Mats Persson was a special adviser to former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, first appointed in 2015. 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. Following the failure of the EU reform program, the UK's rejection of EU membership and David Cameron's resignation he ceased to work for the UK Government.
He was previously director of Open Europe, a think tank which promotes ideas for political and economic reform in Europe 2010-2015. He was instrumental in changing the organization's focus from being a UK think tank opposing UK involvement in further EU integration to become 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.
He has written and published on a broad range of issues relating to Europe and the European Union including the eurozone crisis,institutional reform,EU budget, financial regulation, trade policy, German politics and Britain's position in Europe. He tweets on European policy as "matsJpersson".
Mats Persson was a regular commentator in UK and international media. He wrote a regular blog for the Daily Telegraph and has written in The Times, the Sunday Times,The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal,Dagens Nyheter and several other papers and publications. He has appeared numerous times on BBC Newsnight,Sky News,ITV News, CNBC and CNN as well as other European and international TV outlets. He has contributed to various BBC radio programmes including The World Tonight and the Today Programme.