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The CER’s mission is as vital as ever by Nick Butler
Although we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Centre for European Reform’s move into its first offices, the idea of a think-tank devoted to developments in Europe and committed to building better links between the UK and other member-states was conceived somewhat earlier. Bored by an unusually dull discussion at the British-German ‘Königswinter’ conference on the banks of the Rhine, David Miliband and I slipped off and began to discuss the need for a group to spread the idea that Europe was not a foreign country and that we in Britain had much to learn and something to offer.
PHOTO: (L to R) Nick Butler, Emmanuel Macron and Simon Tilford Event on 'Brexit and the future of the EU', London, September 2016
At the time – in 1994 – membership of the EU was not in serious dispute in Britain. The Labour Party had been encouraged by Jacques Delors and others to see the European Community as a vehicle, even an exemplar, for progressive ideas. Conservatives, though wary of federalism and a single currency, accepted that the single market, which Margaret Thatcher had helped to create, was a source of great opportunities for British business. Europe itself was still absorbing the shock of German reunification and considering how to deal with the ambition of the former Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe to become part of the West. Britain supported enlargement but was otherwise largely distant from the ongoing debates on the future of the Union. For the CER, the period from conception to formal birth certainly took more than nine months. For a
while the organisation was no more than a loose network, meeting in the back room of the Marquis of Granby pub in Westminster, or in Baroness Elizabeth Smith’s flat in the Barbican. We had to find supporters prepared to invest in a group of people, most of whom were under 30. The CER would never have been more than a good idea without the support in particular of David Simon, then chief executive of BP, but also of Niall Fitzgerald, CEO of Unilever, and Michael Green, the boss of Carlton Television (whose chief of staff, David Cameron, signed one of the first cheques we received). They all deserve great thanks. With a little money we found our first staff members – initially in 1997 a very young Ben Hall, now Europe Editor of the Financial Times and, in 1998, Charles Grant, who gave up a senior role at The Economist and took the risk of joining a startup. Charles created the organisation which exists today and has succeeded in bringing together successive brilliant teams of individual specialists, many of whom are now in important roles across Europe. The organisation has won numerous awards and accolades for its outstanding publications and is recognised across Europe as a source of knowledge and experience.