Press quotes

  • Europe vows to aid Greece, but is unsure of how to help
    New York Times, 10 February 2010

    "At this junction they will have to support Greece," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said of Europe's politicians. "If you have encouraged the markets to believe that support is forthcoming and then it is not, we will see a backlash" in financial markets. Though Mr Tilford said the markets would ideally like to see some form of guarantee extended to Greek loans, he added that this would probably be too much for the government in Berlin.

  • Czech's in talks with host missile command centre
    The Prague Post, 10 February 2010

    "If Obama needed more evidence to back his shift, the failed test gives it to him," said Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defence with the London-based Centre for European Reform.

  • Should Europe lift its arms embargo on China?
    Time, 10 February 2010

    Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, published a paper last month arguing that Europeans need to agree on a single message in their dealings with China so that Beijing can't play a game of divide and conquer. At the same time, he said, the E.U. should "abandon the fiction of a 'strategic partnership,'" which cannot be meaningful with such divergent value systems, and focus on a limited number of issues on which China and the E.U. can find agreement.

  • Failure to reform fiscal rules could haunt euro zone
    Reuters, 10 February 2010

    "Right now there is nothing to force adjustment on Germany, whose surpluses are the flipside of the Greek deficits," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. "I'm not sure we will see the changes that would prevent future crises. Countries with big trade surpluses first need to realise they are part of their problem."

  • Greek debt crisis hangs over Brussels economic summit
    Financial Times, 09 February 2010

    "The broad thrust of the agenda remains as valid today as it was back then [in 2000]," said Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. "A decade on, many EU countries still suffer from low employment and low productivity. So residual barriers to intra-European trade need to be dismantled and more must be done to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation."

  • Germany is chastised for stance on nuclear arms
    New York Times, 08 February 2010

    In a report to be published Tuesday by the Centre for European Reform, in London, George Robertson, who served as NATO secretary general from 1999 to 2004, says Germany cannot remove the missiles and still expect to enjoy the protection of US nuclear forces. "For Germany to want to remain under the nuclear umbrella while exporting to others the obligation of maintaining it, is irresponsible," the report says. It is highly unusual for a NATO country’s government to announce that it wants to remove US nuclear weapons from its soil.

  • New military doctrine draws NATO criticism
    The Moscow Times, 08 February 2010

    Tomas Valasek, of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said NATO would continue to try to forge greater co-operation on shared security concerns, even though progress had been limited.

  • Greece's financial crisis puts the future of the euro in question
    The Observer, 07 February 2010

    But according to Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, the commission wants to keep the fund at arm's length because it would give the Americans a say in single currency affairs, a blow to European pride. Grant says this is regrettable: "The IMF is very experienced in these matters; it is professional and is not subject to political pressure. There is a political point as well. If the commission sets conditions that lead to hospitals being closed, there will be demos against Brussels.

  • US, Germany say Iran not ready for nuclear deal
    Reuters, 06 February 2010

    Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defence, Centre for European Reform, said if the needs of Iran's research reactor were to dictate the process there would be no agreement.

  • Europe's debt crisis intensifies
    Business Week, 05 February 2010

    "The risk of contagion now is very very serious. By the end of next week, if things haven't calmed down or if they have actually intensified further, then it will be a matter of a short while before some steps are being taken," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said. ...But Tilford said those worries are now swamped by worries of contagion within the euro zone. "We could get into the position where we have a serious crisis in Spain which might not be containable because Spain's a bigger economy," he said.