, joins our director, Charles Grant, to discuss the stalemate between the UK and the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol. They consider how negotiations ground to a standstill, the red lines of each side and the prospects for reaching a compromise. Both Hilary and Charles argue that this is not out of reach, provided both parties are willing to work together in good faith. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, our experts answered your questions. Our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi spoke to CER foreign policy director, Ian Bond, senior research fellow, Zach Meyers, and our deputy director, John Springford. They considered how Europe should protect its interests while maintaining a strong trading relationship with China, what the EU has planned in the way of tax reforms, and why the EU’s banking union has stalled. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week’s CER podcast, Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of The Spectator, joins our director, Charles Grant. They consider the UK Conservative party leadership contest, where party members have to choose between Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, and Liz Truss, the foreign secretary. Charles and Isabel consider how each candidate’s government experience has shaped their stances on key issues, and examine what the outcome of the election could mean for Britain’s relationship with the EU and its place in the world. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this new Centre for European Reform podcast, we looked ahead to Italy's autumn elections. Our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi spoke to Luigi Scazzieri, senior research fellow at the CER, about Mario Draghi’s resignation as Italian Prime Minister; the hard-right firebrand Giorgia Meloni, who’s tipped to replace him; and what a (probable) right-wing coalition government could mean for Italy’s relationship with the EU and Rome's foreign policy.

*Running order below* In this week’s Centre for European Reform podcast, our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi put our listeners’ questions to the CER’s experts. She spoke to senior research fellows Zach Meyers, Luigi Scazzieri and Elisabetta Cornago, and the CER’s foreign policy director, Ian Bond. They discussed what central bank digital currencies might look like in practice; how the EU measures up against its global defence peers; relations between Russia and the West in the post-Cold War years; how close we are to implementing an EU carbon border adjustment mechanism; and the inclusion of nuclear and gas energy in the EU's taxonomy for sustainable investments. 01:32 What is a central bank digital currency (CBDC)? 05:17 Centralised vs. decentralised payments 08:24 How CBDCs might fit into the digital payments landscape 10:08 How does Europe’s defence spending compare against China, Russia and the USA’s? 14:30 The challenges for successfully implementing Europe’s higher defence spending pledges 17:22 T

This is an audio recording from the Centre for European Reform's 24th birthday reception, which we celebrated last night at the Irish Embassy in London. Irish Ambassador to the UK, Adrian O'Neill, and our Director, Charles Grant, gave opening remarks, before Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the UK Labour Party, gave a keynote speech on Labour's plans for the post-Brexit UK-EU relationship.

In this week's CER podcast, our foreign policy director Ian Bond spoke to three senior figures involved in Ukraine's application for EU membership: Natalie Forsyuk, General-Director of Ukraine's Governmental Office on European Integration & NATO; Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU; and Katarína Mathernová, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission, and Head of the Commission's Support Group for Ukraine. Ian spoke to Natalie and Ivanna just before the European Council decided on granting Ukraine (and Moldova) candidate status for EU membership, and Katarína shortly afterwards. They discussed what's next on, and what's needed for, the path for Ukraine becoming an EU member-state. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week's Centre for European Reform podcast, we considered the impact that Brexit has had on the UK economy so far. Our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi spoke to two economists: Thomas Sampson of the London School of Economics, and John Springford, the CER's deputy director. They discussed and compared their findings on how Brexit has affected UK goods trade and inflation, and John shared his latest research on how Brexit has impacted GDP, investment and services trade. Read John's latest CER report: https://cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2022/cost-brexit-so-far Music by Edward Hipkins Produced by Rosie Giorgi

In late March, the EU agreed upon two big new pieces of legislation for regulating big tech and social media: the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). In this week’s CER podcast, our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi speaks to senior research fellow Zach Meyers about the motivations behind the new laws, the companies that will be affected and what the UK is doing to promote digital competition and online safety. 02:10 - Who are the so-called gatekeepers? 04:30 - What will the Digital Markets Act make companies do? 10:32 - Will these companies have to adopt DMA rules uniformly across their products/services? 13:38 - The impact of innovation within big tech itself 18:22 - The metaverse and what it is 20:40 - The short-term for consumers, when companies are grappling with implementing the rules 22:41 - Concerns about interoperability and data-sharing 26:02 - The UK’s answer to the DMA 30:06 - What are online platforms doing to regulate content? (now discussing the DSA) 34:00 - Drawing the l

