Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team ‘We’re committed to UK,’ says German tech giant Bosch chief German tech giant Bosch has no intention of easing up on its UK investments despite uncertainties surrounding Britain’s future trade arrangements with the EU. Bosch UK president Steffen Hoffmann told the Press Association that the company’s British operations, which employ over 5,300 people, would receive continued support regardless of Brexit. “Look, with the footprint we have in the UK, we have a need for continuous investment,” he said. “This is in the range of 25 million euro (£21.6 million) every year. “It’s been like that the past few years and it has been like that in 2016 as well.” He added: “The UK is the second largest market for Bosch in Europe, and we’ve been here since 1898. “We’re committed to the UK, and there are no plans to change the investment levels.” – Evening Express Eurozone ‘still fragile’ despite growth spurt, warns European Central Bank… Europe’s sovereign debt crisis might seem like a distant memory as the eurozone economy enjoys a healthy growth spurt, but the European Central Bank fears that government finances in the currency area “remain fragile”. A combination of economic growth and jubilation in markets over the election of Emmanuel Macron in France has raised business confidence and given rise to a view that, at long last, the continent has put the worst behind it. – Telegraph …as ECB says Brexit won’t threaten eurozone stability… Brexit poses little risk to financial stability in the eurozone, the European Central Bank has said in a robust dismissal of British warnings that a punitive deal for the City would backfire on the Continent. In its regular financial stability review, the ECB said that the threat from Brexit to the Continent’s banks was “limited” and “not one of the main concerns”. It acknowledged that a large portion of financial activity in the eurozone is managed through London but was sanguine about the consequences. – Times (£) …and ECB President Mario Draghi reveals concerns over losing oversight of London’s euro clearing market European Central Bank president Mario Draghi has revealed his concerns over losing oversight of UK-based euro clearing. In a letter to an MEP, Draghi also said he welcomed the European Commission’s consultation on clearing houses, in which it is considering new location policies. – City A.M. Bundesbank’s Dombret says Brexit likely to be ‘hard’ or ‘very hard’ The U.K.’s departure from the European Union is unlikely to go smoothly, according to Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret. “It doesn’t look like a soft Brexit to me at all,” Dombret told David Ingles in a Bloomberg TV interview in Tokyo on Tuesday. “It looks like either a hard Brexit or a very hard Brexit.” – Bloomberg EU warns bureaucrats to beware Brexit lobbyists EU bureaucrats have been given a “do’s and don’ts” checklist to protect them from lobbyists looking to influence the upcoming Brexit negotiations. Brussels civil servants are told not to accept hospitality “without careful consideration”, not to share confidential information and “where necessary” report any gifts. – Telegraph UK businesses will continue to invest in digital despite Brexit British businesses are fairly certain overall investment in the UK’s digital economy will increase after the country leaves the European Union. New research undertaken by GE Digital and YouGov found that businesses in Great Britain are confident about future infrastructure investments, with 79 per cent thinking the Government will keep investing. A third (35 per cent) thinks investment will continue with at the same pace, while 43 per cent think they’ll increase. More than four-fifths (82 per cent) think UK businesses will continue to invest either more (49 per cent), or at the same levels (34 per cent), despite the Brexit decision. – IT Portal UK biotech boasts Europe’s best pipeline as Brexit looms Britain’s biotech sector boasts the strongest new drug pipeline in Europe but industry leaders say it needs continued access to global talent, funding and regulatory clarity to thrive in the future – all of which could be jeopardised by Brexit. A new report yesterday (22 May) showed the United Kingdom was well ahead of rivals like Germany, France and Switzerland in terms of the number of experimental drugs in clinical development at early-stage biotech firms. – EurActiv EU data regulation will govern the UK despite Brexit There’s one date that has many in the insight economy quivering in their boots and that’s May 25, 2018. This is when the landmark EU legislation, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), comes into force. And despite Brexit, it will shake the world of UK data privacy to its very core. Consumers across Europe will soon have a fistful of new rights, including the right to have personal data deleted, fresh access rights, new civil liberties around data portability and consent, as well as the right to be informed of data breaches. The list is long, going beyond the UK’s Data Protection Act and bringing 