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The Federal Trust is a research institute studying the interactions between regional, national, European and global levels of government. Founded in 1945 on the initiative of Sir William Beveridge, it has long made a powerful contribution to the study of federalism and federal systems. It has always had a particular interest in the European Union and Britain’s place in it.
The Federal Trust has no allegiance to any political party. It is registered as a charity for the purposes of education and research.
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Brexit: Eurosceptics don’t like what they voted for
MPs pass Second Reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on 19th December 2019 (parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament) A recent incident illuminates, as few events have since 2016, the moral and intellectual chaos into which Brexit has (predictably) fallen over the past [...]
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Can Johnson avoid a no-deal Brexit?
This article was first published by The Parliament Magazine. There was a time when Brexit was the only thing we wanted to talk about. Now it seems to be a conversation stopper on both sides [...]
The EU and media freedom
This is a shortened version of a joint article by Eszter Nagy and Roger Casale published on Voxeurop on 28th July 2020 (No impunity for the abuse of press freedom in Hungary). No sooner [...]
Brexit: Eurosceptics don’t like what they voted for
MPs pass Second Reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on 19th December 2019 (parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament) A recent incident illuminates, as few events have since [...]
The Triple Tragedy of Brexit
by Jaap Hoeksma Philosopher of law and director of Euroknow Author of "The Case Bundesverfassungsgericht versus EU Court of Justice - Can the EU function as a democracy without forming a State?", which can be [...]
End of ‘golden era’ in UK-China relations goes beyond any US meddling
This article was first published in South China Morning Post. With the fifth anniversary of the China-Britain Comprehensive Strategic Partnership approaching, it is remarkable to see how dramatically this much-heralded “golden era” of relations has [...]
A historic EU budget and recovery package deal?
Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel at the Special European Summit, 20/7/20; Photo credit: European Union This article was first published on The UK in a Changing Europe. In the end they did [...]
Consolidating rights and values should be at the heart of the recovery programme
Roundtable Special European Council (17/07/20, Bruxelles); Copyright: EU This article was first published in the Brussels Times. The European Council has agreed the next multi-annual financial framework but postponed a decision about how [...]
Whatever the odds on undoing Brexit?
by Professor Richard Rose FBA University of Strathclyde; Visiting Fellow, European University Institute Florence; Fellow, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin; Author of How Referendums Challenge European Democracy: Brexit & Beyond (Palgrave, 2020) In taking back all [...]
How far can the Northern Ireland Protocol limit Brexit’s economic damage?
Photo credit: Albert Bridge (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 2.0) The Brexit project entails much collateral damage. The most prominent potential victim of UK departure from the EU to date – though others [...]
Is the European Union finally moving to an economic – not just a monetary – Union?
Photo copyright: European Union by John Palmer Formerly European Editor of The Guardian and Political Director of the European Policy Centre in Brussels There is not much of a [...]