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 [...]
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 controls from the EU, Boris Johnson’s government has also taken full responsibility for what happens [...]
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 will no doubt become increasingly difficult to ignore – has been the island of Ireland. [...]
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 market just now for optimism about our economic, social, political or environmental future. In the [...]
The European Commission has launched a Communication, on Energy System Integration (ESI) and Hydrogen strategies, as part of its framework for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. Along with the introduction of a proposed EU Climate Law enshrining the EU’s commitment to greenhouse emissions neutrality by that date, these two new strategies [...]
President Clinton admonished us that it was “the economy, stupid”. Perhaps, in the current febrile situation this should be amended to being “it’s the politics, stupid”. Faced with a 25% drop in GDP in the UK in quarter 2, this might seem surprising to some. But take a closer look. [...]
Charles Michel, President of the European Council; Angela Merkel, German Federal Chancellor on 8th July 2020. Copyright: European Union "The EU was born out of catastrophe and has advanced through crisis," wrote Martin Wolf, venerable economics commentator at the Financial Times, on June 2. It's a common [...]
That the UK’s union of four nations is under strain is not new to anyone who has been paying attention. But the combined impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Conservative government under Boris Johnson are driving an increasing wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK – or, more [...]
The first of the newly scheduled weekly talks between the UK and EU teams on a trade deal by the end of the transition period (31st December 2020) finished early last week, sending warning signals to those hoping for some breakthrough. Time is running out. Prime Minister Johnson has rejected [...]
The Conservative government has been surprisingly successful in avoiding public discussion of the disappearance on 30th June of its option to ask for an extension of the EU transition period beyond the end of the year. Controversy about the shake-up of the civil service and further Covid-19 cases in Leicester [...]
