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Mats Persson

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This article is about the economic consultant resident in England. For the Swedish Liberal member of the Kristersson Cabinet, see Mats Persson (politician).

Mats Persson
Born1978
Bankeryd, Sweden
NationalitySwedish
Occupationjournalist

Mats Persson (Bankeryd,[1] 1978[2]) is a Swedish consultant resident in the United Kingdom and former advisor of UK prime minister David Cameron on EU affairs.

Early life and education

Mats grew up in Bankeryd, Sweden. He moved at early age to the U.S., where he attended San Diego City College.[3] He received a B.Sc. from Liberty University in Virginia, United States, where he attended on an athletic scholarship as member of the 2004 Liberty Flames basketball team.[4] He then moved to London, where he received a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006.

Career

Think tank

In January 2007 Persson was hired by the London "think tank" Open Europe as research director. Three years later, in January 2010, he became director of the group.[5] Persson contributed to its rebranding from a UK think tank opposing UK involvement in further EU integration to a European think tank advocating liberal EU wide reforms. To do so Persson recruited a pan-EU staff and co-founded and joining the advisory board of Open Europe Berlin (launched 2012).[6] He has written and published on a broad range of issues including the eurozone crisis,[7] institutional reform,[8] EU budget, financial regulation, trade policy, German politics and Britain's position in Europe.

During the same period Persson was a regular commentator in UK and international media. He wrote a regular blog for the Daily Telegraph[9] and has written in The Times,[10] the Sunday Times,[11] The Guardian,[12] the Wall Street Journal,[13] Dagens Nyheter[14] and several other papers and publications. He has appeared numerous times on BBC Newsnight,[15][16] Sky News,[17] ITV News, CNBC and CNN as well as other European and international TV outlets.[18] He has contributed to various BBC radio programmes including The World Tonight [19] and the Today Programme.[20]

In 2011, Mats Persson was selected by the Diplomatic Courier one of 99 influential international leaders aged 33 or under.[21] In a 2013 feature in Swedish left-leaning magazine Arena, author and journalist Katrine Kielos labelled Mats "one of the politically most influential Swedes in Europe".[1] In 2014, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne noted that "Mats and the Open Europe team are influencing the debate not just in the UK but right across Europe."[22]

In March 2010, David Rennie writing in a blog on The Economist's website, praised Open Europe for being a "Eurosceptic campaign group" that was capable of "spoon-feeding lazy journalists" and "controlling British coverage of the EU" but also noted the group was "assiduous" and "admirably multilingual".[23] In 2012, however, Rennie noted that Open Europe had by then fallen in with the Europhile consensus saying "the hostility of earlier reports" was "muted" under Open Europe's then director, Mats Persson, and that the group had "worked to shake off an early reputation as a partisan campaign group, which concentrated exclusively on negative aspects of the European project".[24] He credited the group for eschewing "the nationalism of many eurosceptic groups" and defending the concept of freedom of movement, but added that the organisation "remains as much a campaign group as think tank."[24]

After Persson's departure to work for No.10, Open Europe decided not to support David Cameron's campaign to stay in the EU, adopting instead a neutral stance in the 2016 EU referendum in the UK.[25]

UK Government

Persson was recruited in 2015 as special adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron.[26][27] In this role he advocated David Cameron's EU reform program and the UK's EU membership prior to the referendum on the UK's continuing membership of the EU. In May 2015 he advised Cameron not to rush into a referendum vote in order to ensure a better renegotiation of the UK's place in the Union.[28]

Following the UK vote to leave the European Union and David Cameron's resignation he ceased to work for the UK Government.

Consultancy

Since November 2016 Persson is head of international trade (Brexit) for the London-based consultancy Ernst & Young.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b Kielos, Katrine (19 June 2013). "EU-doldisen som påverkar Cameron". Dagens Arena (in Swedish). Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  2. ^ Vibeke, Anette (19 February 2016). "I den politiska hetluften". JP.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  3. ^ Mats J Persson, Linkedin
  4. ^ "Liberty Flames Men's Basketball Media Guide, 2003-2004". Lynchburg, Virginia: Liberty Flames. Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  5. ^ "Open Europe appoints new Director". London: Open Europe. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  6. ^ "Open Europe Berlin Kuratorium". Berlin: Open Europe Berlin. Archived from the original on 16 June 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  7. ^ Persson, Mats (1 June 2012). Better Off Out? The Short-Term Options for Greece Inside and Outside of the Euro (PDF). London: Open Europe. ISBN 978-1-907668-25-8. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  8. ^ Persson, Mats (12 August 2012). "Chapter 2: The Political Efficiency of the EU". In Zimmermann, Hubert (ed.). Key Controversies in European Integration. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 30–40. ISBN 978-1-137-00614-1.
  9. ^ "Mats Persson – Telegraph Blogs". London: Blogs.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 January 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  10. ^ "Cameron has no plan for EU reform. Here's one for him". The Times. UK. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  11. ^ "Sunday Times Opinion: Stop there, Brussels: let us locals take over". The Sunday Times. UK. 12 September 2011. Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  12. ^ "Mats Persson: Ten Years On: What Britain can learn from the Swedish euro referendum". The Guardian. UK. 14 September 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  13. ^ "Mats Persson: After the German elections". The Wall Street Journal. New York. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  14. ^ "DN Debatt: Flera skäl för Sverige att stödja Camerons EU-vision". Dagens Nyheter. Stockholm. 1 January 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  15. ^ "In the news". Open Europe. 16 January 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  16. ^ "In the news". Open Europe. 12 October 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  17. ^ "In the news". Open Europe. 17 March 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  18. ^ "In The News". Open Europe. April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  19. ^ "In the news". Open Europe. 22 June 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  20. ^ "EU institutions could be used for eurozone-specific purposes under new 'fiscal treaty'". Open Europe. 2 March 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  21. ^ "Diplomatic Courier: Top 99 under 33". 5 September 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  22. ^ The Sunday Telegraph"Osborne's 6'7 Europe Guru". The Sunday Telegraph. London. 18 January 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  23. ^ "Open Europe: the Eurosceptic group that controls British coverage of the EU". The Economist. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  24. ^ a b Rennie, David (2012). "The Continent or the Open Sea? Does Britain have a European future?" (PDF). Centre for European Reform. Retrieved 21 January 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  25. ^ "Our vision". Open Europe website. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  26. ^ "List of Special Advisers in post at 17 December 2015" (PDF). Gov.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  27. ^ "Mats Persson, Sweden, The Alpha Think-Tanker". Politico Europe. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  28. ^ FT
  29. ^ "Former Cameron special adviser joins EY Brexit unit". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021.
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