In this week’s CER podcast, we discussed Macron’s re-election as French President. We strung together the audio from an event that we held just after the elections. Pascal Lamy of the Paris Peace Forum, journalist and broadcaster Christine Ockrent and the Atlantic Council’s Ben Haddad joined us to consider France’s domestic political landscape, Macron’s victory, his vision for French and EU policy this time around, and what the potential stumbling blocks might be. Presented and produced by our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi. Index 01:46 - Figures from the first round of voting and what they show about French society 03:38 - Demographic comparison between the Maastricht referendum in 1992 vs. the second round of these elections 05:01 - The diminished influence of socialists and conservatives in France 06:46 - June's legislative elections 08:37 - Climate policy as a priority 09:29 - Trade and economic policy under Macron 10:55 - Europe as central to Macron’s identity 13:19 - 'European sovereignty' vs. 'st

In this week's CER podcast, our 2021-22 Clara Marina O'Donnell fellow Megan Ferrando spoke to Malak Altaeb, an environmental consultant and writer based in Paris. Megan recently published a CER paper about water insecurity in the Maghreb, and in this episode with Malak, takes a close look at the situation in Libya in particular. They discuss how the water landscape changed after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the extent of the problem today, and what international actors like the EU can do to help. 02:02 - Why water security should be higher up the political agenda 05:32 - The link between water and politics in Libya 08:00 - Libya's great man made river project 14:21 - Water scarcity in Libyans' daily life 18:01 - The challenge of long-term solutions in an unstable context 22:06 - What the EU and the international community can do Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week’s CER podcast, we answered your questions about EU policy and geopolitics. Our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi was joined by senior research fellow Elisabetta Cornago, head of our Brussels office Camino Mortera-Martínez, and CER foreign policy director Ian Bond. They discussed the EU's attempts to free itself of its dependency on Russian gas, the UK-EU relationship following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Viktor Orbán's response to the war. 01:38 - What the EU is doing to achieve energy independence from Russia 04:49 - Could these plans just entrench fossil fuel use? 07:44 - How could moving away from Russian energy imports impact the EU's climate targets? 10:38 - The UK-EU relationship amid the war in Ukraine 12:30 - Can the UN offer protection to countries seeking EU membership? 14:38 - Budapest’s relationship with Moscow

In this week’s CER podcast, head of our Brussels office Camino Mortera-Martínez speaks to John Morijn, professor of law and politics at the University of Groningen.   They discuss the European Court of Justice’s ruling of February 16th, which dismissed Hungary and Poland’s challenges to the conditionality mechanism, a law that allows the EU to stop funding countries which do not comply with rule of law standards. They look at how we got here, explain why this law is not as far-reaching as it may seem, and consider how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might affect the standoff between Brussels, Warsaw and Budapest over the rule of law in Europe. Produced by Rosie Giorgi Music by Edward Hipkins

In this week's CER podcast on the Russia-Ukraine crisis, our foreign policy director Ian Bond is joined by Marie Dumoulin, a former French diplomat who now heads the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and our former colleague Khrystyna Parandii, a political analyst in Kyiv and a Ukrainian citizen, who was the CER's Clara Marina O'Donnell fellow from 2019-20. While it is not clear whether Russia is really withdrawing troops or if an invasion of Ukraine is still imminent, Ian, Khrystyna and Marie discuss the mood in Kyiv and the Ukrainian government’s approach to the crisis; they consider French and German shuttle diplomacy with Ukraine and Russia; and they look at Ukraine’s relations with NATO and the EU. 02:06 - The perception of the crisis from Ukraine 06:07 - Macron’s relationship with Putin and Zelensky 08:15 - France and Germany’s approach - ‘good cop, bad cop’? 11:25 - Ukraine and NATO: Ukraine’s membership perspective 15:18 - The role of the EU as an institution in

This week’s CER podcast features speakers from our recent economics conference on ‘The politics of climate change’ at Ditchley Park. Panellists included Suzi Kerr of the Environmental Defence Fund, the European Commission’s Arianna Vanini, Beata Javorcik of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank’s Stéphane Hallegate, whose remarks we included in the first half of this episode. They spoke about whether we needed tougher measures against laggard countries in the fight against climate change. They also discussed whether carbon border adjustment mechanisms would work, and how developing countries could be brought on board. In the second half of the podcast, Rosie Giorgi asked her CER colleagues Elisabetta Cornago and John Springford for their takes on CBAMs, climate clubs and more.

In this week's CER podcast, our experts answered the questions you wrote in with, asking about all things European policy. Our media co-ordinator Rosie Giorgi spoke to senior research fellows Luigi Scazzieri and Elisabetta Cornago, and our director Charles Grant. They discussed European strategic autonomy and the UK's stance on it, the EU's taxonomy for sustainable investments, the French presidential election and the UK's new Brexit minister.