21st-century, digital-age, law and order to the wilds of data use. – Raconteur Brussels rolls out the red carpet for President Trump Donald Trump arrived in Brussels yesterday afternoon for a trip burdened by his previous comments about the European Union, Nato and Belgium’s capital itself, which he previously described as a “hell hole” of Muslim fundamentalism. Air Force One touched down in warm spring sunshine at Melsbroek, a military air base just outside Brussels, where the US president and Melania Trump were met by Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister. – Times (£) The man who said he was Trump’s pick for Brussels job reportedly isn’t Ted Malloch, who had loudly proclaimed that he was Donald Trump’s choice to be U.S. ambassador to the European Union, is not and never has been in the running for the job, the Wall Street Journal reported officials in Washington as saying. According to the WSJ report on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said this week that Malloch isn’t a candidate for the ambassadorship, while a White House official said Malloch was never under consideration. – Politico East Europeans work harder then become lazy like the British, suggest academics Migrant workers are harder working but after a couple of years in the country they become as lazy as Britons, according to a report published today. Eastern Europeans were more than three times less likely to be absent from work than British workers partially because they want to prove themselves and get permanent contracts. Migrants from Poland and the Baltic states who have come to Britain since 2004 have been praised by employers for having a stronger work ethic than Britons, particularly as they take less sick leave. – Times (£) Simon Collins: Brexit brings the chance to end 40 years of damage to our fishing communities Oddly enough, the general election has given all of us focusing on Brexit a chance to breathe and look around. With government ministers out of their offices and knocking on doors, and the press swarming from one issue to the next in no particular order, we can take stock for once and see just how far we have come over the past 11 months. Brexit has yet to be signed and sealed, of course, and having been sold down the metaphorical river before, the fishing industry needs no reminding that its hopes could be dashed at the eleventh hour. But at least there is hope, and that in itself represents a dramatic change from the previous 40 years. – Simon Collins for The Scotsman David Smith: In uncertain times, the pound has become a Brexit barometer There will be ups and downs for the pound on the road to Brexit. At times, when the prospect of a deal looks remote and the gulf between the two sides enormous, sterling will suffer. When there is apparent harmony, it will benefit. The pound has become a Brexit barometer. – David Smith for The Times (£) Matthew Holehouse: EU can point to clear precedents in Brexit court showdown The Brexit negotiations are heading for an early battle. The remaining EU states on Monday agreed that the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after its withdrawal should fall under the jurisdiction of the EU Court of Justice, or CJEU. The UK wants to guarantee individuals’ rights, but rejects the oversight of the bloc’s top-tier court in Luxembourg. “The simple truth is: we are leaving,” Brexit secretary David Davis has said. “We are going to be outside the reach of the European court.” European Commission negotiators will be able to cite previous rulings that have set precedents and conditions for granting the CJEU jurisdiction over non-EU countries. – Matthew Holehouse for Mlex Stuart Pickford and Mark Stefanini: Brexit negotiations must make cross-border contract disputes clear cut The forthcoming election has been billed as an opportunity to ensure that a single government remains in office through to the end of the Brexit negotiations and beyond, without a 2020 election looming on the horizon. But given the complexity and detail involved in negotiating the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU, it is not surprising that the election campaign has focused more on who might be leading the UK negotiating team rather than the substance of those negotiations. – Stuart Pickford and Mark Stefanini for The Times (£) Brexit comment in brief Mandy’s moaning – Jayne Adye for Comment Central The case for a second EU referendum – Sarah Olney for Prospect May’s manifesto U-turn doesn’t bode well for Brexit – Andrew Lilico for CapX Why does Colin Firth want to be Italian? – Quentin Letts for the Daily Mail ECB faces impossible choice between German overheating or Italian debt storm – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph Brexit news in brief Britons fear culture is under threat from minorities – Times (£) Post-Brexit EU unity may not hold – Wall Street Journal (£) How the Liberal Democrats are using Facebook ads to court ‘remainers’ – LSE Brexit Small firms call for help to cope with Brexit – Times (£) Eurostar to run direct trains from London to Amsterdam by end of the year – Evening Standard