Centre for European Reform (CER)

Pro-European, market-oriented think tank focussing on international relations and security policy

History

The Think Tank was founded in 1996 assisted by Charles Grant. Spinprofiles points out that CER had shared, up to 2007, its address with |Tory Reform Group and also with [Action Centre for Europe].

Organizational Structure and Funding

The CER employs a director and a co-director. There are a director of foreign policy and a chief economist. Further the CER employs three research fellows and three more people in administration and publications.

People

• Director: Charles Grant (co-founder, first director since 1998; former Defence editor of The Economist, former director of the British Council from 2002 until 2008, member of the following advisory boards:
  • Moscow School of Political Studies[1]
  • EDAM (Türkei)[2]
  • Terra Nova (Frankreich)[3],[4]
  • Business for New Europe
• co-director: Katinka Barysch (economic journalist, consultant for several national and international political institutions especially for issues regarding Eastern European policies)
• chief economist: Simon Tilford (former editor of The Economist Intelligence Unit with focus on Eastern Europe)
• director of foreign policy: Tomas Valasek (former director of the department of security and defence in the Slovakian Ministry of Defence,and before that he had worked for the Center for Defence Information (CDI)[www.cdi.org/])from 1996 until 2006.

advisory board

• Giuliano Amato (former prime minister of Italy (1992-93, 2000-01))
• Antonio Borges (CEO of the Hedge Fund Standards Board and former dean of INSEAD[5])
• Nick Butler (former special advisor to the former prime minister Gordon Brown)
• Iain Conn (BP CEO and executive officer responsible for Refining und Marketing )
• Heather Grabbe (dierctor of the Open Society Instituts Brussels and director European Union affairs of the Soros-network)
• Lord Hannay (former UN and EU ambassador)
• Lord Haskins (former CEO Northern Foods)
• François Heisbourg (chief consultant of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique[www.frstrategie.org/], chairman of the administrative board of the International Institute for Strategic Studies[6])[7]
• Wolfgang Ischinger (chief representative for government relations of the Allianz SE)[8]
• Lord Kerr (chairman of the advisory board, chairman of the Imperial College London and vice-CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc)
• Caio Koch-Weser (vice-CEO, Deutsche Bank Group)
• Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa (Professor, La Sapienza University, Rome)
• Richard Lambert (director-general, Confederation of British Industry)
• Pascal Lamy (since director-general, WTO and former member of the European Commission (1999-2004))
• David Marsh (chairman advisory board of London & Oxford Capital Markets)
• Dominique Moïsi (chief consultant at the Institut français des relations internationales)
• John Monks (secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation)
• Baroness Neville-Jones (Shadow Security Minister)[9]
• Christine Ockrent (CEO, Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France)
• Stuart Popham (Senior shareholder, Clifford Chance)
• Lord Robertson (vice-CEO TNK-BP[10] and former secretary general NATO (1999-2003))[11]
• Roland Rudd (CEO, Business for New Europe)
• Kori Schake (Hoover Fellow and university professor in West Point)
• Lord Simon of Highbury (director of GDF Suez and former minister of state for Europe)[12]
• Peter Sutherland (CEO, Goldman Sachs International)
• Lord Turner (CEO, Financial Services Authority)
• António Vitorino (former member of the European Commission (1999-2004))[13]
• Igor Yurgens (chairman supervisory board, Bank Renaissance Capital)

Funding

The Center is funded by the private sectorWird durch Spenden aus dem privaten Sektor finanziert. Never received core funding from governments or EU institutions. No more detailed information provided.

Topics

The Center is concerned with issues of further developing the European Union from a pro-European standpoint. Opts for transatlantic cooperation. Favours further enlargement of the EU including the possible joining of Turkey.

Civil Rights/Democracy/Governance

The Center wants the media to better acknowledge the EU's efforts in area of domestic and security policies. The CER comprehends the EU treaties and measurers that domestically relevant as means to make EU citizen's lifes safer. Concedes, however, that security policy measures have to be traded off against individual liberties.

Economy: economic and financial policy

Propagates renewed efforts to implement the Lissboa Agenda. Further CER opts for further liberalization of the single market, increased competition in telecommunication industry, in postal services etc. and establishing of a single market for services.

Global Economy/Globalization/International Relations

Addresses issues of EU-China relations, EU relations with Russia and Arab countries.

Ecology and environmental policies

The think tank encourages better coordinated EU environmental policy. The necessity of reducing CO₂-Emissionen are common sense. Also the CER considers the EU emission standards appropriate. However, the CER considers the implementation of the EU emission trade scheme as main instrument for achieving the reduction targets.

Work Modus and Aims

non-public seminars, lectures and conferences with prominent keynote speakers (Lunches, Breakfast Meetings, Dinner Roundtables, Debates, release events for new publications weekly or in ten-days intervalss). different types of publications.