On 13th October, the Times columnist David Aaronovitch published an article entitled “Whisper it, but a pro-EU lobby is stirring.” Its tone is admittedly hesitant and conditional, with the title of the piece suggesting diffidence in putting forward a thesis unattractive to many readers. But it is difficult to believe [...]
The UK government’s trade deal negotiations have recently been mired in controversy . In particular, the in-principle agreement with New Zealand has been heavily criticised as a one-sided arrangement. By contrast, since Brexit, the EU has been developing new legal instruments to strengthen its capacity to defend and promote its [...]
In this video, the Director of the Federal Trust, Brendan Donnelly, talks about the reluctance of British politicians to discuss Brexit honestly and seriously. In particular, he disagrees with those who wish to rejoin the EU but are afraid to say so. He argues that those who want the UK [...]
In this video, the musician and businessman Peter Cook discusses the implications of Brexit for British musicians touring in Europe with Federal Trust Director Brendan Donnelly. He fears that the new expenses and barriers imposed by Brexit will lead to fewer cultural and particularly musical exchanges between the UK and [...]
The extraordinarily tight outcome of the German elections has created the danger for the European Union of prolonged negotiations before the next federal government can be formed, lasting even as long as until Christmas. However, it also contains a most significant opportunity. This is not merely due to the defection [...]
by Prof. Colin Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, and Dr. Carole Talbot, Research Associate, University of Cambridge ‘Levelling Up’ is back in the headlines with the move of Michael Gove to what has now become the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. One [...]
This article was first published by The Brussels Times. Tourists are flying into space and life on Mars seems a less distant possibility. Meanwhile Europeans are busy trying to create a buzz about our future here on earth. With the first Europe-wide transnational panels taking place in Strasbourg (17-19 September), [...]
Many hoping the United Kingdom will rejoin the European Union one day advocate a gradualist strategy. It is futile, they argue, to rail against the principle of Brexit itself. In time, the economic disadvantages of Brexit will reveal themselves ever more plainly. This in turn will lead to pressure from [...]
There is much talk amongst erstwhile Remainers that we must not anticipate, let alone advocate, an early British return to the European Union. Some, whose grasp of history is limp, even compare our situation to that of the Jacobites following the failure of the ’45. Many of us are certainly [...]
The European Union (EU) has been finalizing multiple trade deals since Brexit, many of which have been painstakingly negotiated over several years. Meanwhile, the UK government has been hurriedly concluding numerous continuity trade agreements (rolling over former EU deals) and embarking on new ones, raising alarm bells over their quality [...]
