Press

"El Brexit es una oportunidad de oro para que Espana recupere el papel que le corresponde por peso economico y demogra¡fico en la UE", asegura a la AFP Camino Mortera, del centro de reflexian brita¡nico Centre for European Reform (CER).

Tras tres años en los que Bruselas sólo ha tenido ojos y manos para Brexit, dejando en segundo plano cuestiones vitales, en Sibiu los 27 hicieron un ejercicio más cosmético que de calado, porque la fractura es notable. En una Declaración tan rimbombante como vacía, los gobiernos se comprometieron a "defender una sola Europa", a "estar unidos pase lo que pase", a "buscar siempre soluciones conjuntas" a "proteger nuestro modo de vida, la democracia y el estado de Derecho" y a "cumplir allí donde sea más necesario". Muy bonito, muy de 'tuit' y de 'meme', pero tan genérico como insuficiente. "Un poco como los votos matrimoniales, que se rompen casi inevitablemente según pasa el tiempo", en palabras de Camino Mortera, investigadora del Centre for European Reform.

Beth Oppenheim at the Centre for European Reform thinks it’s time for the EU to hold a united front against the Saudi regime by restricting arms exports and backing a UN-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Liam Fox says in your trade supplement (“A world beyond Europe,” May) that he wants a “global agreement on services” with Britain at the helm. He makes the point that distance does not constrain trade in services to the same extent it does goods. This is true, but it risks underplaying the impact of geography. Distance does still matter when it comes to trading services cross-border—a 10 per cent increase in distance between countries reduces services trade by 7 per cent. There will be new opportunities for UK services exporters in the future, but the government would be wise to manage expectations. Sam Lowe, Centre for European Reform

A new report this week from the London-based think-tank the Centre for European Reform digs into the economic dimension of these divides, and it illuminates a mess. The EU’s most economically successful member-states, such as Britain, nonetheless contain regions with productivity comparable to Greece’s. Manufacturing’s decline is serious in Western Europe but perhaps somewhat misunderstood. Industrial output in countryside regions more than doubled between 1980 and 2015, although that tended to involve a shift into higher-tech manufacturing.

Britain is a rich country: this relaxed assumption about our place in the economic pecking order has helped fuel everything from Brexit to the complacency that led to Brexit.

Charles Grant, director for the Centre for European Reform, argued that nobody knows what countries truly think as there has been no formal requirement to make public their position.Mr Grant claimed French leader Emmanuel Macron was “isolated” in his “tactical” position at the last European council summit when he pushed for a short extension against the majority who backed Angela Merkel view that “if you give them a very long extension, Eurosceptics will think Brexit will never happen and vote” for the withdrawal agreement.