Press quotes

  • Germany's unlikely optimists
    Financial Times, 23 November 2010

    "It is over-egging it to say that Germany has become a dynamic growth motor for the rest of Europe," says Simon Tilford at the Centre for European Reform, a London think-tank. "If foreign demand for German products falls, we could see a renewed push by German companies to reduce wage costs and renewed stagnation of domestic demand."

  • Fear stalks eurozone as Ireland faces ruin
    The Times, 23 November 2010

    Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: "This Irish rescue doesn't end the eurozone crisis at all. It will be a bloody mess for five years at least. The crisis will persist because the structural causes remain."

  • Germany aims to take Europe's reins amid eurozone's woes
    The Guardian, 22 November 2010

    "The euro is the biggest crisis facing Europe and it could carry on for another five years," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European reform. "The French are fearful of German euroscepticism, of German economic success, of the Germans going it alone on Russia and China, so they will go with Berlin. The Germans are back in the driving seat."

  • Questioning Germany's economic model for Europe
    New York Times, 22 November 2010

    Elsewhere, Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform, a British research organisation, foresaw "deeply pernicious consequences" if Germany's economy emerges as the EU benchmark for everyone else. "A more German eurozone," he wrote, "would be afflicted by chronically weak demand, debilitating cycles of competitive wage cuts, and prolonged economic slumps in the deficit countries."

  • EU to test Yanukovich on democracy
    Financial Times, 22 November 2010

    Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defence at London's Centre for European Reform, said that under Mr Yanukovich Ukraine is "turning inwards and becoming increasingly authoritarian. The EU should discourage Mr Yanukovich from building a one-party system, while supporting economic and energy reforms," he added.

  • Eurozone must deal with two urgent questions
    Financial Times, 21 November 2010

    "The plan has caused political consternation and market panic," observes Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

  • Más gobierno para salvar al euro
    El Pais, 21 November 2010

    Y Simon Tilford, economista jefe del CER, asegura que "los países del euro tienen que reconocer que una exitosa unión monetaria requerirá un grado mucho mayor de integración política".

  • Lights are dimming for the euro
    The Sunday Times, 21 November 2010

    The Centre for European Reform's chief economist Simon Tilford says: "I don't think the current membership of the euro is written in stone." For a country to leave, he says, would be "very messy and risky" but it is no longer inconceivable. … Would Italy [which already has huge debts] be able to underwrite another X billion of debt, given that the markets might be sceptical they would get it back? I don't know," Tilford says.

  • Austerity may not doom European governments to fall
    Reuters, 19 November 2010

    "The politicians have succeeded for now in imposing spending cuts, but what happens in round 14 or 15 of those cuts," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London. "I think Ireland can take a lot more pain as the Latvians did, but I'm not convinced the Greeks and some Mediterranean countries with no tradition of budget discipline will."

  • Stunde der Buchprüfer
    Frankfurter Rundschau, 19 November 2010

    "Die Körperschaftsteuer gehörte zu Faktoren, die die irische Wirtschaft über Jahre haben wachsen lassen, auch wenn sie nicht allein für die Ansiedlung einer Vielzahl ausländischer Firmen verantwortlich war", sagt Simon Tilford, Wirtschaftsexperte des Centre for European Reform.