Press quotes

  • Portugal's political leaders weighing up possible bailout terms, wary of Greek and Irish woes
    The Washington Post, 13 April 2011

    Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think-tank in London, said "previous bailouts have solved nothing" and Portugal "is right to bargain hard" because similar rates to those imposed on Athens and Dublin could be self-defeating. "There's a risk that unless loans are extended at a serviceable interest rate, all the bailout would do would make things worse," he said. Tilford said that underlying worry puts Portuguese authorities in a stronger bargaining position as they assess the bailout terms on offer.

  • Analysis: French criticism highlights NATO limits in Libya
    Reuters, 12 April 2011

    Defence analyst Tomas Valasek of the Centre for European Reform said NATO faced a situation reminiscent of the 1999 Kosovo air war against Serbia, when it took the veiled threat of a ground invasion to persuade then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces. Gaddafi was placing his armour in populated areas to try to provoke NATO into strikes that would kill civilians and split the coalition, peeling off Arab support. Any attempt to target Gaddafi and his entourage entailed the same risk, he said.

  • The next European crisis: boat people
    The Economist, 11 April 2011

    Migration is likely to be a contentious issue at June's European summit (see this paper by the Centre for European Reform). With anti-immigrant parties on the rise across Europe, the dispute has great potential to degenerate.

  • In Portugal crisis, worries on Europe's 'debt trap'
    New York Times, 08 April 2011

    "What has been missing, in the debate about how countries can restore their finances to some kind of sustainability, is the limit of how much they can cut in a period of austerity," said Simon Tilford, chief economist for the Centre for European Reform in London. "There is a limit of how much any government can cut back spending and survive politically unless there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a route back to economic growth.

  • Europe's not so eternal triangles
    Financial Times, 31 March 2011

    Charles Grant, the director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, suggests that Britain and France could form the core of a series of coalitions of the capable. Smaller nations such as Denmark and the Netherlands have shown a willingness to deploy military muscle. Spain, Poland and some others could be occasional members of such coalitions.

  • Paris and London torpedo EU foreign policy
    La Stampa, 31 March 2011

    Notwithstanding questions about their commitment to European policies in foreign affairs and defence, France and the United Kingdom have succeeded in monopolising most of the key jobs in the European External Action Service (EEAS), which is increasingly aligned with positions adopted in London and Paris.

  • Euro-pact plus decision carries hidden threat
    Financial Times, 30 March 2011

    Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, is among those who believe that this month’s EU summit in Brussels might have been a fork in the road. "If you're not in the room, your influence is diminished", he said... Mr Grant worries that once 23 leaders out of 27 start to hold regular meetings, they will inevitably start to "caucus" on issues relating to the EU's single market, regardless of undertakings to the contrary.

  • ANALYSIS - EU states back "euro pact" despite deep concerns
    Reuters, 24 March 2011

    "Over time a two-speed Europe looks unavoidable," said Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform in London. "Going forward, there will have to be closer integration and that inevitably means countries that are determined to stay out risk seeing their influence within the EU erode."

  • Disputes on Euro rescue risks marring summit
    New York Times, 23 March 2011

    "They haven't grasped what they have to do in terms of restructuring and recapitalising the banks," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute. "They are behind the markets. Public opinion in Ireland and Greece on the one hand, and Germany and Netherlands on the other, is going in incompatible directions," Mr Grant said. "There may be a time when, even if politicians want to do the right things for the euro, public opinion will not allow them to."

  • Libya's lesson for Europe
    The American Spectator, 16 March 2011

    Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, complained: "On many of the world's big security problems, the EU is close to irrelevant. Talk to Russian, Chinese or Indian policy-makers about the EU, and they are often withering. They view it as a trade bloc that had pretensions to power but has failed to realise them because it is divided and badly organised."