Press quotes

  • Saab looks to new horizons
    Defense News, 01 March 2010

    The global defence market could become tougher for Europe in the future, said Clara O'Donnell, an analyst at the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank. O'Donnell said she believes it will become more difficult for EU countries to compete for sales of high-end technology products, given the 7-to-1 ratio in research and development spending between the United States and the European Union. She said Europe and European companies should focus on innovative solutions that are not so high-tech.

  • European Union moves towards a bailout of Greece
    International Herald Tribune, 28 February 2010

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said that France and Germany recognised that some form of bailout was inevitable. But, he said, for a bailout to be sold to a skeptical German public, the Greeks first "have to be seen to be suffering."

  • The incredible shrinking Europe
    Time, 26 February 2010

    "The EU offers an attractive social, economic and political model," Charles Grant, director of the London-based think-tank the Centre for European Reform, argued last year. "It is more stable, safe, green and culturally diverse than most parts of the world, which is why neighbors want to join and many migrants aim for Europe."

  • Germany should remember what it's got from the euro
    The Wall Street Journal, 26 February 2010

    At a weekend conference discussing the lessons from the economic crisis, as much time was devoted to the prospect of Germany leaving the euro zone as there was to the "peripheral" countries of Greece, Portugal or Spain abandoning it. The conference of prominent economists, current and former officials and others was held at Ditchley Park, a stately home in the English countryside. To be sure, nobody was predicting any such exit is likely, certainly not in the short term.

  • Greek debt crisis affects Europe, world economy
    Voice of America, 26 February 2010

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, says the Greek crisis reflects a larger economic problem in Europe. EU members like the Netherlands and Germany have spent too little and their economies are driven by exports. Meanwhile, southern economies like Greece and Portugal have spent too much and amassed debts as a result. "So in order to find a lasting solution, we need change on both sides.

  • Europe's bear problem: The trouble with the EU's attempts to woo Russia
    The Economist, 25 February 2010

    The "underlying assumption", writes Katinka Barysch in a new paper for the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank, is that EU capital, technology and training might make Russia "more Western-oriented, open and easier to deal with."

  • Police clash with strikers as EU seeks more cuts in budget crisis
    The Times, 25 February 2010

    "The majority of Greek people support the Government in its effort to introduce reforms because there is a feeling that enough is enough and politicians should get to grips with reform and end corruption," said Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform. "I fear that by the summer, people will stop feeling as they do now that reform is necessary."

  • Five NATO states to urge removal of US nuclear arms in Europe
    The Guardian, 23 February 2010

    "Denied the protection of NATO's nuclear weapons in Europe, Turkey would have additional reasons to worry about Iran's nuclear programme – and perhaps to develop nuclear weapons of its own. Newer NATO members in central Europe, who see in the nuclear weapons a symbol of US commitment to defend them, would be left feeling vulnerable," George Robertson, a former defence secretary and NATO secretary general, argued in an article he co-authored this month for the Centre for European Reform.

  • Eyeing Israel, EU condemns identity theft in Dubai assassination
    Christian Science Monitor, 22 February 2010

    "I think that this is going to be an easy one for EU states to address when it comes to speaking with one voice," says Clara Marina O'Donnell, an analyst at the Centre for European Reform think-tank in London. "The big member states still tend to have more strength and if you have a consensus you won't see the European states trying to split it. But more to the point, nation states are all quite sensitive when it comes to the idea of their passports’ integrity."

  • Lisbon pact failing to lift the EU on global stage
    New York Times, 22 February 2010

    Supporters of the treaty argue that it was never going to deliver instant results. "It is difficult," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, "to write off what has not been built," referring the new European diplomatic corps. "Turf wars are a characteristic of bureaucracies since 10,000 years BC," he said. "Bureaucracies fight other bureaucracies. Everyone knew this would happen."