Publications

Sandra Kröger (Januar 2019): Much has been said about the referendum on British membership of the European Union since the 23rd of June 2016. Commentators have mostly focused on the demographics of the result as well as the factors which determined voters’ choices. By contrast, there has been little reflection on how democratically legitimate the referendum process can be said to have been — not least because such reflection can only follow the availability of research findings on the campaign. Addressing the legitimacy of the referendum process not only helps to close a research gap but also opens discussion on what can be learned for future referenda.

The post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU will play a key role in shaping the UK’s future environmental ambitions. The UK’s current environmental and climate policy framework is underpinned by a swathe of EU legislation, robust governance structures, and considerable funding and financing opportunities. Once the UK leaves the EU, these relationships could change significantly.

On 14 November 2018 New Economics Foundation in association with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung London Office has published a pamphlet discussing how climate protection and industrial strategy can be combined. During a breakfast event, the pamphlet titled “Working together for a Just Transition”, was subject of intense debate on green jobs for industries and communities, which still depend on fossil fuels.

Neal Lawson (October 2018): The Brexit vote was the biggest single democratic revolution the UK has experienced in decades. In hindsight everyone saw it coming, but at the time the news when it trickled through in the early hours after the close of polling was a seismic shock. It still is. That was because the reasons were so deep and the distance between sections of our country a now obvious chasm. Complexity plus complacency were the causes of a Brexit tsunami that was decades in the making.

Tanja Bueltmann (September 2018): In this edition of FES Perspective, Tanja Bueltmann argues that the rights of around 3.7 million EU citizens living in the UK and 1.2 million Britons resident in another EU country are at risk. Not only is there the significant threat of a no-deal scenario, but uncertainty and missing legally-binding guarantees by the UK government pose existential threats to livelihoods. EU citizens in the UK and Britons in the EU should not bear the heaviest burden of the UK government’s decision to leave the EU. UK and EU leaders, parliamentarians and negotiators should use the little time that remains to finally put people before politics.

Matthew Donoghue, Mikko Kuisma (July 2018): The second edition of our Brexit Paper Series with Social Europe sheds light on the intergenerational origins of the Brexit vote and the longer-term effect of Brexit in more detail, especially from a welfare perspective. Matthew Donoghue, Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford, and Mikko Kuisma, Research Fellow in Comparative Public Policy at the University of Tübingen, argue that both the past and the future of the UK welfare state in the context of Brexit depends rather more on the broader political economy framework than the intergenerational dimensions thereof.

David Gow (May 2018): The new Brexit Paper Series by FES London Office and Social Europe presents the impact of Brexit upon key aspects of UK politics and policy. The first edition focuses on the consequences of Brexit for the state of devolution in the United Kingdom. David Gow, former The Guardian and The Scotsman correspondent and contributor to the Red Paper on Scotland, analyses the constitutional conflict between Westminster and the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. He concludes that the UK faces a stark choice between a new political/constitutional settlement or the break-up of Britain.

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, Thierry Coville, Damid Ramin Jalilvand (April 2018): The E3 - comprising France, Germany and the UK - has become a cornerstone of international diplomacy towards Iran. In 2003, the E3 initiated negotiations with Tehran. Talks to address the crisis over the Iranian nuclear issue resulted in July 2015, when the Iran nuclear deal was concluded after years of nuclear diplomacy and international sanctions. Today, the Trump administration and Brexit are complicating matters even more.

Sophie Gaston, Peter Harrison-Evans, Philipp Sälhoff, Joris Niggemeier (March 2018): As a joint research project, Demos and Das Progressive Zentrum explore the relationship between media and populism. The report focuses on challenges, journalists in both countries face in relation to the rise of populist parties and narratives. Through the analysis of anonymised interviews, it offers an unprecedented insight into the day-to-day operations in a rapidly changing media landscape.