Press quotes

  • Reuters, 24 January 2012

    Spending cuts won't solve the euro's problems "and Germany is making it all a lot worse," Charles Grant, director of the  CER, said in an interview.

  • Reuters, 20 January 2012

    "What are the reasons for British euroscepticism? History (World War II), geography (Britain is an island nation) and newspaper groups that want Britain to leave the EU," said Charles Grant of the CER. "And, for the past year or so, Michel Barnier."

  • NPR, 20 January 2012

    Edward Burke with the CER says "the French decision today reflects a deep frustration amongst many coalition partners that they don't feel that they're making the progress that perhaps has been widely reported in Brussels by NATO and in Washington."

  • Financial Times, 19 January 2012

    "In Hungary's case, it's a conversation that's been waiting to happen for quite some time," says Hugo Brady of the CER. But he said it was highly unlikely that member-states would follow up the European parliament's request to punish Budapest.

  • The Washington Post, 18 January 2012

    "There’s no doubt that some of the reforms we’re now seeing of labour markets in some (European Union) states are long overdue," said Simon Tilford, of the CER.

  • USA Today, 16 January 2012

    The downgrade "certainly reinforces the relative weakness of France to Germany in the current context," said Simon Tilford of the CER. "However, what it also does is isolate Germany."

  • The New York Times, 13 January 2012

    "It will make it harder to erect firewalls around struggling euro zone economies and convince investors that things are more sustainable," said Simon Tilford, the chief economist for the CER in London.

  • Reuters, 12 January 2012

    Hugo Brady of the CER think-tank and a former Irish government official, said the SNP's assumption of automatic membership "would be a very difficult ask because it would set a precedent for other new members that might join."

  • EU Observer, 11 January 2012

    Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, told the meeting "it is quite likely Britain will leave the EU within 10 years."

  • Reuters, 10 January 2012

    "Contributing troops to these conflicts has been very financially and politically expensive for European countries," says Tomas Valasek of the CER. "There will be some who will rejoice that the US has in effect said that it plans to do fewer 'nationbuilding' wars."