The British government has been making a significant effort to present the video conference between the Prime Minister and the Presidents of the European Council, Commission and Parliament on Monday as constituting something of a breakthrough in the negotiations over the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, one which could (with...Read More

Many commentators and political actors have only recently begun to take seriously the possibility that the “transition period” for the UK’s exit from the European Union will end on 31st December 2020 without an agreement on the future EU/UK trading relationship. There was, however, always good reason to expect such a disruptive outcome, given the gap...Read More

The Chinese government’s announcement of a controversial new national security law for Hong Kong has encountered distinctively restrained responses from policymakers and officials in Brussels and other European Union (EU) capitals in contrast to combative countermeasures coming out of Washington DC and London.  As a result of US President Donald Trump’s numerous threats of withdrawals...Read More

What I see is European construction drifting towards a free-trade zone, that is to say an English-style Europe, which I reject. If we do nothing, this will lead in 15 years to a break-up. I reject a Europe that would be just a market, a free-trade zone without a soul, without a conscience, without political will,...Read More

At a lively conference on relations between the EU and Russia in London on 17th September a number of speakers took as their starting-point the fact that the new Commission was reviewing the state of these relations. It was uncertain what the outcome of this review would be. Two contrasting analyses were offered by the panel....Read More

A frequent criticism of the Prime Minister is that she prematurely triggered the Article 50 negotiations in March 2017 and did so without a realistic plan for their conduct. If she had waited longer and planned better, her critics contend, she could have negotiated a more acceptable Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration than the texts...Read More

Four conclusions emerge from the series of votes on Brexit in the House of Commons this week (29th January): • First, this government is so paralysed by internal division that it is incapable of pursuing any coherent policy in the negotiations. As long as it is in office but not in power, the UK is therefore...Read More

It is becoming clear that China’s ambitious Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) linking Asia and Africa with Europe through a network of various transportation corridors could fundamentally reshape the geo-economics and geopolitics of the whole Eurasian region and beyond. As the initiative has huge implications for the EU and India; the paper has captured evolving...Read More

The Conservative Cabinet has spent the past month in public controversy about the customs regime to be applied on the island of Ireland after Brexit. It is widely recognised that neither of the two favoured solutions canvassed within the Cabinet, a “customs partnership” and “maximum facilitation”, is acceptable to the European Union. Less widely understood...Read More

The motivation for writing the pamphlet was my concern about the rise of ‘nationalist populism’, partly engendered by the growing marketisation in all areas of our political and economic lives. The popular resentment which underlies this anti-elitism, whereas nationalism is a ‘horizontal’ objection to ‘the other’. (See House of Lords Library Note, 2017). I want...Read More